The Main Question
I am looking into updating/upgrading my home media server using some old hardware from my main PC, and I would like some advice on Operating Systems. I have used Windows 10 for the life of this server, and I do not know if that would be the best choice for the future.
My main use case is a Plex Media Server with Remote Access and Hardware Acceleration, but I would also like to self-host a few items, including NextCloud and possibly Bitwarden. I have looked into TrueNAS CORE a bit, but I am uncertain how it would handle these Plex features. Regarding Remote Access, Plex says that it requires
64-bit Ubuntu (16.04 or later) or 64-bit Fedora (26 or later) distributions
and that
Compatible FreeBSD servers require Plex Media Server 1.13.9 or newer
Plex also says that other distributions may work with hardware acceleration, but they are not officially supported. They give a list of supported NAS devices, but they do not mention installing TrueNAS on your own hardware.
My experience with Linux kernel OS’s is relatively limited. I had to use Ubuntu for university, and I have used ZorinOS and Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS at various points. I am familiar with the terminal, but I am by no means an expert.
A Few Lists
Why am I considering moving from Windows 10?
- Tired of unstoppable automatic updates causing unexpected downtime
- Interested in potentially less resource-hungry OS’s
- Would like to use an OS more suited for a home media server, if possible
What is my current hardware?
- HP Compaq Elite 8300 SFF
- CPU: Intel Core i5-3470
- RAM: 8 GB
- Storage: 500 GB OS Drive, 6 TB Seagate External (STKP6000400)
What is my planned hardware?
- Motherboard: MSI B250M PRO-VD Micro ATX
- CPU: Intel Pentium G4560
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4-2133 (only have 2 RAM slots)
- Storage: 500 GB OS Drive, 1 TB Internal, maybe the old 500 GB Internal, 6 TB Seagate External
- Still need a case and a power supply
- I will either purchase new ones for my main PC and use those for this, or I will purchase new ones for this purpose.
- As a note, my current main PC case can fit 3 internal hard drives.
A couple of random points
- The Pentium G4560 has a slightly lower benchmark than the i5-3470. However, it is 5 years newer. Both CPU’s support Intel Quick Sync Video. Would the newer G4560 still perform better for Plex despite having slightly lower benchmarks, or would it ultimately be a wash?
- I feel like using the 6 TB Seagate as an Internal drive would allow it access to a more reliable power supply and a faster data connection. Do any of you have experience shucking this model? Would it even be worth it, with the access to a USB 3.1 port that I would have with the planned hardware? A quick search tells me that it may be SMR, but I am already using it as my primary media drive so I am not certain if this would affect shucking any.
- I would very much like a more automated method of backing up specific folders on the 6 TB drive to either the internal drives or my two 2 TB Seagate external drives that I use for backups. On your suggested OS, do you have a preferred software/script for this?
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I personally use Unraid and couldn’t recommend it enough. Can easily do what you need.
100% agree. Unraid’s community applications add-in for docker apps is unmatched by anything else. I’ve looked a bit into Runtipi and it looks like it might be a good answer to that but it doesn’t have the same wide choice yet.
If you’re looking at docker, Unraid is the easiest way to get started.
Yeah after my coworker recommended me unraid I can’t imagine using anything else, it’s just perfect for starting small and growing as you go
I, like almost anyone else here, will recommend linux. I’ll get back to that later.
Your hardware setup is… fine. Plex has pretty low hardware requirements and runs well on old hardware. The real hangups are memory minimums and the ability for hardware-based transcoding. The second you have covered with a CPU with QuickSync enabled. The first: you’re going to want upgrade to 16GB when you can, but 8GB will get you by for now. The memory is less for Plex itself and more for the stack of companion apps you’ll want to install alongside it, the minimum of which include:
- Sonarr (for automating tv show downloads)
- Radarr (for automating film downloads)
- Prowlarr (enables multiple trackers and forwarding search and results to Sonarr/Radarr)
- a torrent client (transmission, qbittorent, etc.)
- VPN client container(s) (this setup depends on your VPN and the setup may range form ‘easy’ to ’nightmare’ depending on the service you use)
- Docker, to run all of this in containers (including PMS itself)
(see the c/Plex add-ons guide for more info on these app and links to setup guides)
Now to you choice in linux distro: In the past, I would have recommended Ubuntu, but it’s been on the outs lately since they’ve switched their software distribution model to Snaps rather than the industry—standard Flatpacks, making life difficult for some people. Instead, I would recommend Debian (what Ubuntu is based on), as it has improved dramatically in usability and ease of setup. And software that works/is built for Ubuntu works for Debian, so you’ll have a wide breadth of available software packages. It’s a 30 year-old distro that’s stable, reliable, and very well-known, so it’s not going anywhere and has tons of community support. It makes for an excellent server OS.
One alternate I’ve seen people mention is Pop_OS!. It’s based on Ubuntu (but uses Flatpacks) and has a slick, shiny, custom version of GNOME, but, as a server OS, offers little advantage over, say, Debian. It’s biggest advantage for users is their proprietary NVIDIA driver solution which is the only one i’ve seen work out of the box on linux, but that’s not an issue for you.
I’d stick with Debian if I were you. It’s simple, easy to set up (relatively), and you’ll have zero trouble finding all of the software and support you need in abundance.
I hope this helps. If you need any more support or have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
ADDENDUM: your data access speeds to your HDDs is not a real priority. Streaming the data from your drives takes little data bandwidth, so while it would be nice if all of your drives were internal, it’s not necessary. Many people use external, NAS, and even cloud storage solutions without issue. The main issue is capacity. You’ll use that up pretty quickly and also quickly notice that you’re buying new hard dives often to meet your demand for more capacity.
