Advice on Home Server Setup
 

Hi guys, long time no see. Thought id drop back in and see what words of wisdom you can offer up to me for my next project.

Ive just bought a house (yay!) and am planning on getting network cable wired round before we decorate. Few behind the tv, some in the office, some wherever. I just wonderd if you guys could help me out a little with any ideas on what hardware i will need.

Im planing on running a server from the office which will:
1. use as a home lab. I want to play about with virtualisation and also other OS without messing with my 'main' setup.
2. be a small time web server (nothing more than personal use)
3. keep all my files in one place/backup
4. act as an ubuntu repositry to update pc's on the lan
5. act as a media server so i can stream stuff direct to my tv (its not a smart tv so DNLA it is)

Im thinking of running an SSD (or two in raid1) with a hypervisor installed and then running all my OS from this.
1. Ubuntu server to act as a file server/media server/update repo
2. Ubuntu server with LAMP stack
3. Any other flavour of linux/windows I want/need to test

The server also needs plenty of sata connections for HDD that I can Raid 1 also, to actually store the data/backup config files from my various OS. This will probably start off with two 1 or 2 TB drives but room for expansion would be useful.

So im going to need at least a server, a switch & a modem/router I think, possibly more, possibly less.

Now this is where you guys come in..... Do you think this would be the best set-up for what im trying to do? Do you think i would be better off trying to build my own server or buy a pre-built from someone like HP? Do you have any recommendations on router/switch kit? Could I use the server as a router? Is there a better way to store my data other than raid 1?

Any ideas what else I could use something like this for?

Thankyou for reading, and advice or input is greatly appreciated.
Nathan

Terminate all your cables in a central location where you can install the modem/router and switch. If you have more than just a few drops, I'd recommend you install a patch panel. Terminate all the drops in the house with wall plates.

Any appropriate modem/router/switch would be fine, I don't have any specific recommendations. Just make sure the switch has enough ports for all drops, and Gigabit ports would be a plus.

If you do want to use a SSD for OS/apps, I probably would use 2 of them in RAID 1 for redundancy, you can run them on most motherboard controllers. However, for your data array, I'd use RAID 5 or better along with a hotspare. You would need a premium controller for that.

With that in mind, I'd look at building a server. You could run it headless and use it with some type of remote desktop. You could put all the hardware in a closet out of the way.

Nathan. Do you have a branch of TLC in your area?
TLC Electrical Supplies

rjfvillarosa - Not local, maybe 1.5hours away. Looks like they do delivery though. You had good experience with them? I could go down one day and have a look round if im bored but it is a bit of a ways out. I live in the back of beyond in Essex currently.

glc - with cabling in the house for instance with my PS3 would this be approriate:
PS3 -> wall socket - cable - wall socket -> patch panel -> switch
Or:
PS3 -> wall socket - cable -> patch panel -> switch

There wouldnt be any real signal loss by adding another wall socket would there? it would also be a lot tidyer than having a bunch of cables hanging out of the plaster!

With regards to hardware ive been looking at the HP Microservers they have at the minute, They look like pretty good kit for the price (low power, upgradeable etc). Anyone have experience with these?

I think they do raid 0/1 out of the box but they have a pci slot that i could stick another raid card in for raid 5 if i need to (I think?) not 100% sure the number of bays in the case with these. Ill have a look. More worried about processor/ram resources with these, they SHOULD be ok but not sure. Also they look like they would be ok to run inside a cupboard which is handy!

The patch panel will hide all the wires coming out of the plaster - no need for wall sockets at that end. Just cut a round hole in the wall and put a grommet in it.

You mount the patch panel on the wall - and put a shelf under or above it for the modem/router/switch.