Home server OS recommendations

AntennaMan

AntennaMan

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Hi all

I have a small HP Proliant Microserver sitting in a cupboard at home. I would like to get it running as a media server for my home and I am looking for an OS for doing this. I was hoping for a nice Linux distro that might be easy to use and setup for this purpose.

It needs to play nice with my home network (win 8.1 PC, Samsung TV, Playstation, etc...) and since I will not be putting a screen on it, I must be able to remote desktop in from my Windows PC if possible (TeamViewer??).

Any recommendations? I don't have a lot of experience with Linux and I don't really want to go all hardcore, so maybe one of the more use friendly distros?
 
I have been all over with home server options recently. Started with Win7 on my HP Microserver, then tried FreeNas.

I then replaced it with Ubuntu, went overboard and installed ZFS on the Ubuntu box.

After a while my server gave me some issues and I had no clue how to resolve it. I ended up formatting and puting Win7 on it again.

Bottom line, unless you want to learn about linux, stick to Win7.

P.S. FreeNas worked perfectly, however I wanted to run other services on my machine, Sickbeard, Couchpotato, etc and hacking it into FreeNas was just not lekker.
 
Species8472 said:
I have been all over with home server options recently. Started with Win7 on my HP Microserver, then tried FreeNas.

I then replaced it with Ubuntu, went overboard and installed ZFS on the Ubuntu box.

After a while my server gave me some issues and I had no clue how to resolve it. I ended up formatting and puting Win7 on it again.

Bottom line, unless you want to learn about linux, stick to Win7.

P.S. FreeNas worked perfectly, however I wanted to run other services on my machine, Sickbeard, Couchpotato, etc and hacking it into FreeNas was just not lekker.
Click to expand...

You should've gone the OpenMediaVault route, there are basically one-click plugins for all those services.
 
AntennaMan said:
Hi all

I have a small HP Proliant Microserver sitting in a cupboard at home. I would like to get it running as a media server for my home and I am looking for an OS for doing this. I was hoping for a nice Linux distro that might be easy to use and setup for this purpose.

It needs to play nice with my home network (win 8.1 PC, Samsung TV, Playstation, etc...) and since I will not be putting a screen on it, I must be able to remote desktop in from my Windows PC if possible (TeamViewer??).

Any recommendations? I don't have a lot of experience with Linux and I don't really want to go all hardcore, so maybe one of the more use friendly distros?
Click to expand...

Considering you want to Remote Desktop in this question of yours seems a little redundant as you already limited yourself to Windows.

And there is no such thing as a friendly Linux distro for your purposes. Either way you'll need to LEARN to make it work and if that's not your cup of tea then I would recommend going for the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

I say this because I went from.

HP Microserver N36L + Ubuntu Server 64-bit (no GUI) + Plex Media Server + Plex Home Theatre + Haphazard LVM + SB/CP/SABNZBD.

to

HP Microserver N36L + Windows 10 Technical Preview + Plex Media Server + Plex Home Theater + Storage Spaces + Sonarr/CP/SABNZBD.


Biggest issue with Windows? Multi-user access without affecting the GUI instance on which Plex is running. I found a way around it but it's not perfect. Also "shell" startup with Windows is a nightmare if you want to run multiple processes as a user and can't convert them to a service so that had to go out the Window.

Although Vensters eats a bit more of my processing power the addition of proper driver support for the ATI 5450 that I have in there has negated that completely as I can now play 1080P stuff quite happily without the thing ****ting itself.


Remote access without SSH is painful though, but then you don't know what that is so you won't be bothered by it.
 
I've got a r-pi 2 running that connects to a freenas server stuffed with a bunch of 3tb drives.

The database is also stored on another opensuse mysql server, with another r-pi model A running sab/sb.

Works like a dream.

If you want to use our as a media centre why not run ubuntu with kodi.

Or save yourself the trouble and get a pi :)
 
Last edited:
SauRoNZA said:
Considering you want to Remote Desktop in this question of yours seems a little redundant as you already limited yourself to Windows.

And there is no such thing as a friendly Linux distro for your purposes. Either way you'll need to LEARN to make it work and if that's not your cup of tea then I would recommend going for the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

I say this because I went from.

