Show / Tell your server Setup?

[footose 2]

I was just wondering what people have here for server setup. Mine's pretty simple and I think just on the edge of being not fast enough to serve.

 

Mine:

 

Windows 8.1 Enterprise N

4 Gig Ram

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz

4 - 1TB Drives for 4TB Total - strictly for storage.

1 - 500G Drive that's partitioned to 100 gigs for OS and 400 gigs for anything else.

 

The system only runs uTorrent and Emby essentially.

 

 

 

What are you running? What other specs can we share or tips that we can do to make things better / faster?

 

[wiretap 30]

Server Hardware:

Intel i5 2500k

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H

8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600

Ceton infiniTV 4 PCI-e CableCARD Tuner

90GB Corsair GT SATA 3 SSD [OS Drive]

HighPoint DC7280 32-port SATA Card

8x 1TB WD Green

9x 2TB WD Green

1x 1TB 2.5" WD Passport for OS backup images

Sans Digital 8-bay eSATA Enclosure

Rocketfish Case (Lian-Li rebrand) modded to hold 19 HDDs

Zalman 850w Heatpipe Silent/Modular PSU

Cyberpower 1500VA Battery Backup

 

Software:

Windows Home Server 2011 SP1

FlexRAID Cruise Control + Snapshot RAID ∞ (2 parity drives)

Ceton Network Bridged CableCARD Enabled

Ubiquiti UniFi Video Server

uTorrent

Emby Server

MediaCenter Master

MyMovies

 

HTPC Hardware (x3):

Rosewill RSV-R4000 4U Rackmount Case

Corsair CX430 V2 Power Supply

MSI P67A-G43 B2 Motherboard

Intel i3 2100 Processor

Rosewill RCX-ZAIO-92 92mm CPU Cooler

2x2GB PNY DDR3-1600 Memory

Galaxy GTS 450 GC Graphics Card

Corsair 60GB Force SATA III SSD

nMEDIAPC Blue Pro LCD

2x 120mm Blue LED Fans (Front)

2x 80mm Blue LED Fans (Rear)

 

HTPC Software:

Windows 8.1 + WMC

WMC TV Archive Plugin (to transfer recordings to the server automatically)

Emby Theater w/ MadVR

 

Rackmount:

Pro Audio Stash 22U, 32in depth Rackmount Enclosure

Belkin PureAV PF60

Linksys 24-port SE3024 Gigabit Switch (all CAT6 cabling to clients)

3x HTPC's (see above)

Asus RT-N16 with DD-WRT v24-sp2 big - build 22118 - Linux Kernel 3.10.2

Motorola SB6121

 

No slow-downs for anything. I can transcode high quality 1080p + FLAC/DD/DTS on the fly without issue to my mobile devices. The server runs well and has very fast access. All Windows updates and hotfixes are applied. With 1500 Blu-ray encodes and over 70 complete TV series, it can take a while to perform library updates, but I have it scheduled for the middle of the night when I'm sleeping so I don't notice it occurring. I pretty much have everything automated so new shows and movies are auto-archived and it gathers the metadata. I wake up and everything is always updated in the media library. 

 

Currently I'm in the process of figuring out a new server build. I'll most likely be going with SnapRAID to prevent silent data corruption. That will require ECC RAM and a compatible processor. I might go with Linux.. or Windows Server 2012. I'll probably just build it separate and keep my current server operating so it will make migration 10x easier. I'll be using HGST drives.. maybe 6TB each to give me at least 24TB of usable space with 2 parity drives.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2015 by wiretap

[chef 3745]

Wow wiretap.

