Newbie looking to create simple home server.

[REM955]

Hello.
I have no real good experience with creating a "specialized" server.
Here is what I am looking to accomplish:

1. Have a small home media/security server.
2. Allows access on another computer to this server to TV screen.
3. Music/ video library management.
4. Not break the bank.

I doubt that I really need more than a TB sized drive. I wouldn't mind just stuffing it all into a regular standard desktop, but then comes the question of server software.

I know of PLEX for media, but I haven't seen much in the way of what I am looking for. Good chance I just missed it.
As for security, I would like to use iSpy as it is something I have started to tinker a little bit with in terms of plugins. (Getting basics down...)

What can anyone suggest?

 

[carnageX]

1. What do you mean by a "security" server? A firewall? Active Directory as a home-domain setup?
2. Do you mean for the media, or for actually accessing the server? You can just remote desktop into the server and leave it headless (no monitor/mouse/keyboard).
3. +1 for Plex
4. Depends on how much power you need really; I currently have an older Core 2 Duo e8400 system that I got for free running as my home server that runs several different kinds of services.

 

[REM955]

1: For security I meant to run the iSpy stuff off of. This is for security cams around my place, not as an intermediate between me and the outside connection.

2: I understand that as a possibility for dealing with the connection between one computer and another, but I would think there would be an easier solution to push whatever is on my computer screen to a TV in another room through this server and flip between that and the other media.

4: Well, that's the thing. I am hoping someone could offer an idea of how much I would actually need to potentially run everything concurrently.

 

[carnageX]

1. Are the security cams recording? You'll probably want to look into Western Digital's Puple series drives for security cam storage.

2. If you use Plex and either have a computer hooked up to a TV, or a media device such as a Roku, Amazon FireTV, or Chromecast, then you can cast/play your media off of the Plex server that way. That's the way I do it - I have a Chromecast in my bedroom, and a FireTV Stick in my living room. Server is only connected to my router and a power outlet, and is sitting in a closet.

4. For Plex, it mostly depends on what kind of media you have and if you're needing to re-encode a lot of videos. If you're playing on a computer as the client, then most of the re-encoding can be done there - but if you're needing to do encoding on the server, you'll want something with at least some power (my e8400 sometimes struggles if I don't drop the quality down from 1080p to 720p on very high-quality movies).

Not too sure on how intensive your iSpy software would be.

As for the other stuff I run on it:
-Plex server
-Web server (WAMP and IIS)
-FTP Server
-ownCloud
-Local file server
-SVN Server (for code repositories)
and occasionally a Minecraft server (can only host 3-5 people at a time though without it being too laggy).

My server specs aren't anything special.
HP dc5800 small form factor
e8400 CPU, 6GB RAM, gigabit network adapter, 2x160GB HDD's and 3 external HDD's.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

This may not be possible... Most security camera software requires a rather hefty processor alone... Some that software really loves RAM as well...

In all honesty you are looking at an i7 with 16GB of RAM if your going to be running PLEX + Security software...

How many streams of data are you planning on pulling from plex at most? We will consider worst case scenario where PLEX is having to transcode all those streams, which is very harsh on a CPU at times, ESPECIALLY if the video has subtitles, so all we need to know is, how many devices will pull at one time...

That aside, 1TB for the camera recordings alone, then how ever much HDD space you need for your multimedia, then your OS disk should be 500GB or larger alone, if you get a big enough PLEX library built, the PLEX folders in the user documents section can eat a few hundred gigs with all the metadata....

Another question... How are these cameras connecting to the computer? If going over the network, you can easily flood out the gigabit connection on most machines, and even flood out the motherboards SATA controller at times with cameras AND plex...

@ Carnage, wow, can't believe your server is so... ancient and pieced together sounding...

To give you an idea heres my server...
AMD Phenom II X4 965BE
16GB DDR3-1333
Intel 4-port Gigabit NIC
Multiple RealTek Gigabit NICs
3Ware 9650SE-12ML SAS Controller
4x 2TB Disks (soon... Raid5)
1x 1TB OS disk
5x 4TB Media Disk (soon... will be in Raid6)
(Why can't FedEx stop crapping around?)
This is actually multiple servers in one, but damn near every last ounce of processing power (Approximately 95%) is dedicated to the virtual machine that PLEX is installed on... Just two 1080p streams with subtitles on is enough to flood the CPU so much with transcoding them that the system basically screeches to a halt. While I realize this is a much older and weaker CPU than many of Intels, it will still take a fairly powerful Intel processor once you add in security cameras, especially if iSpy isn't built to keep as low as possible CPU usage...

Before I had my SAS controller as well, I could easily hit bottlenecks on Disk I/O because of multiple disks being accessed constantly, which with your setup, at times you will be pegging 3 hard drives all at one time...


In the end, you seriously might want to build a machine just for the cameras, maybe a little beefier, then expand on said system if it has enough available resources... Most people really don't realize how much processing power it can take when you mix two different beasts that love CPU usage...

