# About to start using Linux again after many years - in need of advice



## ThaiTaffy (Oct 18, 2021)

I'm about to start using Linux again after many years and I'm wondering what distro would be best for my needs.

Server SAS/NAS
Running 1 or 2 VMs (internet browsing and office pc for my brother in law)
And zoneminder


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 20, 2021)

Bump.....is Ubuntu server a good choice or is there something better out there?


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## Operandi (Oct 20, 2021)

Surprised you aren't getting more suggestions.  I don't play with a ton of distros at and most of what I use *nix for is server stuff anyway so my suggestions may not be what you are looking for if you are looking to manage everything from a desktop environment.  Those requirements could be meet with just about anything though.  I'd start with the NAS consideration first though since that by its very nature is likely the most important aspect?

If you are going to be running this on sever'ish hardware (an HBA, and an array of all the same drives, tonsof RAM, ect) then TrueNAS which is FreeBSD based would be good choice and makes for a very solid high performance NAS, does VMs, and has Jails, a container technology similar to Docker.  Otherwise unRAID is more flexible in terms of what hardware it will run on and how arrays are built and managed is totally different and far more flexible, its also based on Linux.  Ubuntu is very good OS though too and is gaining more and more respect as a server platform if you just want a base OS to setup however you want.


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## Simpleris (Oct 20, 2021)

ThaiTaffy said:


> Bump.....is Ubuntu server a good choice or is there something better out there?


Ubuntu desktop I wouldn't recommend, but oh boy Ubuntu Server is love!


Operandi said:


> Surprised you aren't getting more suggestions.  I don't play with a ton of distros at and most of what I use *nix for is server stuff anyway so my suggestions may not be what you are looking for if you are looking to manage everything from a desktop environment.  Those requirements could be meet with just about anything though.  I'd start with the NAS consideration first though since that by its very nature is likely the most important aspect?
> 
> If you are going to be running this on sever'ish hardware (an HBA, and an array of all the same drives, tonsof RAM, ect) then TrueNAS which is FreeBSD based would be good choice and makes for a very solid high performance NAS, does VMs, and has Jails, a container technology similar to Docker.  Otherwise unRAID is more flexible in terms of what hardware it will run on and how arrays are built and managed is totally different and far more flexible, its also based on Linux.  Ubuntu is very good OS though too and is gaining more and more respect as a server platform if you just want a base OS to setup however you want.


Might as well consider fedora or its offspring for VMs, dunno if this stays good for docker tho.


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## bug (Oct 20, 2021)

ThaiTaffy said:


> Bump.....is Ubuntu server a good choice or is there something better out there?


Probably, if you've been out of the loop for a while. That or plain Debian.


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 20, 2021)

Hmm so to start with I'm just running a old dell r210ii this is my teaching aid and will be repurposed into a firewall possibly some bsd variant.

 I'm currently looking for a ryzen GE Cpu for the Nas I'm building which I planned to use TrueNAS  os on.

Then eventually I'll get a used duel processor server probably another dell since they are pretty cheap here but I'd like to learn a OS that skills will work with all these products.

I've used Linux on old laptops long ago but didn't have the patience or drive to really understand or learn anything now I think mentality has changed and a working home lab seems like a good idea.

I should mention I'd like to build some home automation eventually I've played with arduino's a fair bit but I tended to just steal code from others and have no idea how that would fit into all of this as far as an OS.


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## bug (Oct 20, 2021)

Both Ubuntu and Debian are solid on servers and have large communities around them. Getting help should not be a problem.
If, for some reason, instead of deb you need a rpm based distro, them OpenSUSE or whatever is left of CentOS should have you covered just as well.


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## silentbogo (Oct 20, 2021)

ThaiTaffy said:


> Hmm so to start with I'm just running a old dell r210ii this is my teaching aid and will be repurposed into a firewall possibly some bsd variant.


If you don't have many users, that thing can probably do both on that server. Expecially if it's maxed-out.
I have one of those in my rack running NAS, mail appliance and two small VMs. All on a cheap E3-1240 + 16GB DDR3, the rest is refurbished or broken Supermicro parts I've fixed in my workshop. 



ThaiTaffy said:


> Bump.....is Ubuntu server a good choice or is there something better out there?


I've contemplated on this question a few years back, and by far Ubuntu Server is the best option. FreeBSD is finicky when it comes to devices and drivers, especially if you want to set up a print server in the future, add some more functionality, or expand to SFP+/QSFP on the cheap. Ubuntu has no such issues, plus it has lots of documentation and tutorials on pretty much any topic.
My first home server ran Ubuntu Server+Webmin. Setting up ZFS or BTRFS on newer distros is very easy, but at that time I went with a simple md array.
Right now my setup is a bit more complicated, but most of the basic stuff can be done in a few clicks in web UI. Virtualmin might also be a good candidate if VMs are a big part of your project. 
My VMs are quite small and simple, so I do everything by hand (qemu).

Another big bonus - excellent hardware support. Even my quirky HP NC550SFP cards work out of the box (probably THE cheapest 10GbE option on the market).


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 20, 2021)

silentbogo said:


> If you don't have many users, that thing can probably do both on that server. Expecially if it's maxed-out.
> I have one of those in my rack running NAS, mail appliance and two small VMs. All on a cheap E3-1240 + 16GB DDR3, the rest is refurbished or broken Supermicro parts I've fixed in my workshop.
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks this even pointed out things I didn't mention so I live on my wife's family farm her sister, cousin and uncle live on the same large peice of land so I planned to steal their fibre lines, load balance it to 3 or 4gbps where sfp+ is a must and then pipe less than 1gbps back out to them via wireless access points as it's only used for phones. I'd say there might be 4 users maximum on the server and the Nas would only be used by me pretty much with my wife backing up photos and such from her phone occasionally. The r210ii I want to spend as little as possible I might bump the ram higher when I need it and will just use for opnsense or pfsense.



It's less than $100.
The Nas is based of a b450m board I have, I plan to source a ge chip to keep it as low power as possible  and add a pcie SATA card and a 2.5gbps NIC so I can keep my steam library on it as well as backups 
Then eventually I'd like the server to handle a few VMs at least one for general pc use (streaming and web browsing) and one for office work then also run some home automation and CCTV, can I use print servers for 3d?
 because to me paper is dead 
  Thanks everyone and Thank you @silentbogo you were all a great help.

I'll update you in a few weeks hopefully when it all arrives.


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 29, 2021)

So little update, after 2 days with Ubuntu server I gave up. The fact I needed a GUI for zoneminder defied the point of it and once I layered one on, login became slow and clunky.
I'm now running proxmox which is ideal as I can try many distros of Linux as well as BSD. Control is really simple as I can swap VM's and control basic functions from my phone.
I currently have lxle running for zoneminder though I haven't set it up completely yet, TrueNAS core though I need more ram and HDD's to even try it properly and I'm going to play about with pfsense as my next project.


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