[JeremyFr79 228]

HTPC -

 

Intel C2Q Q9500

Windows 7 Professional

4GB RAM

60GB SSD - OS/Apps

750GB Seagate ES.2 - TV Recordings

Ceton InfiniTV4 - Cable Card Quad Tuner

ATI 6450 Video Card

 

Router - 

Dell PowerEdge 1950

PFSense Router/Firewall

Xeon X5148

4GB RAM

2x146GB 15k SAS (RAID 1)

 

Domain Controller/DNS -

HP Proliant DL320G5P

Server 2012R2

Xeon X3220

4GB RAM

2x80GB SATA HDD's (RAID 1)

 

Emby Server -

Dell Power Edge R710

Server 2008R2

2 Xeon X5570's

48GB RAM

2x146GB 15k SAS (RAID 1) OS/Apps

6x900GB 10k SAS (RAID 5) Metadata/Transcoding/Work Drive

 

File Server 2 -

SuperMicro 2U Chassis

Server 2008R2

Xeon X5120

16GB RAM

3Ware Raid Controller w/512MB BPWBC

320GB SATA OS/APPS

8x1TB Hitachi Ultrastar Drives (RAID 5) Emby Media

3TB Hitachi Ultrastar Emby Media

 

File Server 1 - 

Supermicro 3U Chassis

Server 2008R2

Intel Xeon X5420

16GB RAM

HP P400 Raid Controller w/512MB BPWBC

60GB SSD - OS/Apps

8x1TB Hitachi Ultrastar Drives (RAID 5) Emby Media/user files/pictures/music/network backups

2xSamsung 2TB Drives Emby Media

 

Other Devices

Yamaha Aventage RX-A800 Reciever

APC SmartUPS 750 UPS

APC SmartUPS 3000 UPS

APC J35 UPS/Power Conditioner

APC BackUPS 1500 UPS

Hikvision DS-7616 NVR (network video recorder for security cameras) w/6TB Storage

Cisco 2960-S 48Port POE GIgabit Switch

2x Leviton 15 AMP PDU's

Belkin 8 Port KVM

 

Not Shown

Xfinitiy ARRIS Phone/Internet Gateway serving 150Mbps down/35Mbps up

Engenious EC350 300Mbps Wireless N AP, upgraded 8db-i antennas, EAP is around 5 watts

TP Link Ethernet over Power/Wireless Extender - provides feed for security camera and extends Wi-Fi to backyard.

 

All servers running 2Gbps LACP connections for redundancy and throughput when needed.

 

Rack has 50AMP/120V dedicated circuits.

Edited May 10, 2015 by JeremyFr79

[pir8radio 1292]

LOL not as impressive as the others but here it goes..

 

I have one server that runs my Emby, Home Automation, Security Cameras, and web server.  So I wanted to go "beefy".  This server is mounted on a horizontal 2u rack behind my monitors (hiding there like a fat kid behind a flag pole). I didn't want a regular rack to take up floor space.

 

Server Stats:

 

CPU: Xeon E5 2470 2.4Ghz 10-core 20-Thread

Ram: 48 Gigs DDR3-1600 ECC

Drives:   8-TB Raid 5

              4-TB Raid 5

              120-GB SSD for Cache (emby and www)

              1-TB Raid 1 OS

              8-TB Drobo Mini for Backups

              * all drives are 2.5" so no 1 drive is larger than 2 TB

                hindsight I would have went with full size array bays.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2015 by pir8radio

[AgileHumor 123]

Internet (UVerse)

• Main Internet (UVerse) - 75 MB Download/8MB Upload
• Backup/TorrentVPN (TimeWarner) – 2MB download/1MB upload
• Wireless Cisco Aironet 1140 Series
• Wired Cisco 24-Port 10/100 PoE Managed Switch with 4 Gigabit Uplinks

 

Multimedia Server (Emby Server and Emby Classic for WMC)

• Norco Short Depth Case
• ASUS Maximus V FORMULA motherboard
• I7 Processor - Core i7-3770 Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz
• Windows 8.1 x64 Pro
• Intel integraded graphics with QuickSync acceleration. 
• 32GB Ram
• 2 x Dual Tuner HaugePauge HDTV tuners (4 streams)
• Ceton InfiniTV 6 ETH (retired as I don't watch cablecard contend since commercials can't be stripped on encrypted channels)
• OS and Cache - 240GB (2 x 120GB SSD RAID 0)
• Remote Control - Emby Apps or Scripted Home Automation or 4 x Keyspan RF Remotes (uses USB jack in each room for local shorter RF hop) for changing main HDMI feed program on Emby Classic

