hi everyone
im wanting to build a better backup server than i currently have now, as well as have some extra grunt for other things. and after a recent drive failure on my desktop, and losing a small amount of data (about 100gb) im looking to make live better.
so the current setup is a
- i3-6100
- 8gb ram
- Windows 10
- 3 x 6TB WD Reds (in STRIPED RAID through windows, (i know, a terrible idea but i think i have mitigated a bit of the risk with my setup))
- approx 7TB of data at the moment
so, i also HAD 3 x wd Black 4tb drives in my desktop in STRIPED windows raid as my data storage drive, and these were copied to the server, so i effectively had an offsite RAID10 (my server is located in my shed about 30M from my house) but after one of the heads dying in the wd blacks, and the data not been worth the cost of recovery, i have chalked that up to experience. and am happy to move on.
i have replaced the 3 4TB Blacks with Ironwolf 8TB drives in my desktop, but am happy to move them to my server and put the 3 WD Reds in my desktop.
but, i want to have some more security and do a few other things now, and i would like them to all be done on the one machine.
so the hopeful eventual plan is
new server:
- running some form of ZFS or other much better file system for data integrity and security
- run PFSENSE as a VM for some network security aswell as segregating things like IOT devices etc aswell as run things like suricata and pfblocker
- VM’s for playing around and learning
- run a synchronizing backup to my mates server (as we hold a copy of each others data in case of the worst case, where both systems at either end are lost (we have ordered a set of ubiquity power beams for this so we should be able to run the sync via LAN
- have a total usable storage of about 25TB (This allows for current needs, as well as 100% over provisioning for the future)
- future ability for security cam recording and storage
- windows update and cache server so that the computers talk to the server rather than windows all the time
*Use PFSENSE as a network wide VPN for my personal internet connection with filters for apps like netflix where is isnt through the vpn etc (but thats later after its built and operational)
not needed:
- awsome transcoding ability as we dont run plex or anything like that
- dont realy need any “media and content” serving, as we stream all our content
so, i need some suggestions on new hardware to get.
as my friend is possibly also looking to upgrade his server, he will likely follow the same system as i do, however, he isn’t interested in the extra functionality that i am like vm’s etc… so the hardware will likely be duplicated in the 2 systems and he will need new drives (easiest to just get 8TB ironwolfs, i think 3 in each server will be sufficient)
the current setup is
both mine and my mates desktops backup to our servers and are kept the desktop : server backup is pretty on point, we also want to sync the servers to each other (but there is no need to sync his desktop backup to my desktop if that makes sense)
i will also like some suggestions on what OS’s to use, like unraid with freenas on top or something else as this is all new territory to me.
i think an AMD system will be better due to cost : performance and i would also like to spin up a VM that uses the un-used CPU power to mine crypto and AMD is the way to go for the specific coin i want to mine. and a host OS that supports PCIE pass through would be good, as i have 3 AMD gpus i want to install in the system to also mine with. so im happy to go balls to the wall with the CPU in my server, but my mate not so much
i hope that all makes sense and conveys what im after. if more info is needed, ask away