ProxMox Setup advice - HA, Plex, Sonarr, etc.

[Vetseun]

Complete linux noob - trying to learn. Would appreciate some help.

I bought a small form factor Dell Optiplex to set up a home server. Added an larger SSD, 4TB Sata drive and 32GM of RAM.

I want to use ProxMox for:

• Home Assistant
• Plex server
• Sonarr
• Sabnzbd

Because you can do things in a million different ways on Linux I'm struggling a bit figure out how best to deal with the storage for Plex.

I want to sure Sonarr / Sabnzbd to do it's usual thing to automate downloads to the 4GB drive. I want Plex to be able to see those files for the plex library. I would also love to have that drive visible / accessible by my windows machines on the network.

Would the simplest approach be use ZFS in Proxmox and then create mount points for the various containers? What / how would I get that zpool visible for a windows machine on the network?

 

[oldBastard]

Although I'm a big fan of ProxMox, running several clusters at work, ProxMox is a bit of an overkill. And if you don't know Linux then it's going to be a struggle.

I would suggest Unraid rather. You will be less stressful and get things going, lots of Youtube vids out there.

If you want to learn Linux you can spin a VM up on Unraid and break it fix, etc.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Jay from Learn Linux TV has a series on setting up Proxmox

I don't think it is overkill. A lot of people run it in their home lab. XCP-NG is also popular and TrueNas Scale is also quite an interesting option.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Would the simplest approach be use ZFS in Proxmox and then create mount points for the various containers? What / how would I get that zpool visible for a windows machine on the network?

I'm not super familiar with Proxmox or Plex but usually, a virtualisation host is dedicated to that role and you wouldn't usually use the underlying host to act as a file server. You technically could but its usually best practice and a good idea not to.

Your hard drives are used only for VM and container storage and you would configure a container or VM to serve the files over SMB, NFS or whatever other mechanism you are using.

So depending on your setup, you could have the Plex server container serving the files itself or you could have a container for Plex and another file server container that stores and serves the Plex files (analagous to if you had a Raspberry Pi running Plex and then the files stored and shared from a NAS.)

 

[SauRoNZA]

Definitely recommend Unraid for this use case over Proxmox.

Yes it costs money but it’s also pretty damn cheap.

Be warned though if you don’t plan to Direct Stream you need quite a beefy machine or one with a hardware acceleration compatible GPU to run Plex for multiple transcodes.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Although I'm a big fan of ProxMox, running several clusters at work, ProxMox is a bit of an overkill. And if you don't know Linux then it's going to be a struggle.

I would suggest Unraid rather. You will be less stressful and get things going, lots of Youtube vids out there.

If you want to learn Linux you can spin a VM up on Unraid and break it fix, etc.

Pretty cool to get to use it in your day job.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I want to sure Sonarr / Sabnzbd to do it's usual thing to automate downloads to the 4GB drive. I want Plex to be able to see those files for the plex library. I would also love to have that drive visible / accessible by my windows machines on the network.

Would the simplest approach be use ZFS in Proxmox and then create mount points for the various containers? What / how would I get that zpool visible for a windows machine on the network?

So this is how my structure looks on Unraid and would be the same on any other Linux based container platform.

Unraid Host

/mnt/user/Downloads/incomplete

/mnt/user/Downloads/complete

/mnt/user/Downloads/complete/sonarr

/mnt/user/Downloads/complete/radarr

/mnt/user/Media

Which then has Movies, TV, Kids Movies, Kids TV as sub-folders.

Sonarr

/downloads > /mnt/user/Downloads/complete/sonarr

/media > /mnt/user/Media

Radarr

/downloads > /mnt/user/Downloads/complete/radarr

/media > /mnt/user/Media

(These may even just be mapped to Downloads or Complete folder and then configured inside the app to the sub-folder in case I need to manually import something from another folder)

Plex

/media > /mnt/user/Media

Then I have each Library pointed to the individual sub-folder.