 

Storage Internal:

• Photos/Home  Videos/Documents – 8TB (4 x 4TB  – Windows Storage Spaces RAID 1)
• Recorded TV and Temp Drive – 4TB Sata
• Backup Drive – 4TB Sata and ejectable

 

Storage External:

• Video and TV Storage 30TB (8 x 6TB RAID 5 with Hot Spare, using PCIe server class RAID) - Note - Should have gone RAID 6.
• 2 x 1U Short Depth Rack with 4 SATA Bays

 

Vera Home Automation:

• Every light, overhead ceiling speakers, and TV’s (9 in 3 BR home) motion activated when you walk in. 
• Wakeup is at 7am weekdays and 8am weekends - Turns TV on and tunes to NBC for the Today show on weekdays, 8am on weekdays.  Lights gradually get brighter.  +30 minutes (7:30 additional audio wakeup plays an additional audio file bugling Reveille).  Now with baby, we don’t get the house alarm waking us too often. 
• Colors of 30 hue lights change from yellow/white to orange at sunset, and then to red at bedtime.
• 9 Powered shades lower 20 minutes after sunset and raise after the first motion detected in living area after wakeup time.
• Bedtime turns on all lights dim (on motion), lowers TV volume,  arms alarm, and locks 3 Z-Wave door locks.
• Cameras (like front door motion), Alerts (like water leek), and Baby Monitor Audio - Display screen pops in WMC in parallel to audio alerts in whole home audio.
• Every device reports it's power usage, with the exception of 200watts of vampire power that is not discreetly monitored (and stored in a cloud database in Azure)
• Controlled with Z-Wave remotes, in wall control panels, and an HP Slate (21” android) touchscreen mounted near entryway.

 

Whole Home Audio

• Russound 6 Zone (Living, 2 x Bathroom, Kitchen, Master & Outside)
• Rooms with overhead speakers don’t use the TV speakers
• Bedrooms with TV only (no overhead) use TV speakers over HDMI.  I normalize the audio so it’s always the same volume (as it’s controlled on the local TV) with one of these audio normalizers so volume is always the same.

 

Outdoor IP CAM DVR:

• 9 x 720P Night Cameras
• 1 x 1080p Night Dome PTZ Camera
• 9 Outdoor Motion Sensors on Home Automation will turn on relevant outdoor lights on and also give WMC screen prompt or camera display when outside motion detected.
• Synology Surveillance Station with 4TB (2 x 4TB RAID 1)

 

Video Displays (turn on and off with motion in room  to "follow" you)

• Main HDMI or DLNA or Samsung App - 3 Samsung TV’s (Bedrooms/Office)
• Main HDMI or DLNA - 1 Sharp TV with Xbox One (Living Room) – DLNA for Sharp TV no worky with Emby
• Main HDMI - Bathroom and Kitchen TV’s only can use the main HDMI feed coming from WMC…which is fine as we only normally watch one program for the whole house 95% of time.
• Surface Pro in Dock – Bedside  (home automation and Emby control)
• Main HDMI feed to Video and overhead speakers use a Emby Classic WMC on Emby Server via HDMI.

 

Software on Server

• Emby Server
• Emby Classic for WMC
• WMC (for Live TV (at wakeup) and Camera Access (using HTML page refreshing image every second so video can run PIP).   Need these functionality (scriptable for home automation) before I can move to Emby Theater. 
• iSpy DVR - allows home automation to turn single camera for baby room audio when baby’s door is closed automatically and plays audio feed behind music or video program.
• MCEBuddy - strips out commercials of daily shows (ellen, tonight show) and kids tv (sesame street) and stores in Emby compatible naming to auto-organize.
• VoxCommando - Use voice contol rarely, but the TTS and Vera Home Automation Integration is amazing to vocalize alerts or add sound effects (like star trek door opening 'swoosh" when sliding glass doors open (based on alarm sensor)).  It also chimes and speaks time on the hour from 6am-bedtime. 
• Hyper-V Virtual Machine

