NAS / Media / HTPC server stuff for Linux

[PaulCa]

So yesterday I cleared the boot drive of my old gaming rig and installed a bare bones Gentoo server.

I have NFS, Samba and MiniDLNA running currently. This means I get nice fast access from Linux via NFS, user session based access via Samba/CIFs for Windows etc and I can browse through stuff on the smart TV or Mobile phone via DLNA. I do still need to install a DLNA client in windows though.

I'm left feeling this is all a bit raw and dull.

Are the any useful applications/servers that I can install to make it more convenient? I realise that some of these might be client side, such as pointing Kodi at the DLNA server and letting it index, categorize etc.

I see a lot of focus in the NAS/Media server space is around "appliance" based solutions like FreeNAS etc. Also a lot of focus on media centre rather than media server, so a local display is expected.

Just looking for ideas. One thing that might crop up, is remote access, I assume that won't be DLNA but more likely a streaming style web application to stream audio and video over HTML5 or Flash.

 

[PaulCa]

I might try Plex, but it's payware and I'm not sure I like how they operate. I would be suspicious about it farming me for data by phoning home all the time.

Kodi on the client is something I'll try now I have a new PI3 memory card.

Not entirely sure how VMs would help. I have no need to run multiple different services, unless I wanted to try FreeNAS and running a virtual array on a non-RAID disc would be a bit pointless, except to experiment.

The server is: AMD FX9590 - 16Gb DDR3 1866 - NVidia 710, so it will handle 4-8 VMs if I had a need.