Hi everyone,
So, a little background before my questions.
I´ve been using an old machine as my file server (pictures, videos, personal files, work files, etc.). An repurposed (very) old machine I´m running Ubuntu and using just for file storage (Poor Mans NAS). It is been serving me well and I have no real reason for replacing it other than the aging hardware and my will to have a homelab to play around in my spare time. I´m also running Pi-hole on a rasperry pi 3 that i want to spare for other projects.
So in order to have a homelab, I´ve got my hands in one of these cheapo Chinese Dual Xeon combos (https://aliexpress.com/item/4000863519749.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.6d763c00wKRwF5&mp=1). I intend to run ProxMox because I really want to start playing around with VMs and I can have some sort of scalable operation.
I´m planning on running ProxMox for 3 main purposes (on this specific order):
- Have a VM running Pfsense.
- Transfer the pi hole from my Raspberri to the server (using Rancher from what I´ve been researching).
- Run Freenas for my file storage needs.
Since my file server is running fine I have no hurry in transfering it to the server, but I want to do it so I can retire my old hardware. With that being said I will start with the PFSense operation and as I learn my way around I will add the aforementioned services.
I did some research and I think I have a pretty good idea of what I´ll do and how I´m going to achieve my goals. However, I still have some questions about the hardware.
1 - First of all! I have a spare M.2 WD Green 120GB drive I´m willing to use just to install ProxMox. And then use 2 120GB SSD (Kingston consumer grade) as a RAID 1 array to run the VMS. Is that a wise choice?
2 - To run Pi-hole I'm planning on using a Gigabit dual NIC so I don´t think I will have any issues (especially with PfSense) anyone else have this kind of setup and can give me some sort of advice if it will work?
2- On the file server side of things... I have on my file server 6 brand new 1TB HDDS on RAID5, and I´m planning on having a SAS controller for the HDDS on the new hardware. Can I use the same RAID 5 array on Freenas as a VM? (I have never used it before, sorry if it is a dumb question) On that note I also have a spare 240GB SSD I would like to have as Cache. Is this a good decision? Or will I even be able to run this setup? And is it possible to acess the files via VPN? (Currently I use Open VPN on my Linux machine)
I´ve been reading several storage advices but I cannot have a clear idea on what I´ll really need for my usage. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Again I´ll probably start easy, just with the PfSense and then climb up the ladder until I migrate all my NAS to the new machine. No hurry whatsoever. Maybe in the future run a plex server or any other services if need arises (but that´s definitely not my goal for now).
Budget is a constraint, so this is a budget oriented project, I´m not really wanting to upgrade any of the hardware I have unless it is strictly necessary. I have everything but the dual ethernet NIC and SAS controller but I already accounted for that.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Cheers
The combo I have:
So, a little background before my questions.
I´ve been using an old machine as my file server (pictures, videos, personal files, work files, etc.). An repurposed (very) old machine I´m running Ubuntu and using just for file storage (Poor Mans NAS). It is been serving me well and I have no real reason for replacing it other than the aging hardware and my will to have a homelab to play around in my spare time. I´m also running Pi-hole on a rasperry pi 3 that i want to spare for other projects.
So in order to have a homelab, I´ve got my hands in one of these cheapo Chinese Dual Xeon combos (https://aliexpress.com/item/4000863519749.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.6d763c00wKRwF5&mp=1). I intend to run ProxMox because I really want to start playing around with VMs and I can have some sort of scalable operation.
I´m planning on running ProxMox for 3 main purposes (on this specific order):
- Have a VM running Pfsense.
- Transfer the pi hole from my Raspberri to the server (using Rancher from what I´ve been researching).
- Run Freenas for my file storage needs.
Since my file server is running fine I have no hurry in transfering it to the server, but I want to do it so I can retire my old hardware. With that being said I will start with the PFSense operation and as I learn my way around I will add the aforementioned services.
I did some research and I think I have a pretty good idea of what I´ll do and how I´m going to achieve my goals. However, I still have some questions about the hardware.
1 - First of all! I have a spare M.2 WD Green 120GB drive I´m willing to use just to install ProxMox. And then use 2 120GB SSD (Kingston consumer grade) as a RAID 1 array to run the VMS. Is that a wise choice?
2 - To run Pi-hole I'm planning on using a Gigabit dual NIC so I don´t think I will have any issues (especially with PfSense) anyone else have this kind of setup and can give me some sort of advice if it will work?
2- On the file server side of things... I have on my file server 6 brand new 1TB HDDS on RAID5, and I´m planning on having a SAS controller for the HDDS on the new hardware. Can I use the same RAID 5 array on Freenas as a VM? (I have never used it before, sorry if it is a dumb question) On that note I also have a spare 240GB SSD I would like to have as Cache. Is this a good decision? Or will I even be able to run this setup? And is it possible to acess the files via VPN? (Currently I use Open VPN on my Linux machine)
I´ve been reading several storage advices but I cannot have a clear idea on what I´ll really need for my usage. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Again I´ll probably start easy, just with the PfSense and then climb up the ladder until I migrate all my NAS to the new machine. No hurry whatsoever. Maybe in the future run a plex server or any other services if need arises (but that´s definitely not my goal for now).
Budget is a constraint, so this is a budget oriented project, I´m not really wanting to upgrade any of the hardware I have unless it is strictly necessary. I have everything but the dual ethernet NIC and SAS controller but I already accounted for that.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Cheers
The combo I have:
