Which OS for my first server?

[StevieP]

I've long been tempted with a server of my own to replace my Synology NAS and so I'm looking at picking up a Dell T1600 with 8GB of RAM and a Xeon E3 1225 CPU.

The intention is to put a 4TB or 6TB drive in it to store all my family photos and media etc but I also want to set it up to serve as a Plex server and torrent machine. (my existing NAS doesn't support Plex any longer and is quite slow in terms of the UI)

My question is, which OS should I be looking at? I've been looking at Xpenology, which appeals as I'm used to DSM, FreeNAS and unRaid but am not sure which is the most user friendly! (ie. ideal for idiots!)

I've got a a spare 256GB SSD that I could use if it will help with performance and the only other thing that would be useful is some sort of "auto backup" facility for family picture and videos - I've previously had 2 drives running in RAID1 (or Synology's "Hybrid-Raid" equivalent) but I am thinking an external backup is more what I'm after just to keep things safe in case the main drive fails?

Not sure this all makes sense or is the best course to take so any advice is welcome! (and please bear in mind that I am not overly familiar with Linux etc!)

Thanks for any help...

 

[StevieP]

Thanks for the reply - I have to admit unRAID is probably edging itself to the top of my list and I like how you can try it for 30 days first!

The spec of the server I'm hoping to pick up has 8GB of RAM and a Xeon E1225 CPU - any idea how unRAID will run on this sort of spec? (when I checked the benchmark score of the CPU it came up as 5954, which seemed pretty good to me?? (one of the reasons I'm looking to replace my Synology NAS (DS213) is that it's quite sluggish to use and I wanted something with a faster UI!)

Additionally having watched a couple of Youtube videos explaining unRAID, it seems to suggest that you can slot a couple or drives (or more) in and it will basically treat then as a single storage drive - my original plan was to buy a new 4TB (or 6TB) drive and slot it in - only now I'm wondering whether I can simply put my two existing 2TB WD Red's in there to get the 4GB of storage space and then have an external drive to keep my family photos etc backed up - does this sound like the right sort of plan??

Thanks for any continued help!

 

[StevieP]

Right, so if I slot in my 2 x 2TB drives unRAID will see a single drive and write the data where is see's fit and the SSD is essentially used to speed up writing to the disks (although I'm not sure how that works!) and for any software to be installed to (as opposed to the OS flash drive!)

In terms of a "parity" drive I'm not sure I understand exactly what this does - I'm not reading it as a "backup" so to speak but it does provide some for of protection?? I don't understand how this works or what size it needs to be - surely to "protect" 2 x 2TB drives, it would need to be 4TB wouldn't it? (sorry, I'm obviously not getting this part!)

Also, another couple of questions for unRAID in general:

1. Can it read an ex-FAT formatted drive? (a micro SD card from a mobile phone for example, via a USB adapter - my Synology drive won't do this without a 3rd party piece of software!)
2. Is there some software within unRAID that will allow me to plug in an external USB drive to do incremental backups of data?
3. RAM-wise my understanding is the one I'm hoping to get has 8GB of "ECC" RAM - I presume this is required for some reason? (I've got 2 x 4GB of DDR3 RAM sat doing nothing and wondered whether they could be incorporated!)

Thanks.....

*edit* answered some of my questions regards the parity drive size reading through this page on the unRAID wiki (although quite how 1 x 2TB drive provides protection for 2 or more 2TB drives is still a little beyond me!)

 

[StevieP]

Many thanks for all the info!

A friend of mine might be hooking me up with a Dell T410 server that has a Xeon L5630 CPU along with 32GB of ECC RAM - while the CPU benchmark score isn't as high as for the E1225 noted above (4420 compared to 5954 on the E1225), am I right in saying that it will still handle unRAID OK?

Thanks...

 

[StevieP]

Right, I got unRAID up and running last night on the Dell T410 mentioned above!

The machine has a RAID controller card in there which seems to be the only way I can connect the HDD's?? The power cables from the PSU have 6 connectors that plug in to both the power and data connectors on a SATA drive, with the end of the cables having a larger connector on the end that plugs into the RAID card (looking at some pics, these might be "SAS" connectors??)

Should it be possible to connect the HDD's to the T410 without that RAID controller card in there? (I can't see anywhere on the motherboard for the end connection to fit onto!)

 

[StevieP]

It wasn't the SATA data connections that was the issue, it was the power side of things - although I've managed to jimmy a splitter to convert from the "SAS" connection to be able to power the drives now!

I didn't want to continue with the RAID card simply because someone on another forum told me that it was quite old and would only support up to 2TB drives!