Is ESXi the answer?

adam_m · 14 Jan 2016 at 18:30

...new to ESXi so be gentle

Looking to repurpose my Windows box for the following roles:

- NAS
- Plex server
- BlueIris (Windows only security camera monitor)
- VPN / FTP server etc...

Was thinking of an ESXi box with a Windows and xpenology VM on it. Plex / BI can run under Windows and xpenology can do the NAS/VPN etc..

Is ESXi the answer? Or is there a better way? 1 box solution preferred.

Cheers!

Steveocee · 14 Jan 2016 at 20:33

Windows on bare metal could do that for you. Sometimes ESXi doesn't play nice with DIY builds.

adam_m · 14 Jan 2016 at 20:41

Steveocee said:
Windows on bare metal could do that for you. Sometimes ESXi doesn't play nice with DIY builds.

That's what I'm running now....Windows 7 has just eaten itself and it's reminded me that I'd love to segregate storage and applications with a quick recovery solution.

Hyburnate · 14 Jan 2016 at 20:42

ESXi would be good, could use pfsense or something similar for VPN. But windows can do all the rest to a very good level.

Steveocee · 14 Jan 2016 at 20:47

adam_m said:
That's what I'm running now....Windows 7 has just eaten itself and it's reminded me that I'd love to segregate storage and applications with a quick recovery solution.

And if ESXi eats itself you will have to rebuild multiple machines. Stick the OS on an SSD and split the storage off to spinning disks in either a recoverable software raid or jbod with replication on a schedule.

ESXi is great to play with but a single OS can do what you want and you'll save yourself some headaches.

Trifid · 14 Jan 2016 at 20:57

adam_m said:
That's what I'm running now....Windows 7 has just eaten itself and it's reminded me that I'd love to segregate storage and applications with a quick recovery solution.

You could also run virtual machines on top of Windows if you wanted to still have a usable OS on the PC. I have many of my applications in separate VMs on top of a fairly basic windows installation.

adam_m · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:04

Trifid said:
You could also run virtual machines on top of Windows if you wanted to still have a usable OS on the PC. I have many of my applications in separate VMs on top of a fairly basic windows installation.

A bit like I had before, trying to keep as little as I can on Windows really, today reminded me why I don't like to rely upon it :-(

..are they VX220s in your sig? Nice!! Had a tuned VX220 turbo myself back in my 'youth' - might even still be around on the owners club, reg M77 VXT

adam_m · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:05

Steveocee said:
And if ESXi eats itself you will have to rebuild multiple machines. Stick the OS on an SSD and split the storage off to spinning disks in either a recoverable software raid or jbod with replication on a schedule.

ESXi is great to play with but a single OS can do what you want and you'll save yourself some headaches.

Similar to what I had (I use drive pool) .. a super quick recovery method for boot drives you'd recommend?

stewski · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:16

ESXi for the tech fun.

But I'd prolly do it with openmediavault (freenas alternative based on debian) and run the windows software as a VM in the virtualbox plugin.

Trifid · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:21

adam_m said:
..are they VX220s in your sig? Nice!! Had a tuned VX220 turbo myself back in my 'youth' - might even still be around on the owners club, reg M77 VXT

Yeah, the red one was mine (NA). The blue one in front was written off about half an hour after that photo was taken.

adam_m · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:25

stewski said:
ESXi for the tech fun.

But I'd prolly do it with openmediavault (freenas alternative based on debian) and run the windows software as a VM in the virtualbox plugin.

Interesting option .. wonder how/if plex runs in OMV and how it'd run in a VM hanging off of it - will check it out. Thanks!

adam_m · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:25

Trifid said:
Yeah, the red one was mine (NA). The blue one in front was written off about half an hour after that photo was taken.

Indeed .. wasn't hard to get it out of shape from what I recall!

Trifid · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:34

adam_m said:
Indeed .. wasn't hard to get it out of shape from what I recall!

Very easy, once the back end has started to break free it can be impossible to get it back unless you are on it straight away, fortunately my experiences of going too far have been on a airfield day. It was unfortunately wasn't the only one I saw spin out of public roads when it was wet and greasy out.

Back on topic, if you have the RAM to spare and you are not interested in learning vshpere etc for work, then the added convenience of running Vmware workstation or similar may be worth it. It probably takes me just over an hour to get my PC back to how I like it.

adam_m · 18 Jan 2016 at 16:45

Right .. decisions made.

Virtualisation for NAS seems like an accident waiting to happen so I've treated myself to a Synology DS1515+, I have a bunch of existing 3Tb Reds that can live in there and can always bolt on a DX513 if I get short on space. Pretty sure it won't be up to my Plex requirements so I've got a Thinkserver TS140 on the way to handle that, Blue Iris and anything else I might need that's Windowsy.

Cheers all!