Do you use Windows Server, Linux (and which distro?), FreeBSD, OpenBSD or some other option on your servers? What made you pick the operating system you chose? Any downsides you would say? Also, what do your servers actually do?
Which operating system do you use on your servers?
- Thread starter Cromulent
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I’ve one server running Unraid which is used to host a few VMs and containers running Windows (VMs) and various media/ home automation services. There was a small learning curve but Unraid was easy to set up to do what I wanted it to do. All other OS options were clunky and/ or fiddly, demanded some specialist knowledge or just didn’t suit
On my own servers I tend to use FreeBSD and OpenBSD, I just find them ‘cleaner’ than Linux but if do use Linux then I'll tend to go for Ubuntu or Debian
FreeBSD ports, the distinction between the system and applications and ZFS are what initially drew me to FreeBSD
FreeBSD ports, the distinction between the system and applications and ZFS are what initially drew me to FreeBSD
Predominantly Windows Server 2008R2/2012/2016/Hyper-V Standalone - Usual Domain Controllers, File Servers, but also Database servers (MySQL / MS Access/Jet hybrid)
Main reason for sticking with Windows is the "transparency" and ease of access when something goes wrong. Admittedly Linux is probably much less likely to go wrong in the first place, but having more visibility and familiarity when it does go wrong, and not having to google some obscure command line to fix things is a huge win.
Where we have used Linux it's tended to be Ubuntu Server, just for ease of googling set up and configuration commands.
Main reason for sticking with Windows is the "transparency" and ease of access when something goes wrong. Admittedly Linux is probably much less likely to go wrong in the first place, but having more visibility and familiarity when it does go wrong, and not having to google some obscure command line to fix things is a huge win.
Where we have used Linux it's tended to be Ubuntu Server, just for ease of googling set up and configuration commands.
I have to admit FreeBSD has interested me a lot. Especially when it comes to storage servers but it also has bhyve which is pretty cool.On my own servers I tend to use FreeBSD and OpenBSD, I just find them ‘cleaner’ than Linux but if do use Linux then I'll tend to go for Ubuntu or Debian
FreeBSD ports, the distinction between the system and applications and ZFS are what initially drew me to FreeBSD
I run Unraid for the same reasons, I found it quick to setup and learn, I run just docker containers for things like Jellyfin, AdGuard and SabNZBd (for linux distros
), I also like that you can have different sizes of drives as long as none are bigger than the parity one.
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I use Ubuntu Server ran on a micro box.
It’s headless and everything is command based to control it. I have web servers and docker installed with backups every 2 hours.
I also use Microsoft Servers (in business) (2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 (headless), in this case quite a range. They all do the same just about just some with extra feature sets. Most of the business users I deal with use OneDrive for file sharing/file storage.
Use ESXI as well as Hyper-V.
They mainly used for file sharing, Active Directory, backups and print servers.
It’s headless and everything is command based to control it. I have web servers and docker installed with backups every 2 hours.
I also use Microsoft Servers (in business) (2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 (headless), in this case quite a range. They all do the same just about just some with extra feature sets. Most of the business users I deal with use OneDrive for file sharing/file storage.
Use ESXI as well as Hyper-V.
They mainly used for file sharing, Active Directory, backups and print servers.
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Debian. Rock solid, I think the install is getting on for 15 years old now.
Every mention of Unraid fills me with dread.
Might be OK for a casual homeserver, but it's a classic case of a commercial blackbox driver just waiting to go bump...
Every mention of Unraid fills me with dread.
Might be OK for a casual homeserver, but it's a classic case of a commercial blackbox driver just waiting to go bump...
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Something of a niche use case but I have a Kubernetes cluster where the base OS for all of the member servers is Fedora CoreOS, which is a lightweight container-oriented OS. Each new member server follows an automatic installation script that joins it to the cluster after the initial boot, making the compute and storage resources available to the cluster automatically.
At the moment I'm working on a system where each node can reserve itself an update timeslot where it can auto-apply updates and reboot without impacting any of the services running on the cluster.
At the moment I'm working on a system where each node can reserve itself an update timeslot where it can auto-apply updates and reboot without impacting any of the services running on the cluster.
At home I'm running Windows Server Essentials 2016 and TrueNAS Scale. I'm going to have to drop WSE sometime soon as it doesn't play nicely with Windows 11.
Hardest thing there would be passing through a zigbee dongle if you’ve got one. Otherwise it’s just a matter of installing HA on the server then loading the latest backup from the Pi
I run home assistant in oracle box.
Worth checking out.
I run Funtoo which is a community-developed Linux meta-distribution and evolution of Gentoo Linux. Went with it as they had a build optimised for Epyc processors other than anything else. Previously found FreeBSD really good.
I'm now considering running Xen so that I can have pFsense and other things on the machine.
My machine was primarily a toy to play with crypto but now moving my NAS on to it and likely to set up home assistant and Plex on it as well if I put a hypervisor on it.
I'm now considering running Xen so that I can have pFsense and other things on the machine.
My machine was primarily a toy to play with crypto but now moving my NAS on to it and likely to set up home assistant and Plex on it as well if I put a hypervisor on it.
Create a VM or use the HA Unraid app (container)?
Other thing, is I will probably need to create a Bluetooth proxy to avoid having to pass through a Bluetooth dongle which may not even work.
I have two Bluetooth sensors to connect to HA, which currently just use the pi's Bluetooth
Am I making sense?
Is that in Unraid? Why not just use the Unraid VM system?