Seeking Advice - Best Approach for this New Server

Hi Friends,

I haven’t run Linux for a couple of decades but I was comfortable with the Command Line and familiar with a few simple commands. I ran Redhat with a Squid Cache, later on I ran FreeNAS for a while. Now I am looking at selecting a modern Distro/Product as a base for a personal Server to provide several Services, (more on that later).

The Hardware I have available for this project is as follows:

CPU: Intel i5-4590 4/4 with

Cooler Master Hyper H411R

MB: Gigabyte H97M-HD3

LGA 1150 Micro-ATX

2 Slots - 16GB Max

CPU and 1 System Fans

GBit Eth

RAM: 16GB Patriot 1600MHz DDR3 CL 10-10-10-30 1T

SSD: Patriot 240GB SATA

HDD: Seagate Ironwolf NAS 8TB

Case: Thermaltake Core V1 ( I can modify to accomidate Micro-ATX Board)

Additional:

PCIe GBit Ethernet Adapter #2

As you can see a modest, compact setup.

The Clients will be 2 rather powerful Ryzen-based PCs I use for Video/Music creation and everything else.

Purpose for the Server:

Always On

Router between Internet Gateway and Switch to the Clients

Squid Caching Proxy (Cache on the SSD)

A ‘NAS-ish’ SMB File Server

Backup Server (possibly R-Sync)

The Caching Proxy is a high priority as I am on a Metered Connection.

I liked the look of something like ‘openmediavault’ to base it on - but is it the right choice for also running Squid?

Suggestions greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the response ryecoaaron!

Could you possibly point me in a direction to learn up on Virtual Machines and Dockers as they relate to OMV? I am a little out of touch...

Many thanks chente, this was really helpful! I have some study to do..

Fantastic! Thanks!

Before diving in too deep - below is the virtualization capabilities of my hardware:

It looks like the CPU can do it:

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) ‡ Yes

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ Yes

Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT) ‡ Yes

However the Chipset does not:

• Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡ No
• Intel vPro® Platform Eligibility ‡ No

How will this impact things?

Zitat von chente

I don't know how to answer this. You'll have to do some research on google. I can only tell you that the motherboard of my server has an h67 chipset, older than yours, and it does not meet those conditions either. I virtualize VMs continuously and have not noticed any problems. I'm not very demanding either, it's the hardware I have and I accept it as it is, like friends

Right On! This is my attitude too. This MB actually came from my 91 year old Mother in law 'cause I built something new for her, (she LOVES her PCs and Devices! - amazing Lady!) I want to restore these pre-loved parts to something really cool!

Great help ryecoaaron and chente thanks!

Just another question re: virtualization with my Chipset. Someone on another Forum posted to me:

"I strongly recommend getting a PCIe network card and testing whether or not the board can do PCIe passthrough to a virtual machine. This allows you to keep the WAN port logically segregated from the rest of the systems running on the server. You don’t want your NAS accessible directly from the internet, after all."

Any thoughts? Once again I am in unknown territory, is this a thing?

So the build includes 2 Eth NICs. I don't know alot yet - but I was supposing I would have OMV installed on the metal acting as the NAS then have a VM with pfsense and the Caching Proxy Server. Then configure so only the VM had access to the WAN-facing NIC? Or is this even too complicated?

I put the Hardware together on the Test-Bed last night and installed OMV - no storage yet or second NIC. Checking it out, just updated Packages and set Admin password. I’m as basic as that so far…

Thanks everyone, from here I have a lot of resources to work with. Will post if I hit a wall.