HP Microserver N36L + Ubuntu Server 64-bit (no GUI) + Plex Media Server + Plex Home Theatre + Haphazard LVM + SB/CP/SABNZBD.

to

HP Microserver N36L + Windows 10 Technical Preview + Plex Media Server + Plex Home Theater + Storage Spaces + Sonarr/CP/SABNZBD.


Biggest issue with Windows? Multi-user access without affecting the GUI instance on which Plex is running. I found a way around it but it's not perfect. Also "shell" startup with Windows is a nightmare if you want to run multiple processes as a user and can't convert them to a service so that had to go out the Window.

Although Vensters eats a bit more of my processing power the addition of proper driver support for the ATI 5450 that I have in there has negated that completely as I can now play 1080P stuff quite happily without the thing ****ting itself.


Remote access without SSH is painful though, but then you don't know what that is so you won't be bothered by it.
Click to expand...

How does Win10 run on the Microserver? I'm looking forward to Windows 10 actually, looks like they fixed a lot of mistakes they made with Win8.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Considering you want to Remote Desktop in this question of yours seems a little redundant as you already limited yourself to Windows.
Click to expand...

Maybe OP should also just clear this up too. I understood this as being able to remotely manage the server and not just RDP specifically. With distros like OMV and FreeNAS you don't need remote desktop as everything is managed via web console.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
How does Win10 run on the Microserver? I'm looking forward to Windows 10 actually, looks like they fixed a lot of mistakes they made with Win8.
Click to expand...

I have the original "old" N36L and I must say I'm quite impressed. Granted I'm running 4GB RAM in mine and the 5450 which handles all the graphics processing but dare I say Plex runs much better for it.

Having been on OSX for 10+ years I do find Windows in and of itself pretty painful still, but Windows 10 goes a hell of a long way and makes my Windows 7 work laptop feel positively archaic.
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Maybe OP should also just clear this up too. I understood this as being able to remotely manage the server and not just RDP specifically. With distros like OMV and FreeNAS you don't need remote desktop as everything is managed via web console.
Click to expand...

Yeah but you are still looking at doing anything "additional" with either lots of Linux work or hopefully well supported plugins.

I would still rather say just install Windows 10 since it's free.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
But it's not free forever, the preview release will expire then you'll need to purchase it.
Click to expand...

I do believe they are switching to rolling releases and you'll simply upgrade to the final version.

Their entire concept with the 1-year free story is just to force the hand of the markets more so Enterprise I'm sure as they've realized the money isn't in the OS but rather the services attached to it.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I do believe they are switching to rolling releases and you'll simply upgrade to the final version.

Their entire concept with the 1-year free story is just to force the hand of the markets more so Enterprise I'm sure as they've realized the money isn't in the OS but rather the services attached to it.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused what you mean.

If you're running the Windows 10 preview I understand it will expire when the final release is out. You will then need to buy it or upgrade from your existing Win7+ licence (which is free). So either way you will need to purchase a Windows licence somewhere along the line.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I'm a bit confused what you mean.

If you're running the Windows 10 preview I understand it will expire when the final release is out. You will then need to buy it or upgrade from your existing Win7+ licence (which is free). So either way you will need to purchase a Windows licence somewhere along the line.
Click to expand...

Last I check that was an assumption people made based on how things worked before and hasn't been confirmed, but things might have changed since I read that.

Because the OS itself is free now and switching to rolling releases there should be no need to reinstall.

But I'll have a quick Google.
 
Here you go.

http://m.winsupersite.com/windows-1...should-be-able-upgrade-rtm-version-windows-10

I don't agree with the author that you should rather reinstall from a completely different OS (7,8,8.1) instead of upgrading From the same thing to the final release which won't leave a lot of old OS crap behind.

A clean install of Win10 would be better, but that's so typical Windows and my OSX brain won't accept that.

Granted they don't specifically say that you need or don't need a product key, but my bet is that you won't. It's not about making money with the OS any more so they don't care, I even recall hearing that you'll be able to upgrade from ANY previous OS pirated or otherwise.

The previous version is simply a vessel to allow a simple upgrade, and it's obviously stopped at 7 for compatibility reasons.

I wouldn't be surprised if on day of release you can download a torrent of Windows and install it no product key required. They want as many people on the platform as possible and it's not about having them pay for it.

Exactly like Mavericks, they want everyone on the same version and more importantly they want them buying from their Store.
 
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