Looking to use it locally as a NAS for the time being. Currently only have a 1TB and 500GB HDD in it, will upgrade/add more later as needed. Looking to potentially be able to access it via the internet later if possible, but looking for the simple functionality to begin.
Not sure really what advice do you need, maybe on a software sweet or potential features? Find some web service that you can host on it to manage storage and get cool features, or just use ftp if you like, it's much simpler. You could also set up a virtual machine for FreeNAS (or something else) if you like. That's mostly what I would aim for: A reasonably powerful machine that can run all sorts of VM's so you could have all the features from all OS's in one box, since I would also use it for development and hosting of my own services :). If you're going to make it accessible from the internet then set up a well configured firewall and properly configure your router.
The more I think about it the less likely I feel I will need to access it via the internet. What benefit or fallback would I have from using Windows Server 2012 as a stand alone versus Hyper-V or such for multiple operating systems?
If you choose standalone you will have to make do with what services Windows has to offer, it has mostly everything, but not all the best stuff in the world, but it would definitely suffice if you're looking for just for a NAS. Otherwise if you run multiple systems on virtual machines you could have all the best operating systems running on them that fit the job best for what you're looking for. Also it is more flexible to change, as you can create and manage new VM's on the fly, and if you are planning to expand the type of use of this machine VM's would benefit you a great lot. This is at the cost of more configuration though, as you have to tend to each VM. Also depending on you machine, you might need to add a bit of RAM if you plan on running many of those VM's
I think for now I am just going to stick with the stand alone windows server, my machine that I will be using only have about 1.5TB of storage and 8GB of RAM currently, but the storage space likely will expand in the future.
You can always just get the Hyper-V up and running if need be, so you'll be just fine standalone :).
What are you trying to accomplish? File server? Media Server? Active directory?
Simply setting one up to learn the OS? I can't really help if I don't know what you plan to do with it.
I initially was planning on it being a file/media server. I am intending on using a Raspberry Pi with OSMC as the front end portion of the media center and was going to use the server for storage of the media itself. That being said, how important is the server hardware to the streaming of video over my network to the Rasp Pi? I have an old Dell Vostro 200 with a Core2Duo that I was hoping to setup with windows server 2012 and stick it in the workshop out of sight.
A second option I have is a larger desktop with a similar CPU but an MSI Radeon HD 7770, but Im not sure if that would make a difference for video playback?
If you're talking server, you need CPU; as you'll be actively encoding video. The Vostro should handle just fine. I'd recommend Plex for your media center, it does a lot of nice stuff for cheap and is accessible outside your network. File storage is a mixed bag, if you're internal only, windows shares will work just fine, external you want to look into something like owncloud.
Will I be able to virtualize Plex using Hyper-V on the Windows Server?
Sounds good, what would run Plex, the server or Rasp Pi? Sorry for all the questions, still learning this all
No no. Questions are good!
The server runs Plex, the rPie acts as a client.
That being said, is there a different client I should/need to use on the rPie or will OSMC/XBMC still work using Plex as the back end?
It should still work. I'm not quite sure though (Flare defines me as NT Relm) Worst comes to worst you can use a web browser.
I'll test it all out. It'll probably take me close to a day to get everything in order, but I'll let you know how things go or if things go haywire. Thank you
I'll be here all week folks.
To be Honest I would run Windows server as a VM on Proxmox and use that for Outlook and Run PLEX and Owncloud and NAS services on a Rockstor VM.
Tek Syndicate has a good video on it. Use the most stable os as the base and runs the less stable on top of that.
Xen Server and ESXI are great routes too for the host system.
Isn't Windows server licensing kind of expensive for this kind of project? I thought the license was around $160 plus client license costs. The only reason that I can see using it in the home is if you wanted to train yourself on that particular platform. Maybe I'm missing something.
I was able to get a free copy via Dreamspark