Hoping someone could help me out with a server build I’ve been meaning to attempt for some time now. I’m very versed in building desktop PCs but never ventured into the server world.
Here is what I am looking to accomplish:
Basic redundant file server for all devices on the nextwork(Android and Windows)
Multimedia streaming - pictures, local video files, backed up dvds. I believe plex would allow to to do this
Possible distribute cable TV using a ceton cable card tuner
Blue iris server for up to 10 2mp cameras
I’m not sure weather a synology or qnap box would be best. I have all kinds of spare parts laying around. What OS to get with min ram, xenon process or i series
A synology box would probably be the easiest and stable for everything there except the Cable TV part (you could add an HDHomeRun or Tablo to cover this though).
A FreeNAS box would probably be an option too.
My favorite, which I hope to have up and working before christmas is using synology for the backup (both from computers and to an offsite cloud service), raid, and streaming(Plex) of my setup with a computer (technically desktop parts, i3 with 16gb of memory) setup with VMWare ESXi to run VMs for blueiris(since I already paid for this and have more than 2 cameras[I believe 2 cameras is free on the synology box]) and untangle. Along with a Tablo for my DVR and device streaming
Silicon Dust is building a DVR service and one of the supported platforms is Synology. Planned release in October. So if you swap the Ceton for a HDHomerun Prime - you could do encrypted cable via Cable Card…
If you go the Synology route, I would not do Blue Iris but instead the Synology Survelliance Station…
Check into the Lenovo TS140 with Xeon 1225 v3 CPU. Quiet and sturdy. They go on sale every few months around $285 (keep an eye on eBay, Amazon and NewEgg) Uses ECC RAM but will also take non-ECC version. You can just not mix and match. The CPU is more or less an I5 with a bit more oomph. All components are server grade and intended to run 24/7.
I have 2 of these. One 8GB one runs WHS2011 with Blue Iris 4 with 12 cams as well as Serviio as a media server. The other has 24GB and currently runs Windows 10 (upgraded from Win 7 Pro) Which will be my new workstation.
[quote=“aPL, post:6, topic:188861”]1. What storage size do you need?
4TB to 8TB redundant
2. How much power would you be willing to use?
I live in a state with very high electric cost so this is a factor, Id say no more than a Desktop PC if possible
3. Is visualization needed?
I dont believe so… still new to this. Was planning on using small factor pcs to the few tvs I have around the house to get multimedia content on or veiw security cameras. Was thinking of using Ras Pi or the new Asus hdmi stick
4. Are you comfortable with linux?
I have a very elementary knowledge of linux. But it is something I have been planning on learning
5. Do you like to tinker with things?
very much so, but with that said not to sacrifice stability, meaning I dont want to loose the system to add a feature
6. What is the network transfer speed you want? 12MB/s (for 100mbps lan) or 120MB/s (for gigabit lan)
gigabit[/quote]
4/8 GB ram (start with one 8gb stick of ram and upgrade to 16 if needed later)
up 4 drives on mb sata ports, one pcie x1 expandar card
no noise except drives (passive cooling)
uses 10-15w depending on drives / pci card used
install proxmox with zfs or nas4free with zfs (or whatever filesystem you like)
Will provide around 98-106 MB/s samba transfer speed. I’m not sure about how well plex with work on it, but I’m sure you can find something on google.
It is a good, stable system for people that don’t have high cpu requirements, have a few and built a few for others.
Compare the features of proxmox / nas4free with synology and the pricepoint and see if it matches what you need.[/quote]
BlueIris and 3MP cameras won’t run on a Celeron very well. Sure you can direct to disc, cut the frame rate and quality down… But that’s not my ideal way of recording images on HD cameras.
This system might barely meat the min requirements for non HD cameras with no room for expansion. Let alone if he wants to use it for PLEX or other things at the same time.
I’ll say again Blue Iris eats up CPU power, don’t under power it or you’ll see your CPU% running at MAX.
EDIT:
To Add a fanless CPU that’s running at or near max will also be fun, in terms of keeping it from melting down.
If you have cameras already, you should make sure they are compatible with the NVR you want to run. Zoneminder is pretty dated and was not compatible with my IQeye camera. I ended up with Exacqvision Start for my NVR on a Linux box. It runs on Linux or Windows. Has a great app for my iPhone.
Exacqvision is a professional solution and very intuitive to use. The downside is that it is licensed by camera at $50 each. Once licensed you own it though.
[quote=“aPL, post:12, topic:188861”]I would not run video on the same hardware as the home automation box or other servers.
Videos are very cpu intensive.[/quote]
Unsure what you mean by this. Camera’s are video… PLEX is video, both are CPU heavy!
Home Automation should all be on VERA (which is why we on the this forum).
If your running a PLEX server and Blueiris or even a camera NVR both are going to use power and make noise to some extent. I would/do combine them to make one computer multi-use. I don’t see running two boxes side by side purposed for only one task each as an advantage. But YES you need a good CPU not a Celeron tower.
I have no problems on my TS140 running BI 4 with 12 cameras as well as streaming 720P via Serviio. The box is dead quiet and does not overheat at all. Power consumption is also very low. Note, BI saves to a 250GB SSD.
I prefer to keep that of my main Unix server hence the Windows box. For $40, BI is a pretty good program albeit a bit CPU hungry.
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