Hardware Check

[inxsible]

I currently am running FreeNAS on the following system and was wondering if I can use the same system for Proxmox

1. Tyan S5533 mITX
2. Pentium G3240
3. 8 GB ECC RAM

I realize that the CPU does not support VT-d -- but I was only planning on using VMs and containers and not necessarily passthrough hardware. Another option is to put in a LGA1150 based Core-i3 in there.

Will this system be sufficient to run 1 Nextcloud VM and about 5 containers? I am mainly concerned with the RAM being a bit low and since I already have the system, I thought I might as well use that instead of buying a new one. Can you let me know the pitfalls that you might see...?

Thanks for your help...

Inxsible

 

[vikozo]

It is possible to run a VM on your FreeNAS?
i Think 8GB RAM ist too less!

 

[inxsible]

No I don't want to run any VMs on the FreeNAS box.

I can increase the RAM a bit on this box if it can run Proxmox. What is the minimum RAM I'll need in order to run Proxmox? Does it have to be ECC RAM? I was thinking since I don't intend to use ZFS I can probably go with regular RAM as long as the board will accept it.

The intended usage is :

1. Nextcloud VM with data on the LVM local datastore -- 2 GB RAM, 16 GB disk + unlimited datastore partition for user files (nextcloud data)
2. 3-5 containers each with 512MB RAM and 4GB-8GB of disk space. I usually create a new container for every service that I run.

 

[H4R0]

8GB is more then enough for what you want, better run nextcloud also as container, mine uses 200mb on average. Proxmox takes not more then 500mb. If you go all in on containers you can setup a bunch of things with 8GB, only vm's will burn RAM due to file cache and kernel overhead.

ECC has nothing todo with zfs, always prefer ecc ram, bit rot can do all sorts of bad things. For using zfs 8GB is not enough, you should at least go with 16GB to give zfs some ARC, otherwise it wont perform well.

 

[inxsible]

8GB is more then enough for what you want, better run nextcloud also as container, mine uses 200mb on average. Proxmox takes not more then 500mb. If you go all in on containers you can setup a bunch of things with 8GB, only vm's will burn RAM due to file cache and kernel overhead.

ECC has nothing todo with zfs, always prefer ecc ram, bit rot can do all sorts of bad things. For using zfs 8GB is not enough, you should at least go with 16GB to give zfs some ARC, otherwise it wont perform well.

Right. The server currently has 8GB ECC RAM. I was just wondering if I have to increase it maybe I can use non-ECC as I have some around. But as you said, 8GB should be enough as I intend to use containers for most of the services. There will be at most 5 containers + Nextcloud. This is a build for non-IT friends and they won't be increasing any containers/VMs without me being involved. Currently their needs are not too demanding. They need the following:

1. password manager -- currently considering bitwarden_rs but open to suggestions as bitwarden android app keeps crashing
2. reverse proxy -- caddy2 -- so that they don't have to remember the IPs and port numbers for each service.
3. Omada -- software controller for Access Points
4. heimdall -- I am adding in additional container for a home page so they can point and click to get to their password manager and omada
5. Nextcloud

A couple of extra containers could pop up between now and when I actually give them the server -- in case they think of something. I run most of the above on my own proxmox server in 512MB RAM and 4GB disk space. My bitwarden container has 8GB disk space. I have my Nextcloud as a VM though.

I was thinking a VM for Nextcloud so that it is not competing for RAM with other containers and the users get a seamless experience. But if Nextcloud works in a container decently then I have no issues setting it up in a container as opposed to a VM.


I will go ahead with using Proxmox on that box. I just needed a quick confirmation before I whacked out the FreeNAS install from it. Thank you.


Thank you

 

[inxsible]

Can someone comment on the CPU though? Do I need to upgrade it to a Core i3 or higher for the intended usage? Or will the Pentium G3240 be sufficient for running Nextcloud smoothly?

The other containers are not something that will be accessed very often and so won't need too much processing power.


Thank you.

 

[LnxBil]

Can someone comment on the CPU though? Do I need to upgrade it to a Core i3 or higher for the intended usage? Or will the Pentium G3240 be sufficient for running Nextcloud smoothly?

Depends on you nextcloud setup. The performance is much better with memcached, so I would also use it. Pack as much RAM into your machine was you can get.

 

[inxsible]

Depends on you nextcloud setup. The performance is much better with memcached, so I would also use it. Pack as much RAM into your machine was you can get.

Unfortunately it only has 8GB RAM currently. I am thinking I might just install and see how it performs. If it's not up to par, then maybe I can either upgrade the CPU or the RAM but probably not both due to budget constraints.