Moving from Vmware ESxi (6.7)

Freefaller

Freefaller

Freefaller

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Hi all,

As a bit of a "home lab" I set up an vmware server (the free licence). I have a few virtual machines working on it now that have become a really useful and daily piece of home infrastructure. I have a max of 4 VMs running on it, more often 3.

However I'm finding maintenance and "administering" it a bit complex (and I don't have the time really). Everything on it is backed up regularly so not worried about the data, it's just the ease of use I'm concerned about. It's "crashed" a handful of times in a few years, and managed to recover it, but it wasn't particularly "fun" :o

It's running on a T320 with 32Gb of RAM. Probably a bit of overkill. However I was trying to find a more simple way to put less of a beast of a pc in the house. I'm even considering something like a synology DS1821+ (I have a synology NAS) as I love the OS and it seems fairly simple to run, and you can even virtualise on it. However it might not be potent enough?

I also wonder if HyperV is more simple? Or if there's something else I should be looking at. I'm trying to reduce my power usage, and the T320 is a bit of a beast.

The simple answer could be - if it works just leave it. The applications I have running are a mail server (not a true mail server, it downloads from the name provider in bulk and then stores all the emails in IMAP so that I have the same email structure across the house and when I'm out). I have a file server (running OMV). And then a windows box that does stuff like newsgroups, downloads, and other similar apps. The 4th one is a linux box that I play with from time to time.

I have a separate machine that runs plex server (it's a reasonably powerful PC so that it can transcode if needed) but that stays off and comes on, on demand.

I have also a CCTV storage server, but I tend to leave that off and rely on the SD cards in the cameras and turn on the server when I go away on holiday.

The "dream" scenario would be to run CCTV, Plex Server and the other machines on it, but not sure if the T320 is powerful enough to transcode? The existing synology could be split into different storage volumes, e.g. media, cctv, home server or store some of it on the server's array of discs instead. Also if I were to put everything into ESxi, I'd be nervous about the ability to maintain it as I'm an amateur not a pro.

Thanks for reading and keen to hear thoughts / ideas.
 
Freefaller said:
Hi all,

As a bit of a "home lab" I set up an vmware server (the free licence). I have a few virtual machines working on it now that have become a really useful and daily piece of home infrastructure. I have a max of 4 VMs running on it, more often 3.

However I'm finding maintenance and "administering" it a bit complex (and I don't have the time really). Everything on it is backed up regularly so not worried about the data, it's just the ease of use I'm concerned about. It's "crashed" a handful of times in a few years, and managed to recover it, but it wasn't particularly "fun" :o

It's running on a T320 with 32Gb of RAM. Probably a bit of overkill. However I was trying to find a more simple way to put less of a beast of a pc in the house. I'm even considering something like a synology DS1821+ (I have a synology NAS) as I love the OS and it seems fairly simple to run, and you can even virtualise on it. However it might not be potent enough?

I also wonder if HyperV is more simple? Or if there's something else I should be looking at. I'm trying to reduce my power usage, and the T320 is a bit of a beast.

The simple answer could be - if it works just leave it. The applications I have running are a mail server (not a true mail server, it downloads from the name provider in bulk and then stores all the emails in IMAP so that I have the same email structure across the house and when I'm out). I have a file server (running OMV). And then a windows box that does stuff like newsgroups, downloads, and other similar apps. The 4th one is a linux box that I play with from time to time.

I have a separate machine that runs plex server (it's a reasonably powerful PC so that it can transcode if needed) but that stays off and comes on, on demand.

I have also a CCTV storage server, but I tend to leave that off and rely on the SD cards in the cameras and turn on the server when I go away on holiday.

The "dream" scenario would be to run CCTV, Plex Server and the other machines on it, but not sure if the T320 is powerful enough to transcode? The existing synology could be split into different storage volumes, e.g. media, cctv, home server or store some of it on the server's array of discs instead. Also if I were to put everything into ESxi, I'd be nervous about the ability to maintain it as I'm an amateur not a pro.

Thanks for reading and keen to hear thoughts / ideas.
Click to expand...
Please don't take this as a negative, but you've made some questionable choices. OMV which you are running already supports docker, SAB/Get and the *arr's run better in docker than under windows... so why have you virtualised windows and then piled them on that? Same story with Plex, it doesn't need a powerful system, it needs PlexPass and an HD630 or similar onwards iGPU, after that you're good for 20-30+ HW transcodes with a few % of CPU usage each for the audio etc. and it'll do this perfectly from docker and is vastly better under docker. CCTV on SD cards doesn't put me in a happy place either, again docker and potentially iGPU is your friend here.