On that note, arrange your media storage (not your boot drive) into an LVM (Logical Volume Management) drive pool solution where your drives are a unified storage pool to which you can simply add another drive when the storage pool runs low on space. LVM basically treats a group of HDDs as a single drive, distributing the data evenly across them. And, if one drives started going bad, the LVM software can shift the data off of it so it can be removed from the pool (ideally onto a new drive you add first).
This is a ton of fantastic information. Thank you. Debian is something I’ve heard a lot about, and was the second thing I looked into after TrueNAS.
I haven’t really had any interest in the -arr softwares. I’m primarily ripping my own media. I do feel like Docker will be a must, though, so learning it will be fun (not sarcasm).
I have honestly never heard of LVM before, so I will have to read into it. It sounds exactly like what I am looking for with my drives.
I’m super-happy to help!
btw, ripping your own media is a waste of time and resources unless you simple cannot find what you’re looking for via torrent. 999/1000 downloading something will take a tiny fraction of the time (and system resources) it will to rip it.
I have a data cap ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
oh, well… that’s… crappy? I didn’t even know those are still a thing.
I recommend switching providers ASAP. I can (try to) help you explore solutions there, too.
The other option has a download speed in the kbps range, so unfortunately switching is not yet an option. Rural US does not do Internet well. There is a better provider (that I was with at my last home) on the way, so hopefully I will not have these issues for too much longer.
Thank you for the concern, though.
ok, I see. well, sorry for your rural troubles, and best of luck with your new solution. you might look into a micro/femtocell from your mobile provider to provide hi-speed data service as an alternative to hard-wired service!
I wanna disagree with you here. I recently dove in to ripping my DVD collection. On average it seems to take 10-20 minutes to rip and then 20-30 to reencode into a more reasonable file size. That’s longer than some downloads but not nearly all. If I’m doing a bunch I can do them simultaneously and save some time that way too.
It’s all moot anyhow, since op mentioned a data cap. I just wanted to offer some perspective I happened to have.
if you’re getting those times, I’m willing to bet your rig is a lot beefier than the specs posted above for OP.
but, with OP’s data cap, you’re right— it’s moot.
Fair point. I failed to consider specs
I am looking into this one piece at a time. Would you recommend installing a desktop on Debian? If so, do you have one you’d recommend? I am looking at KDE, XFCE, or LXQt for the Live images of Debian to try to get acclimated.
oh, this one’s easy: star with a live image to fiddle with first. I would recommend GNOME/GDE as your Desktop Environment (DE). you can choose another later (which is great), but that’s a basic on that’s most similar to what you’re used to. Odd that’s not in the list of options you listed… it’s by far the most common and usually the default…
but, yeah, start with a live DVD (great for a restore disk!) and play around to get acclimated. it’s also great to install from!
I have the benefit of not being particularly used to any Linux DE yet (my Pi’s all end up headless, and I haven’t been at university for several years now), so I was primarily looking at low-resource ones. Does that not matter as much as I have heard?
your server has what it needs to run GNOME just fine. you might wish to disable some of the more fancy graphics animations, but they shouldn’t be a problem at all. they run fine for me on a much older system than yours.
but, if you really want to bare-bones it with a DE, XFCE or LXQt get the job done, but are pretty basic— to the point I find annoying, personally, but you do you. Most of your interaction will be through your web browser for Plex apps, and via the command line for everything else.
Edit: I’d love to keep helping you with your setup, but the thread is getting a bit long. How about we move this chat over to the c/Plex space on Matrix? Matrix is an open-source, federated messaging space like Discord. you can create an account and choose a client (I recommend Element) which you can run via app or webapp.
https://matrix.to/#/#cplex:matrix.org
I’ll be there for when you join!
Open media vault is the distribution I would use. No gui install at all. Everything can be managed in a web browser on another computer.
You will have more than enough ram for plex. Or jellyfin if you ever decide to give it a try. I run both. Plex has the advantage of being really simple for external access.
Use docker for the install and run plex in a container. Its easier than you would think. Lookup plex install docker or docker compose. Open media vault supports containers now. There are videos that can show you how.
As for the cpu. The biggest benefit is likely power savings. I upgraded recently from an old cpu to a newer one recently and went from 60 watts to 10, AND passive cooling which means it’s near silent.
I hadn’t even considered the potential power savings. That is a good point. And it sounds like I will be using Docker a lot. I will look into Open Media Vault. Thank you for the suggestion.
I personally use Proxmox on baremetal and just run a bunch of VM’s, most are Ubuntu. But with only 8gb of RAM, a hypervisor might not be of much value to you. But if you ever upgrade the server and want to do more with it, having a setup with multiple VM’s will be really handy.
Otherwise, I’d say go with Ubuntu or Debian on bare metal. I personally don’t like the NAS style distributions, I prefer to setup everything myself, rather than getting a distribution preloaded with a bunch of shit I’m not going to ever use.
I’m no expert but I’ll offer my input until one shows up.
I use Ubuntu for my Plex server. It eliminates a lot of your complaints with Windows. It’s less resource heavy, you update it yourself, mine runs 24/7 unless I’ve done a kernel update which requires a restart, and that’s just restart time.
It’s definitely among the more ease of use distros, and what you don’t already know will generally not take much effort to find or get help with. Running command line only will free up resources and likely won’t take long to pick up what you need to run how you need to.
All that said I’ve not done anything with NextCloud or Bitwarden.