 

[carnageX]

@ Carnage, wow, can't believe your server is so... ancient and pieced together sounding...

The one I had before this one was even older and ran all of that lol.

Was a Dell PowerEdge 830, P4 @ 3.0GHz (with HT), and 4GB ECC RAM, setup as a RAID config. Got that setup for free as well - then I switched to the dc5800 setup I have now, but skipped the RAID portion (don't really have a need for it personally).

Oh, forgot I also have OpenSSH installed on it for SSH command line access, as well as BTSync so I can backup photos/files from my phone(s) to my server.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Yeah, but most your services are "idle" services that hardly ever use anything, till Plex decides to do something.

 

[carnageX]

Yeah, but most your services are "idle" services that hardly ever use anything, till Plex decides to do something.

Yep, not denying that lol. Plex is about the only thing that I run that requires any horsepower at all, and it's not like I run it all the time from multiple devices. Usually only 1 device at a time, and even then it's 90% of the time local. Occasionally I'll use it to listen to music on my phone from work.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

This is pretty much the scenario I have right now as well, minus the cameras, but that is something I want to incorporate down the road, but it would likely as mentioned be on its own dedicated setup, similar to what I have now. Personally, I went with a rack mount setup, and bought a rolling HP fully enclosed lockable rack, and plan to have all of my computer (junk) aside from my laptops living in there within the next 6 months, just to get it out of the way, and out of sight for my wife's sake. The server really isn't that loud, as it is in a closet with slatted doors in my office, where I work from home, and I have no issues taking phone calls. I wouldn't recommend a rack mount, unless you are prepared for it to eat a bunch of space somewhere. Space is something that I am fortunate enough to have at this house.


My setup is running Ubuntu 14.04 server from one of the 60 Gig drives. The only things running on the main server other than what comes on the OS is htop to see usage, stress to test temps (haven't done that yet), ZFS for the file system for the storage array, and the software for KVM to set up virtual machines. I HAD 3 virtual machines yesterday, but tore them down, and I am rebuilding them one by one. Initially, I didn't specify the partition size for the VM's, and had my plex machine STOP working because the partition was full. Additionally, it was running off of the 60 gig drive which I didn't want. I got the Plex virtual machine running again yesterday, with the machine on the ZFS storage pool, and set for 100 Gig, which should be plenty, compared to the barely 4 Gig it was using before. I will also have a virtual machine for Minecraft, which will NOT be running often, but when it does, I will likely give it about 75% of the system resources so it doesn't lag, but it won't be running 24x7. Then, for now, the 3rd machine will be just a test setup to tinker in Ubuntu, so that I can try things out without breaking the base system, or one of the virtual machines.

All in all, I have actually a TON from doing this, and am having lots of fun with it too.


Here is a SIMILAR server (from the same seller) that I picked up, it was under $350 shipped, and a HECK of a lot cheaper and more powerful than anything I could have built myself (due to budget). This one comes with 8 more Gigs of ram than I got.

Supermicro 2U Server X8DTN 2X Xeon E5620 2 4GHz Quad Core 32GB Add Your HD | eBay

Details of MY setup:

• Supermicro SC826TQ-R800LPB Chassis (12 hot swap 3.5" drives) with rails
• Supermicro X8DTN+ Motherboard
• 2x Intel Xeon E5620 2.4ghz 12m Cache CPU's
• SIMLP-3+ IPMI Remote Access Card
• 6x Nanya - NT4GC72B4NA1NL-CG 4Gig PC3-10600R Memory (24 Gig)
• 2x Supermicro PWS-801-1R 800W Power Supplies

Bought separately from server auction:

• 2x OCZ Agility 3 60 Gig SATA SSD's - (Already had these, re-purposed OS drives from a laptop and my desktop, wasn't big enough) 1 is OS drive, other is back up OS drive, NOT RAID...
• 6x WD WD40EFRX 4TB SATA HDD's - RaidZ2 pool, 14.3 TB usable (had 5 of these on hand a short time after they came out, just sat around for over a year waiting to be put into something, got an extra one to set up the RaidZ2 pool)
• 2x Toshiba Q Series HDTS225XZSTA 256 Gig SSD - (Already had these as well, stole one from my PS3, and one from my laptop) Used for ZIL and L2ARC for the Zpool
• Supermicro front bezel for server, locks and has filter (got it for the filter)
• HP 10622 G2 - 22U rolling server rack, living in the garage for now
• Just ordered 12 more sticks of Nanya - NT4GC72B4NA1NL-CG for 64 gig total on the server
• Still need rackmount rails for the server chassis, but first need to get the rack in the basement. That will be fun.

Here are links to the build log I have going, have them at 2 different forums, but they are similar, the outside link is a bit more detailed, as there is a bunch of troubleshooting in there too...

http://www.techist.com/forums/f130/setting-up-home-server-274218/
Setting up a home server - AnandTech Forums