Depending on spec/load, the T320 pulls around 80w idle, or about £237/yr just idle at today's energy prices. Any i3 8100 + board will run you £40 upwards to buy used and half your power bill at idle and keep it near that when transcoding. Media wise you either need PlexPass or to move to JellyFinm the former is regularly on offer, the latter has always been free and both will run under OMV. CCTV wise what are you actually running? Again docker/virtualised options exist, does your Synology not support cameras? A DS1821+ is quite anaemic in terms of CPU compared to doing it yourself, from what you've described I would suggest looking at UnRAID tbh as it seems more of a natural fit for what you have described.
 
Thank you. And no offence or criticism taken!

As I said, this has been a bit of a hodgepodge over many years. It has evolved and I now have this somewhat mixed up system which is why I want to consolidate it or just leave it if it's ok. Ultimately I just want less boxes running but at the same time as you can tell I'm not a huge experts. This is just me tweaking playing and trying to do stuff to make my life easier at home.

That said, I've now become quite dependant on this system and whilst all the data is backed up I would like to try and improve simplify or just potentially change what I've got to something a little easier to manage. I work long hours. Have a family and a significant amount of time away from the computer but happy to spend time setting something up which requires minimal maintenance and up keep.

CCTV and SD cards don't make me happy either. As I said I have a system that I switch on when I'm away from home but it's on another system (old hp microserver).

I used windows because I know how it works! 6 years ago I never even heard of a docker or how they worked. This is kind of the point of this thread to understand what I could/should be doing differently.

I have a Plex pass, had it since Plex was released as I've extracted the hundreds of dvds / blu rays I've collected over the years. Of course I have a newsgroup account to that I use from time to time. It's running on an i5 4690 but with a crappy old passive GPU can't remember what it is now!

I really appreciate your guidance. So how simple is unraid? And would that replace VMware and all the virtual machines? I agree my Synology is just a good file server really. Ill do some research. This is why I need help I'm a bit out of the loop.

Ultimately is the t320 powerful enough to do all of that? 8 CPUS x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2450 [email protected]
 
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I've personally just gone from a similar position to unraid. Once you get your head around the change is significantly easier to handle, more suited for home users and with minimal effort I've turned 5 VMS and 2 physical units into a single box running dockers.

Do it.
 
Thank you. I'll do some research on it.

How did you move your data across? Or did you just back it up and start from scratch?
 
I've looked unraid, and it does look pretty good and affordable. Thank you so much for the suggestion, I'll have a play "offline" first but it does seem powerful, and with a relatively old but relatively decent server I'm hoping it'll handle things well.
 
I made the switch from ESXi to UnRAID a few years ago and haven't looked back! I use VMWare in work so naturally ended up with it at home and had a similar set up with server VMs, Plex on a Windows VM, CCTV etc that was a bit of a mess and not easy to administer. Luckily docker options existed for everything I ran so setting up UnRAID was fairly simple and I now don't run any Windows VMs and it pretty much looks after itself.
As above, a second hand 8th or 9th gen Intel chip with iGPU would be perfectly suited to this. They are reasonably priced now and relatively easy on the power consumption.
 
Street said:
I made the switch from ESXi to UnRAID a few years ago and haven't looked back! I use VMWare in work so naturally ended up with it at home and had a similar set up with server VMs, Plex on a Windows VM, CCTV etc that was a bit of a mess and not easy to administer. Luckily docker options existed for everything I ran so setting up UnRAID was fairly simple and I now don't run any Windows VMs and it pretty much looks after itself.
As above, a second hand 8th or 9th gen Intel chip with iGPU would be perfectly suited to this. They are reasonably priced now and relatively easy on the power consumption.
Click to expand...

That's really good to know thank you.

Out of interest if I wasn't interested in plex transcoding etc... would the Xeon E5-2450 be beefy enough to run unraid with a few dockers comfortably?
 
