Home Server w/ VSphere to run multiple home servers

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SATechie

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Hi guys,

Need some feedback on whether or not I'm headed in the right direction here.

My home network is growing, to the point where I have several devices that I would like to have separate DNS settings for (e.g. PC's resolving locally, media devices resolving through Unotelly, etc). I am also looking to run a downloading server, and a Plex server.

I have a fibre connection, and an LTE connection that I've kept active as a fail-safe.

I am thinking of sourcing a modest server that I will run multiple virtual machines on using vSphere Hypervisor. The virtual machines will be as follows:

-> VM1: ClearOS as router
-> VM2: Yet-to-be-determined Linux distro for downloading / Plex server / Fileserver

The server will have a quad-port Intel gigabit ethernet adaptor.

I'm not very comfortable with Linux, although I'm technically minded and I'm willing to learn through doing.

Does this "setup" make sense? Is ClearOS a nightmare to setup for a Linux noob like myself?
 
Seems like a good idea, one thing people forget is the power consumption of server, it does't sound like alot, but over a month it is significant.

I would use FreeBSD as a firewall/router. If you don't like the manual setting up, get pfsense, you'll be up and running under 10 minutes.
 
+1 for pfsense.

That being said, virtual machines might be a bit overkill for a home setup. I'm running everything you mention off an old laptop, with acceptable power consumption (between 20 and 30 watt depending on load).
I run plex, transmission, 2 minecraft servers, openvpn, dns, and use pppoe + iptables for my routing and firewall needs. I have a dual bay usb enclosure with 2 x 2TB drives connected to a USB 3 port. Running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as the OS.
It was a bit easier for me as I work with Linux everyday. Would I recommend running one machine as router and media server? Never for production, but for home use it's fine, if you take the time to secure the server properly.
 
I would reccommend a mikrotik device as your router, and everything else on a Linux server. No VMs at all, its a waste of resource and a security issue splitting your server just for the router function.
 
Last edited:
imranpanji said:
I would reccommend a mikrotik device as your router, and everything else on a Linux server. No VMs at all, its a waste of resource and a security splitting your server just for the router function.
Click to expand...

this.
 
Unless you want to do it for educational purposes as well then it might be a different story.
 
imranpanji said:
I would reccommend a mikrotik device as your router, and everything else on a Linux server. No VMs at all, its a waste of resource and a security issue splitting your server just for the router function.
Click to expand...

Asked this before and never got direction. Which MicroTik router has Gigabit speeds
 
Nuro said:
+1 for pfsense.

That being said, virtual machines might be a bit overkill for a home setup. I'm running everything you mention off an old laptop, with acceptable power consumption (between 20 and 30 watt depending on load).
I run plex, transmission, 2 minecraft servers, openvpn, dns, and use pppoe + iptables for my routing and firewall needs. I have a dual bay usb enclosure with 2 x 2TB drives connected to a USB 3 port. Running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as the OS.
It was a bit easier for me as I work with Linux everyday. Would I recommend running one machine as router and media server? Never for production, but for home use it's fine, if you take the time to secure the server properly.
Click to expand...

Yip... virtual servers are overkill, each VM has its own overheads and you will get no real benefit from virtualisation in this case.

However if its something you want to learn... go a head might be fun.

The other case could be that you might want to run different things on different platforms.....
 
Pho3nix said:
Asked this before and never got direction. Which MicroTik router has Gigabit speeds
Click to expand...
The RB3011 and RB2011 series also has gigabit speeds. There are others that also has gigabit speeds, but they are meant for a different environment. The Cloud core Routers is really overkill for any home user.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the great advice. I ended up heading to Miro to pick up a Mikrotik RB750Gr2, and it's fantastic. Was a cinch to set up.

Quick question. I have found this step-by-step guide to set up the firewall rules for a Roku: https://www.simpletelly.com/devices/mikrotik-firewall/#mytop

This doesn't seem to be IP / MAC address-specific. Is there anyway to make sure that such a rule is only applied to the Roku MAC / IP address? I don't want to send any more traffic to Unotelly than is necessary.
 
If you have reserved IPs for your devices, then in Firewall > Filter Rules just specify a source/destination address.

Also for the rest of the setup just get an HP Microserver or similar and install Unraid 6 with docker containers for SAB, SB and CP.
 
Thanks Roligov. Just had a quick look at Unraid, and it looks very interesting. Going to play around with it for sure!

Thanks again all for helpful responses.

roligov said:
If you have reserved IPs for your devices, then in Firewall > Filter Rules just specify a source/destination address.

Also for the rest of the setup just get an HP Microserver or similar and install Unraid 6 with docker containers for SAB, SB and CP.
Click to expand...
 
SATechie said:
Hi guys,

Thanks for the great advice. I ended up heading to Miro to pick up a Mikrotik RB750Gr2, and it's fantastic. Was a cinch to set up.

Quick question. I have found this step-by-step guide to set up the firewall rules for a Roku: https://www.simpletelly.com/devices/mikrotik-firewall/#mytop

This doesn't seem to be IP / MAC address-specific. Is there anyway to make sure that such a rule is only applied to the Roku MAC / IP address? I don't want to send any more traffic to Unotelly than is necessary.
Click to expand...
How much was the router? Have a link?
 
SATechie said:
Hi guys,

Thanks for the great advice. I ended up heading to Miro to pick up a Mikrotik RB750Gr2, and it's fantastic. Was a cinch to set up.

Quick question. I have found this step-by-step guide to set up the firewall rules for a Roku: https://www.simpletelly.com/devices/mikrotik-firewall/#mytop

This doesn't seem to be IP / MAC address-specific. Is there anyway to make sure that such a rule is only applied to the Roku MAC / IP address? I don't want to send any more traffic to Unotelly than is necessary.
Click to expand...

You can use address lists for this. As someone said, ip address reservations or fixed ip for devices that will use unotelly. Add these ip addresses to an address list in the mikrotik. Then apply the NAT /forwarding rule to that address list.

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/Firewall/Address_list
 
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