New server build, sort of

[Tin]

I feel Ive come to the point to where I have to upgrade the core components of my server. Its hard leaving behind the trusty Q6600, as shes served me well for almost 5 years now. The new build will have a hefty workload, as it will serve as a master backend for MythTV, and encode up to 4 streams of live TV at any given time. Im going the modular route, the base install will only run a few services; Linux KVM, NFS, rsync, and Linux RAID. All of my other services will be handled by virtual machines. The base install as well as the VMs will be Debian 6. In total, there will be 4 VMs; MythTV backend, media server, web server, and VPN. I chose to go the modular route, as I can keep backups of the VMs and deploy them within minutes if something bad were to happen. It would keep any bad stuff away from the sensitive data, in that there will be a select few folders that will be writable by the VMs...everything else would be read-only. The OS and VMs will be installed to a 1TB RAID 10 array consisting of 4x 500GB WD RE3s, media will be stored on a 3TB RAID 5 array., and backups will be courtesy of rsync writing to 3TB worth of additional storage. I apologize for being long winded, but the more info I put out there the more likely I am to be recommended some good hardware.

Now, on to the hardware. This is where Im stuck. My budget is ~$600 give or take a few dollars. Ideally, Id like 8GB of RAM, a newer Xeon with HT, and a decent board with atleast 2 PCI-E x4/x8 slots. Here are the parts I was looking at.

board: Newegg.com - SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard
RAM: Newegg.com - Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory Model CT2KIT51272BA1339
CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80623E31230

That would put me a few dollars under budget, which is good. Aside from what I posted above, I was looking in to a dual quad core LGA771 setup. Both can be done for near the same price. Would the dual LGA771 Xeon system have more raw processing power vs the newer single 1155 Xeon? I know newer technology is generally better, but would it be for my purposes?

[Tin]

Well...the new beast is alive . Dual quad Xeon L5420s and 8GB of Kingston FB 667. The board I got uses the Seaburg chipset, which gives quad channel memory (2 channels per CPU) and a mess of PCI-E x8 slots. I have about $250 into the RAM, CPUs, and mobo...not bad. A newer single Xeon system wouldve cost more than twice of what I have into this one. Now...off to write a script to encode my MythTV recordings to mkv on the fly

[MaxRat]

sounds like a beast.... any pictures?

[Tin]

Heres the inside. I'll take more later and post em up .

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...y/_MG_0123.jpg

[MaxRat]

looks pretty sweet

[jdeb]

Wow! Very nice.

[Tin]

This thing is surprising good on memory with all the VMs Im running. Heres how I have it all set up.

Base OS: Debian 6 - NFS - Samba - Linux KVM - rsnapshot - rsync - Linux RAID - SSH
VM 1: Debian 6 - MythTV master backend - Handbrake - SQL - PHP - SSH
VM 2: Debian 6 - Squeezebox Server - Firefly Media Server - Mediatomb - FLAC - LAME - Transmission Daemon - Flexget - SSH
VM 3: Debian 6 - LAMP - Squirrel Mail - Wordpress - VSFTPD - SSH
VM 4: Debian 6 - LAMP - Squirrel Mail - VSFTPD - SSH
VM 5: Debian 6 - OpenVPN - SSH
VM 6: Debian 6 - I use this one for penetration testing. I boot Backtrack Linux on my laptop, try and break in, and figure out how to fix the security vulnerabilities. This is my "teacher" VM, in that I learn about security in my attempts to hack and break in to it. Lots of fun so far.

All in all, this system seldom sees over 40% memory usage, a drop in the bucket when youre running a bunch of VMs. I chose to configure my server this way so everything would be modular. I rotate backups of my VMs through rsnapshot, each VM gets backed up twice per week. If I bork something, I can have it back up and running in a matter of minutes. All of my data stays safe this way, as nothing is saved on the VMs, its all saved to the base OS. My way of keeping the goods out of harms way .