Hey guys,
I was going to post this in the server forum, but I don’t seem to have access there. Anyway, I am in the planning phase for consolidating a few of my servers into one virtual server. They are:
-
A media server with all of the ‘*arrs’, some media management containers, and a few things like Mealie and Observium. Basically, it’s a docker host focused on serving and managing media. The containers that are not related, I would like to move off of that host OS. More on that later. This is a physical server running Ubuntu Server for the native openZFS package support. This platform resides in an ATX Mid Tower case. Storage is on an attached disk shelf. As such, this also works as a NAS on a separate zpool. I would separate that out into it’s own VM.
-
A Pterodactyl game server running on a late gen NUC quad with no hyperthreading. I play a lot of factory/builder/automation games that I like to both offload some of the CPU number-crunching and be always on in case friends want to hop in and build something. This primarily currently only runs Satisfactory, and it feels like it sometimes might not be super sufficient at it, though that is OK and might possibly be something to do with the fact that the server software from Coffee Stain is not necessarily fleshed out in a development sense. This server is virtual in an ESXi environment. No bells or whistles with passthrough devices. I would like to have multiple servers of different things running concurrently.
The criteria I have ( in no particular order ) for a new server are:
- Power: Obviously, the lower the idle power the better.
- Form Factor: I would like it to fit in 2U. The disk shelf is pretty large and I only have 12U to work with in my rack. If I have to go 3U, I’m OK with it. I don’t care if it’s a consumer board of some kind as I do have a spare 3700X laying around that might fit the bill. I am a little hesitant to go the VMWare route if I use that platform, though.
- Virtualization: I currently run two ESXi installs on two different NUCs. With the things going on at VMWare with Broadcom, I don’t know what direction they are going with the home licenses. I am open to suggestions on platforms. I would like it to be free or low cost at least. The VMs will likely be primarily Linux. My M$ VMs will stay on the NUCs.
- Performance considerations: I may have 5 or 6 concurrent users streaming media. Almost all of that is direct play, so I don’t really see any problem there, though it might be a good idea to consider future expansion. Pterodactly is the main concern. Again, I want to fire up multiple game servers at the same time. Are there any performance impacts running it virtually that I am not aware of?
- Expansion: I will likely also spin up another VM for other docker-based services I have. Also, move some VMs over that run services that might be a bit much on the NUCs and keep only VMS there for infrastructure and infrastructure management.
- Budget: I’d like to keep it under $1000. ~$500 would be preferred, but that might be a tough price point.
- I am not going to use UNRAID. I love that offering and peoples’ compassion for it, but I would like more granular control of things than it offers.
- Network: I still have a gig network with a 48 port C3850 at its core. I do not have a 10 gig net module. I run redundant gig interfaces to the Ubuntu server. I am also considering upgrading things to at least 2.5 gig once I can find some compelling deals on 2.5 gig managed switches. That might be a ways off yet, but I would like to buy/build with that in mind.
If someone made it through all this, I appreciate the time you took to read it as well as any hardware recommendations you might have. If you think I missed something in the wall of text, please let me know. If you think I’m dumb, also please leave a comment. I can take it, and nobody thinks I’m dumber than I do.
Thanks!