(Plex is now actually running on a separate machine, but because Docker was simpy moved there and fired up again so config is the same)

Radarr and Sonarr need to be aware of both the downloads and media folders as it will move files accordingly.

Plex only needs Media and only read-only access at that.

Mount points is the wrong term and I’m holding you meant bind mounts, which simply means you are mounting the top-level host mount point inside the container at its own mount point.

It shouldn’t be a unique mount point in Proxmox for each application, it should just reuse the existing one multiple times.

As for Windows I’m sure Proxmox has built-in Samba support so you need only configure that.

Again I implore you to try Unraid. It will make your life much easier when you want to add more and more drives to that 4TB as well since you don’t have to size the Array up front.

I’ve just swopped out 6TB+6TB+5TB+4TB+4TB array for 10TB+10TB+6TB+6TB+5TB and at most it was 5min of downtime to physically change the drives. The rest was all just parity checking and rebuilding over a few days but you hardly even notice.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I'm not super familiar with Proxmox or Plex but usually, a virtualisation host is dedicated to that role and you wouldn't usually use the underlying host to act as a file server. You technically could but its usually best practice and a good idea not to.

Your hard drives are used only for VM and container storage and you would configure a container or VM to serve the files over SMB, NFS or whatever other mechanism you are using.

So depending on your setup, you could have the Plex server container serving the files itself or you could have a container for Plex and another file server container that stores and serves the Plex files (analagous to if you had a Raspberry Pi running Plex and then the files stored and shared from a NAS.)

The world has moved on a bit with the advent of software-based NAS systems and keeping it all in one place is 100% fine.

In fact I’d go as far as saying there’s a shift entirely away from hardware based NAS setups in favour of full control systems like this because everything can happen in one place.

Also becomes much easier to setup replica or dual failover environments.

 

[InvisibleJim]

The world has moved on a bit with the advent of software-based NAS systems and keeping it all in one place is 100% fine.

In fact I’d go as far as saying there’s a shift entirely away from hardware based NAS setups in favour of full control systems like this because everything can happen in one place.

Also becomes much easier to setup replica or dual failover environments.

Maybe I'm out of touch with some of the stuff you're describing. I still like running the services in vm's or containers and leaving the infrastructure dedicated to that purpose. But also other people might have different use cases.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Maybe I'm out of touch with some of the stuff you're describing. I still like running the services in vm's or containers and leaving the infrastructure dedicated to that purpose. But also other people might have different use cases.

Well I mean the whole notion of on-premises anything is falling away, but that’s a different conversation.

But for SME’s who have to go on prem putting it all in one place is a very clean solution and easy to do a replication or DR as well.

That is kind of the Proxmox/Unraid model and other systems like it.

The big brand old school Hypervisors still very much want it done like you say but that’s also big money in comparison.

 

[Priapus]

I used to run ProxMox for exactly what you want.

I had

- HA
- Sonarr
- Plex
- Unifi controller

etc

Worked well; but I eventually got rid of the whole setup. I did not like the fact that if the server went down, so did all the VMs.

I split up the config - sold the server.

Now HA is on a dedicated NUC and Plex is on a Windows server with sonarr and the UniFi controller on a dedicated Pi 4GB

Just something to consider when doing this. If you’re fine with all your VMs going down when the host goes down (Any H/W issue etc or a reboot) then a single machine is probably fine.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Well I mean the whole notion of on-premises anything is falling away, but that’s a different conversation.

But for SME’s who have to go on prem putting it all in one place is a very clean solution and easy to do a replication or DR as well.

That is kind of the Proxmox/Unraid model and other systems like it.

The big brand old school Hypervisors still very much want it done like you say but that’s also big money in comparison.

