OS for home (media) server

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

Hello,
dear readers and @SgtAwesomesauce I summon thy great maintainers of enterprise world to spill some knowledge on me, your humble peasant.
Usecase:

  • NAS (smb share for accessing from linux/android/etc)
  • virtual machine running kodi with passed throu gpu(nvidia gt 610)[passed as for using it on my tv to watch movies/listen music/etc+would pass throu wireless keyboard/mouse combo] using the same storage throu virtual network or phisically (if possible)
  • Nextcloud in container
  • webserver for testing webpages engines (wordpress joomla etc(was kidding about joomla))

Hardware specs:
CPU: AMD APU A8-5600K 4cores 3.9GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR3 Kingston 1600MHz
GPU1: onboard Amd 7560D
GPU2: Nvidia GT 610
Storage: 80GB sata, 320GB sata, maybe more

2

I’d just use Ubuntu Server.

Ubuntu is pretty solid, Server just doesn’t come with a gui.

If you weren’t doing a lot of “consumery” things on there, I might recommend centos, but the virtualization passthrough stuff will have better support on Ubuntu, probably.

Additionally, does that APU have an IOMMU? I’m not sure.

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3

I have tried debian like a year ago, it worked nice, IOMMU works perfectly i think, at least on arch with RX460 as 2nd gpu worked fine,
whats the difference of ubuntu server and just debian

4

Very little. Just that Ubuntu seems to have ACS patch builds for kernels by community support, and I’m not sure about Debian. So, basically, it’s just what I know will work well.

Ubuntu forked from Debian, so, there’s a lot of similarities.

5

I’ve tested freenas, proxmox,
freenas: slow, slow restarts, laggy, mehh minimum req. too damn high
proxmox: I like a lot, the whole idea, perception of virtuality it gives, i got used to it in few days, served me well, i like lvm pools adding storage easily, (only issue giving phyisical access to storage, but sorted it out) but main issue at my side was trash hardware, it req. a bit better machine and a bit more ram

6

I would also use Ubuntu, main reason is it’s popular, many have made tutorials for it, and if you encounter a problem is very likely someone else has had the problem too. I’ve personally run Ubuntu on my home server quite long now and been really happy about it, tough I only have simple smb share on it. Ubuntu should be good starting point for you.

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7

will try, btw do you know how to setup pxe thing so i dont have to use usb to install it? *Im using arch

8

If I weren’t such a Gentoo-snob, I would be using Proxmox. It’s built on Debian so you have basic commands, as well as a crap ton of tutorials online

9

proxmox requires a bit more resources than stock debian/ubuntu, thats why Im kinda not going for it, if i had like 4 more gb of ram, I wouldn’t even consider any other options, do u know how to make pxe server on arch? :slight_smile:

10

I haven’t done it personally, no, but isn’t it technically just a TFTP server? And then you serve the kernel and initrd images?

Arch’s Wiki seems a little less straight-forward than Gentoo’s Wiki in this case

11

Also, proxmox might have a little higher requirements than base Debian/Ubuntu, but probably not as different after you install all the Hypervisory stuff

12

Damn it, you’re putting me in a doubt

13

That’s what I do best :wink:

Nah, but forreal though, that should just go to show that it ultimately depends on what you feel the most comfortable with.

14

the issue with proxmox is i cant keep my current data on disks, thats why i dont wanna reroll

15

Are you currently on arch? Why not just install libvirt and virt-manager? I use that and MDS for docker stuff

16

what do you mean?

17

Sorry, if that link didn’t work, I’m on my phone. But I wrote a system to manage a reverse proxy and docker setup for home lab purposes.

All you need is bash, docker, and a wildcard domain name pointing to your server

18

RE: proxmox, it’s also really hit or miss with passthrough in my experience.

19

Really?

20

Couple of dumb questions…

  1. why virtualise a second system rather than just run Ubuntu workstation and have the SMB share and kodi directly on the desktop. If you have a TV plugged in anyway it doesn’t make sense to separate your share.

You can use KVM to run your containers etc. Seems silly to virtualise the OS and then run it as a desktop environment.

  1. I assume you don’t consider the data on the NAS share production critical. Those drives are ‘vintage’ and that setup will not be kind to those disks.
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