 

Child Virtual Machine on Hyper-V:

• Sonarr
• NZBGet
• CouchPotato
• UTorrent
• VM can only go 5 external IP’s – 3 routed over VPN using backup Internet (2MBs down/1Mbs up), and 2 for  news servers over main internet over SSL (75MBs down).  If connected to VPN, can go anywhere using encrypted tunnel.
• Dumps all completed (valid) files to main video storage on main server (using UNC path) where Emby discovers

 

Rack and Power:

• Mount - Chatsworth Wall mounted, Dual Swinging 13u Rack in garage (wonderful rack)
• 1500VA UPS – Runs Whole Home Audio/Emby Server/Home Automation/Security Cameras for 45+ mins
• Distribution - 3 Cat 5, 1 Coax, 1 USB, 1 HDMI and 2 electrical outlets go to each video wall mount location and back to a 48 port patch panel/Coax splitter/powered USB hub/1x8 HDMI splitter
• Rack Power Switches with Individual Controllable Outlets
• Rack Shelf (to catch power cords under each power switch)

 

 

 

Also, here is my Surface 3 sitting/standing desk setup with dual touchscreen monitors: 

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by AgileHumor

[AgileHumor 123]

 

 

So jealous of Xfinity.  I'm on the fastest residential (upstream) in San Diego.

[JeremyFr79 228]

Xfinity is definitely nice to have, though I'd kill to have Google Fiber in my area.  Luckily I live in a city that run's their own competing cable system, so our prices are like 20% cheaper than surrounding cities.  Even better the wife's work pays for it

[drashna 46]

So jealous of Xfinity.  I'm on the fastest residential (upstream) in San Diego.

But XFinity is Comcast. So I'm not sure it's worth being jealous over.

 

As for in San Diego, I'm on Cox, but I have a business line (in part because of streaming, but also because I work from home).

I get "decent" bandwidth (50/25)

[JeremyFr79 228]

But XFinity is Comcast. So I'm not sure it's worth being jealous over.

 

As for in San Diego, I'm on Cox, but I have a business line (in part because of streaming, but also because I work from home).

I get "decent" bandwidth (50/25)

I see alot of people complain about Comcast/Xfinity, and I know different area's different experiences.  But here in Washington, I've had them since they were AT&T Broadband (back when I worked for them)  And I've hardly ever had any issues with them.  In the 3 years I've lived in my current home I've had 2 outages and both were less than 8 hours.  My speeds have always been consistent, prices have been ok, Speed was upgraded twice already in 3 years.  I started on their 50/15 service, they upgraded me to 100/25, and now 150/35.  All with very little change to the cost.

[pir8radio 1292]

But XFinity is Comcast. So I'm not sure it's worth being jealous over.

 

As for in San Diego, I'm on Cox, but I have a business line (in part because of streaming, but also because I work from home).

I get "decent" bandwidth (50/25)

 

 

I see alot of people complain about Comcast/Xfinity, and I know different area's different experiences.  But here in Washington, I've had them since they were AT&T Broadband (back when I worked for them)  And I've hardly ever had any issues with them.  In the 3 years I've lived in my current home I've had 2 outages and both were less than 8 hours.  My speeds have always been consistent, prices have been ok, Speed was upgraded twice already in 3 years.  I started on their 50/15 service, they upgraded me to 100/25, and now 150/35.  All with very little change to the cost.

 

 

Yea I have never had any connection or speed issues with Comcast except getting my email server port opened up, smtp inbound.  Had to fight with them to get it opened...  Though i know why they were blocking it, spam servers...     I don't understand why people complain about cable... its really an all fiber network..  Maybe comcast uses crappy/old coax in some areas...  But cable internet is fiber, basically to the block.   Though I would love to have a 100% fiber connection..... Its not offered to homes in my area yet..  Unless I want to pay to get the fiber to my place..  and that's not going to happen.. lol.