I don't have an issue with the storage and compute being in one place. I was more suggesting that the host should be dedicated to that role and other services should be in the virtual layer

 

[SauRoNZA]

I don't have an issue with the storage and compute being in one place. I was more suggesting that the host should be dedicated to that role and other services should be in the virtual layer

Oh right. But that’s exactly how these work, the host is a storage platform and hyper visor.

Then everything else is either inside a Docker container or old school VM if you still need those.

Personally I haven’t used VMs in years.

 

[oldBastard]

I used to run ProxMox for exactly what you want.

I had

- HA
- Sonarr
- Plex
- Unifi controller

etc

Worked well; but I eventually got rid of the whole setup. I did not like the fact that if the server went down, so did all the VMs.

I split up the config - sold the server.

Now HA is on a dedicated NUC and Plex is on a Windows server with sonarr and the UniFi controller on a dedicated Pi 4GB

Just something to consider when doing this. If you’re fine with all your VMs going down when the host goes down (Any H/W issue etc or a reboot) then a single machine is probably fine.

Same for any virtual host you have running at home. If your **** is down you're fnucked.

Pretty cool to get to use it in your day job.

Yeah, for work it's a dream.

Jay from Learn Linux TV has a series on setting up Proxmox

I don't think it is overkill. A lot of people run it in their home lab. XCP-NG is also popular and TrueNas Scale is also quite an interesting option.

Overkill in the sense he doesn't know Linux that well. If he was Linux savvy, then he would not have probably posted here, or asked some other questions.

But glad he did, as we can point him to something easier to start off and help he to get the basic understanding of Linux.

@Vetseun still free to ask away, don't put the notion of that it is difficult.

 

[InvisibleJim]

I'm hoping to get an old supermicro soon at a good price for my home lab. Haven't decided yet if I will run proxmox or xcp-ng. Generally I'm playing stuff I don't care too much if it breaks so not really an issue when the box goes down.

I'd like to get 3 small form factor ryzen pcs and run a hyperconverged cluster but mostly they' re a bit out of my budget at the moment

 

[Mzezman]

I used to run ProxMox for exactly what you want.

I had

- HA
- Sonarr
- Plex
- Unifi controller

etc

Worked well; but I eventually got rid of the whole setup. I did not like the fact that if the server went down, so did all the VMs.

I split up the config - sold the server.

Now HA is on a dedicated NUC and Plex is on a Windows server with sonarr and the UniFi controller on a dedicated Pi 4GB

Just something to consider when doing this. If you’re fine with all your VMs going down when the host goes down (Any H/W issue etc or a reboot) then a single machine is probably fine.

Your old setup is my current and i have that exact issue - looking to get rid of the single server and get 3 SFF machines, then run them in a cluster. Will likely still run Proxmox on them and at least have high availability across, so one server down the others pick up the slack - just a question of budget now

 

[Vetseun]

Thanks for all the feedback here! I'll going to give it a go and will report back if I get stuck!!

 

[gotaway]

I'm running Proxmox, hosting VMs for each of;

• HomeAssistant,
• EmonCMS,
• Media stuff such as *arr, emby, etc,
• Reverse proxy
• BOINC.

It wasn't done to be pretty / effective / efficient / whatever. Each install was a learning experience.

Each VM runs its apps in containers (other than Home Assistant and EmonCMS)

With most things being containerized the VMs are not strictly necessary, but it allows me to spin up a new "computer" for whatever reason.
RAM is my biggest issue...

 

[s0lar]

Each VM runs its apps in containers (other than Home Assistant and EmonCMS)

Why you going through multiple layers of hypervisors?

 

[Mzezman]

Was running my Plex + *arr suite in an Ubuntu VM on Proxmox. Something happened now Plex wont start - says the service is masked... tried a few items to resolve with no success. Short of uninstalling and reinstalling what can i do? If it comes to reinstalling should i redo it in Ubuntu VM or another mechanism - in a docker in TrueNAS? In a docker in CasaOS (both TrueNAS and Casa are already running)? Other install options?