Hardware for a build

[whytewolves]

I am looking for information on building a Proxmox Server.
I am looking for a list of hardware items, but I am trying to find out what hardware would be best for the system I am looking to put together:

1. PiHole ad blocker
2. Router
3. Self-hosted VPN
4. DNS/DHCP Server
5. Network Monitoring (Wireshark)
6. Cloud Storage (for all my devices)
7. E-mail Server (not sure what this is)
8. File Server
9. Media Server (Plex and Jellyfin)
10. Home lab
11. Home Assistant
12. VM Environment (6 VM’s) (not sure if this is a Home lab?)
13. Home Surveillance (need to configure cameras to stream to this as a NVR)

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[UdoB]

I am trying to find out what hardware would be best for the system

Choosing hardware depends completely on your own demands. You can get away with ~800 €/$ for a single and cheap MiniPC. Or you can build a cluster with at least three (better five) devices for 3000.- each. Plus a backup server, an UPS, a Switch, ...

• is your data precious? Then you may want to have reliable data secured by redundancy. Use ZFS-mirrors for this on the lower level.
• ECC-Ram ist not available on most cheap systems. Perhaps you want to have that nevertheless...
• should everything fail when this computer got defect? If not you might want a cluster.
• is 1 GBit/s okay? Not an easy question nowadays. Some network services (Ceph) really want faster speeds.
• Ram should not get overcommitted. Buy as much as you can. 64 GiB won't be enough for your long list!
• "6 VMs" with what? Six Windows Servers, each requiring 24 GiB?
• Home Surveillance / NVR can be power demanding on its own, but I have no real experience.
• ...

Beside the PVE nodes you may think about an additional device for storing backups, possibly with PBS (Proxmox Backup Server). Maybe you want an UPS to stay live on power fails. To connect devices you need a switch - do not even try to go WLAN only.

A File Server and "6 VM's" can also require different sets of hardware. For fast VM-Storage use NVMe/SSD only at any costs, mirrored! Bulk storage with tens of TB of data is too expensive for most people, so harddisks are still the way to go.

Everything is possible. And every good solution costs more money than a minimal solution - you get what you pay for.

 

[whytewolves]

Choosing hardware depends completely on your own demands. You can get away with ~800 €/$ for a single and cheap MiniPC. Or you can build a cluster with at least three (better five) devices for 3000.- each. Plus a backup server, an UPS, a Switch, ...

• is your data precious? Then you may want to have reliable data secured by redundancy. Use ZFS-mirrors for this on the lower level.
• ECC-Ram ist not available on most cheap systems. Perhaps you want to have that nevertheless...
• should everything fail when this computer got defect? If not you might want a cluster.
• is 1 GBit/s okay? Not an easy question nowadays. Some network services (Ceph) really want faster speeds.
• Ram should not get overcommitted. Buy as much as you can. 64 GiB won't be enough for your long list!
• "6 VMs" with what? Six Windows Servers, each requiring 24 GiB?
• Home Surveillance / NVR can be power demanding on its own, but I have no real experience.
• ...

Beside the PVE nodes you may think about an additional device for storing backups, possibly with PBS (Proxmox Backup Server). Maybe you want an UPS to stay live on power fails. To connect devices you need a switch - do not even try to go WLAN only.

A File Server and "6 VM's" can also require different sets of hardware. For fast VM-Storage use NVMe/SSD only at any costs, mirrored! Bulk storage with tens of TB of data is too expensive for most people, so harddisks are still the way to go.

Everything is possible. And every good solution costs more money than a minimal solution - you get what you pay for.

I have no idea what a cluster does or how it would work.
Currently I am looking to do what I listed above.
I have a Synology DS1515+ for backups, depending on the storage needed.
I have heard of ZFS, but never used it
I have 32GB ECC RAM, and am asking these questions so I can get what I need to build this system
I have heard of ceph, but do not know anything about it
The VM's will be a mixture of Windows and Linux. Mainly for me to learn servers and linux OS's.
I would like to get an UPS for power failures and appreciate you mentioning it as a reminder
I have no idea what switch, or even which type. POE++ or something else. I do not have any cameras currently that operate over POE
I will add a list of my current hardware

 

[UdoB]

I have no idea what a cluster does or how it would work.

Then you do not need one
Also skip the other buzzwords (ZFS, ECC, Ceph), you will learn if you want to have those features on the long run. (I am in business for a long time and I want all of them - at my dayjob and also in my homelab. For most users this might be completely overkill...)

I gave you some broad hints for too large a system - that's the result of your long wishlist and "Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated". Do you a more specific question?

 

[whytewolves]

Then you do not need one
Also skip the other buzzwords (ZFS, ECC, Ceph), you will learn if you want to have those features on the long run. (I am in business for a long time and I want all of them - at my dayjob and also in my homelab. For most users this might be completely overkill...)

I gave you some broad hints for too large a system - that's the result of your long wishlist and "Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated". Do you a more specific question?

A more specific question, what hardware would I need to create the system I listed?
What MOBO would you suggest?
Which processor would you suggest?
How much RAM would you suggest?
Which if any Video Card would you suggest?
Which type of case: desktop, server - 1U - 2U - 4U; would you suggest?