[Deihmos 147]

This box serves as client and server.

 

i3 4130 3.4ghz

Crucual 120GB SSD

Mini-Box M350

Mni-Box PicoPSU 60W

5TB Seagate USB 3 drive.

idle power draw just 7.5 watts.

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by Deihmos

[AgileHumor 123]

But XFinity is Comcast. So I'm not sure it's worth being jealous over.

 

As for in San Diego, I'm on Cox, but I have a business line (in part because of streaming, but also because I work from home).

I get "decent" bandwidth (50/25)

What is that costing?

[AgileHumor 123]

idle power draw just 7.5 watts.

 

 

 

This is an awesome low power setup @Deihmos.  

 

Personally, I'm streaming (or download content) to about 10 external users (family) and maybe can go low power once day.  Currently cloud synced 172 kids movies in 1.5Mbs baseline and 3Mbs General...and currently cloud syncing 801 Kids TV shows.  I'll test that for a few weeks, and start doing my 1000+ movie movie library.  Was going to keep my 6000+ tv episodes transcoding, except maybe some "favorites" like Game of Thrones.  Hopefully I can throttle down a little maybe using Synology Download Station (Sonarr doesn't support yet, CP does) can lesson the always on need.

 

My whole system draws about 300w-350w 24x7 to power the POE switches, camera, whole home audio, Emby Server/Storage, Vera #1...pretty much downloading something every hour with Sonarr.   My internet router, Synology NVR, and Vera #2 home controller in another secure location and draw ~100watts...totalling almost 500 watts for all the home automation, security, and media tech.  Every other light is uber effiecient, i replaced a plasma TV mostly for power use (and 60" TV's sub $1k)...so even if with every light on in the house...I only max out at 1300-1500 watts (without AC, dryer, or cooking/baking) for whole house.

Edited May 11, 2015 by AgileHumor

[Deihmos 147]

I hope the external users chip in for that electricity bill.

[Ian-Highlander 145]

Ok I'll play, although not as impressive as some of the setups here, solid work guys

 

Main server hardware all mounted in a custom 19" rack mount case (apart from the USB drives) currently sitting on the floor in the loft.

 

Asus P6T6 WS Revolution board.

Core i7 965 processor.

6GB Mushkin redline enhanced PC3 12800 @1600 (24GB being ordered at the end of the month on pay day to max the board out).

 

Marvell RAID controller built onto the board running:

2 x 160GB WD Black drives in RAID 1 configuration for the operating system.

 

Areca 1280ML 16 channel SATA RAID card running:

16 x 320GB WD Black drives in RAID 6 configuration (giving just under 4TB with a hot spare). - my music runs from this array as it's the fastest.

 

Dual USB3 PCIe cards running:

3 x 4TB USB3 drives (one mirroring the main RAID and the other two as a mirrored pair). - TV episodes run from the mirror of these.

4 x 2TB USB3 drives (2 mirrored pairs). - Films run from one of the mirrors of these.

 

Running 2008 R2 server with Hyper-V running two more (hence the need for extra memory, it copes at the moment but needs more) as it's running a domain controller, file server, DHCP, DNS, mail server, web server etc.

 

Gigabit network round the house.

 

Main media client downstairs is MB Classic on my gaming PC attached to the TV in our living room and my wife and I have another PC in the bedroom running MB Classic fitted with an SSD and near silent fans. Kids use their laptops with MBT on them wirelessly.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Antitheft2

[chef 3745]

@@AgileHumor

 

I know we're not supposed to swear, but Holy Shit dude! That is one of the most fantastic set ups I have ever seen!

[AgileHumor 123]

@@chef

 

It's Baby, My Lady, Computers @ Work, Computers @ Home...and Canibus.  I have 5 simple passions.

Edited May 11, 2015 by AgileHumor

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Mine is currently simple...