Freefaller said:
I also wonder if HyperV is more simple?
Click to expand...
It's actually worse, as trying to use the gui management tools is tricky without having a windows domain environment, and the separate web based server management thing was rubbish last time I tried it (which admittedly was a while ago)

Freefaller said:
'm even considering something like a synology DS1821+ (I have a synology NAS) as I love the OS and it seems fairly simple to run, and you can even virtualise on it. However it might not be potent enough?
Click to expand...
Which Synology NAS have you already got? Can you not just use that for the CCTV via Synology Surveillance Station



Freefaller said:
Ultimately is the t320 powerful enough to do all of that? 8 CPUS x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2450 [email protected]
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It's likely to be able to, but tech has moved on so much.
To put it in perspective, an i3-8100 as previously mentioned is almost as powerful as your Xeon in multithreaded tasks, but in single/lightly threaded tasks it will destroy your xeon, whilst using much less power. The latest Alder-lake desktop chips (e.g. 12100) offer double the performance of your Xeon whilst still using less power



Freefaller said:
Out of interest if I wasn't interested in plex transcoding etc... would the Xeon E5-2450 be beefy enough to run unraid with a few dockers comfortably?
Click to expand...
Ideally you don't want to be transcoding, but if you have to, then you'd be better with an Intel desktop chip with integrated graphics that can offload the Transcoding via Intel Quicksync
 
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I already have an i5 4960 that is my plex server. It comes on on demand, and shutsdown automatically.

The vmware box just became a bit of a project where I host my *rarrs servers, mail, and a few other bits and pieces as well as being the file server for the home. I had a couple of "scrap" VMs to play with (windows, linux etc...)

The synology box could probably do the cctv, I just need to rejig the discs around. It's a DS 1819+ so on an old Atom based CPU - it's my media store. Unlike that file server which as important information / docs and emails, the media store is mainly burned Blurays, and so on.

My plan is to ditch VMware just because it's too complex and overkill for me.
Move to unraid
Create a network share on unraid for my files
Create a cloud back up for my data (I currently use iDrive but I'm sure I can work it out)
Create my mail server using a docker (is there a good one?) and import all the emails from my current system.
Install all the rarrs dockers and NZB related activities

I don't really want to spend money on new hardware at the moment - I have no idea if I can upgrade this old Dell T320.
 
Not sure why you wouldn't store your files on the 1819+ as well?
Ideally you could use 6 drives in RAID5 for "disposable" media, and then the remaining 2 drives in a RAID1 mirror for your "important data"

Yes the Atom is probably a little underpowered, but you already own it, and it's still a great bit of kit for actual NAS duties for years to come (and can take a 10Gb network card, unlike some of the smaller/cheaper Synology), as well as a lot of other capabilities that you have essentially already paid a Synology "Tax" for.
You can even still run dockers or VM's on it, providing they aren't too memory or cpu intensive. Possibly Synology's mail server/mail client apps may do what you need in regards to email. You can probably also sync your backups to the Cloud via the Synology backup providers.


The main benefit of Unraid is cheap, high capacity storage with limited protection via parity - this makes it ideal for things like Media, but you're already using your Synology for that (presumably in SHR or SHR2 / raid5/6 equivalent?).

The ideal partner to your Synology would be a small or micro form factor ex corporate machine e.g. Dell Optiplex / HP Elitedesk / Lenovo Tiny etc, this can cope with Transcoding via the intel graphics, can have 32GB of ram as well as a M2 ssd and 2.5" drive, and enough processing power to cope with Dockers or Virtual machines. Run a basic linux distribution on it, and then run all your *arrs/nzb etc dockers (or even Virtual machines on that), leaving all your file storage needs for the Synology that can already do a great job of it.

You can then retire both the T320 and the i5 4690 machines, and the saving in electric given current prices will pay for a "new" PC very quickly
 
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That's really interesting. Retiring the T320 would be the dream. Thank you @Armageus will definitely look into that.

Yes I have SHR on the Synology. I do have 2 spare bays so there's definitely something to explore there.
 
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@Armageus I took your advice 1 step further, a friend was getting rid of some equipment and gifted me an old SFF OptiPlex 3060 - it's got an 8th gen i5 so has quick sync which will breeze through any transcoding that may be required (I watch generally at 4k for big movies, albeit series and so on 1080p, and sometimes, just sometimes some of the foreign movies I watch have subs which need transcoding), the other time I need to transcode is if I sync to my phone / tablet if I'm going away for a bit. Also despite the 35W TDP it'll still be coming on on demand - it's daft to leave it on since I can make it come on remotely if I need to.

I've sold the 4690 and its motherboard, RAM, and case for not a lot unfortunately, but c'est la vie! :D
 
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