 

Server:

i5-2500K quad core

Windows 10 Technical Preview

8 GB of RAM

 

File Server:

20 Terabytes of Storage X 2.

 

Network:

Gigabit Ethernet to all rooms

 

Clients:

Variety of iPhones, tablets, and laptops using the Web Client.

Televisions are all using Roku 3 devices.

[whitestrat13 33]

Right now I have a very humble setup:

 

"Server" :

-Reclaimed HP 8200 desktop

-i5 650

-16 GB of memory

-OCZ vertex 4 120 GB ssd

-Seagate 1TB

-WD 3TB red

-Windows 8.1 Enterprise

 

Clients:

-iOS and Android phones/tablets

-Roku 3

-MBT on laptop

-Web client

[whitestrat13 33]

I am currently planning a new build too.

 

Server:

-Intel Xeon 1231 V3

-Supermicro X10SL7-O-F motherboard

-32 GB ECC memory

-(8) WD 4TB Red HDD

-(4) Samsung 256 GB 850 Pro SSD's (Storage)

-(2) Samsung 128 GB 850 Pro SSD's (boot)

-Quad Intel NIC

-Case: Fractal Define R5

 

Software

-Windows Server 2012 R2

-Hyper V

-8 hdd and 4 ssd in a single 2 way mirrored, tiered storage space

 

VM's

-Emby (Server 2012 R2)

-NextPVR

-Domain controller, dns, dhcp (Server 2012 R2)

-PFSense

 

Tuners

-HDHomeRun Prime

Edited May 13, 2015 by whitestrat13

[drashna 46]

What is that costing?

Too much, really. 

~$100/month.

But that is with NO blocked ports, and no data cap. Also, when I've called in with issues, they're resolved within half an hour usually. 

 

And since I average about 2TBs of traffic a month... 

 

 

 

 

 

Also the system I'm running:

Case: Norco RPC-4220

Motherboard: Supermicro X10SAT

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1245v3

Memory: G.SKILL 4x8GB

System Drive: Crucial MX200 256GB SSD

OS: Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials

Storage: ~60TB pool, about 20TBs of media mirrored, plus software and backups, using StableBit DrivePool

Misc Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB, used for HyperV VMs (with data deduplication).

 

The only VM I'm really running is my work environment. Otherwise, it changes depending on what I'm testing, but lately, all of them but the work VM has been turned off.

Edited May 13, 2015 by drashna

[Longrifle 33]

wow, all those setups are very intimidating, very nice though.

my set up is simple and I have no issues streaming to the family currently 16 users.

 

[NWGiles 10]

HTPC -

Silverstone Grandia GD05

i5 with 16GB Ram

Bluray

1TB wd Green

TBs Quad Freeview HD card

 

software - win 7, serverwmc, 

 

3 x Intel NUC ( 2 celerons & i5), 1 for each TV

several windows/android & Apple tablets

 

2 x Synology Rackstations

2 x Synology Diskstations 

 

total 22Tb storage

Edited May 14, 2015 by NWGiles

[MSattler 387]

Internet:

 

FIOS 75/75

 

HTPC Clients:

 

Minix Neo x8h Plus <Kody/EmbySync) x 2

Multiple HTPC's <Kodi/EmbySync, MBC>

Amazon Fire TV Stick (Kody/EmbySync)

 

Tuners:

 

2 x HDHomerun Prime

 

Storage:

 

unRAID

Antec 1200

i3-3225 CPU @ 3.30GHz / 6GB Memory

30TB Storage

 

ESXi1:

 

ESXi 6.0

i7-4770s / 32GB Memory

 

Emby Server VM

Linux utility/download server (Replicant/DR)

ESXi2:

 

ESXi 6.0

i7-3770 / 24GB Memory

 

Linux utility/download server

Emby Server VM (Replicant/DR)

Emby Dev Server VM

 

Synology DS-410 (1) (Pictures, Document Storage, Kodi Backups)

Synology DS-410 (2) (Pictures, Document Storage, Kodi Backups) Rsync between both units