Need help on deciding on os

Irishguy90

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have a dell t20 server that was originally running windows and plex with just 500gb and 1tb drives running just plex. I'm looking for an os to run plex , samba and pihole with 3 separate partitions running on multiple drives

I now have a 120gb ssd which will be for the os

My storage drives are 2tb, 1tb, 2 500gbs.

I would like to have all my media show up as one drive and with the ability to add a more drives. The 2tb 1Tb and 500gb can be for media
Storage can just utilise a 500gb and other stuff an other hard drive

My cpu is a Pentium G3220 with 8GB ram. 4 on board sata and a two port sata expansion card

Also I'd like to able to back up only the storage partion to an external drive daily and then weekly to a buffalo nas drive

I plan on building a new server in the future and would like to be able tod transfer everything to new hardware without losing data
 
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Hi & Welcome to Linux.org.

Since your looking for a server class distribution I recommend Centos.:)
It's the free version of RHEL so you won't have to pay for a subscription.

Your Pentium G3220 is a 3.0 GHz CPU and CentOS only requires a 2.0 GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM.
With CentOS you should be good to go:-

In order to install Plex on CentOS you'll need to do so by using the Plex official repository.
It should only take about 20 min's to install and configure the media server.


Additional resources:-

 
Hi & Welcome to Linux.org.

Since your looking for a server class distribution I recommend Centos.:)
It's the free version of RHEL so you won't have to pay for a subscription.

Your Pentium G3220 is a 3.0 GHz CPU and CentOS only requires a 2.0 GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM.
With CentOS you should be good to go:-

In order to install Plex on CentOS you'll need to do so by using the Plex official repository.
It should only take about 20 min's to install and configure the media server.


Additional resources:-

I tried cent os and didnt like it as it had
Hi & Welcome to Linux.org.

Since your looking for a server class distribution I recommend Centos.:)
It's the free version of RHEL so you won't have to pay for a subscription.

Your Pentium G3220 is a 3.0 GHz CPU and CentOS only requires a 2.0 GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM.
With CentOS you should be good to go:-

In order to install Plex on CentOS you'll need to do so by using the Plex official repository.
It should only take about 20 min's to install and configure the media server.


Additional resources:-

I tired cent os before and ran into loads off issues with permission etc and I couldnt even get pihole working on it correctly plus the os crashes multiple times when trying to add on extra software to it.
 
Well, there's Ubuntu Server, Debian, Open Suse and Oracle Linux and Mageia.

If the os crashed while trying to install extra software it could be a hardware problem.

How old are your servers?

Also have you had the chance to look at the link Tolkem posted for you?
 
Well, there's Ubuntu Server, Debian, Open Suse and Oracle Linux and Mageia.

If the os crashed while trying to install extra software it could be a hardware problem.

How old are your servers?

Also have you had the chance to look at the link Tolkem posted for you?
My server is about 6 years old. Tried the link and it wasent very helpful.
I tired ubuntu server aswell and the os wouldn't install kept crashing after trying various programs to write the USB and various size usb drives
 
I tried cent os and had to many issues with it. That is site couldnt give a result
CentOS 7? CentOS 8? I used CentOS 6 then 7. Haven't tried 8 yet, I downloaded the .iso tho and plan to play with it in a VM.
 
CentOS 7? CentOS 8? I used CentOS 6 then 7. Haven't tried 8 yet, I downloaded the .iso tho and plan to play with it in a VM.
Sorry but it dosent answer my question and cent os is complicated as I said I had issues with it.
 
My server is about 6 years old. Tried the link and it wasent very helpful.
I tired ubuntu server aswell and the os wouldn't install kept crashing after trying various programs to write the USB and various size usb drives
Is your Dell t20 a Power Edge with the CPU. Intel Xeon E3-1225V3 / 3.2 GHz?
 
Was it the installer that kept crashing or was it the os crashing after it was installed?

And did you use Rufus or Etcher for making your usb bootable?
 
Was it the installer that kept crashing or was it the os crashing after it was installed?

And did you use Rufus or Etcher for making your usb bootable?
The installer kept crashing when the os was being installed after going through the various options. I used yumi, linux pen drive installer and a few others including Rufus
 
The installer kept crashing when the os was being installed after going through the various options. I used yumi, linux pen drive installer and a few others including Rufus
Sounds like a performance issue that you have going on. Possibly the CPU is on it's way out-
It may be time for a new server. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to run some test's and use some tools to diagnose the health of the server.

What version of Windows are you running?
Is there a CDROM drive so you can try a Live CD?DVD?
 
I had windows 10 on it until I formatted the main drive trying to get ubuntu server on it. Theres no DVD drive in it as I bought it with out the DVD drive and dont have a spare one to fit the 2.5 bay. It still dosent answer my question on what os to use and how to combine my hard drives
 
I had windows 10 on it until I formatted the main drive trying to get ubuntu server on it. Theres no DVD drive in it as I bought it with out the DVD drive and dont have a spare one to fit the 2.5 bay. It still dosent answer my question on what os to use and how to combine my hard drives
I would use Debian.

With the crashing issue that your having doesn't make it any easier to help not knowing what the problem is.
-::-If the installer keeps failing try a different usb device.-::-
The little circuit boards in the usb sticks poo out over time:-

To combine your hard drives you can arrange and perform a RAID set up.

Make sure you create a backup before getting started with a Raid Array:-
 
I would use Debian.

With the crashing issue that your having doesn't make it any easier to help not knowing what the problem is.
-::-If the installer keeps failing try a different usb device.-::-
The little circuit boards in the usb sticks poo out over time:-

To combine your hard drives you can arrange and perform a RAID set up.

Make sure you create a backup before getting started with a Raid Array:-
I'll try debian and see how it goes. What raid would be recommended for my setup. Iv also heard people suggest zfs.
Also i have tried multiple usb devices I have most are less than a year old.
 
Generally it's Raid 5 for 4 disks or more.

These links are a good place to start.

I've never had the opportunity to set up a Raid Array so if you need assistance maybe Tolkem can help you. When you get the time, start reading the Raid documentation to learn how to configure it.
 
I'll try debian and see how it goes. What raid would be recommended for my setup. Iv also heard people suggest zfs.
Also i have tried multiple usb devices I have most are less than a year old.
It might help reading this https://b-ok.cc/book/550437/eb3c11 here https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Linux_Raid and here https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/A_guide_to_mdadm If you use Debian, mdadm can be installed with
Code:
sudo apt-get install mdadm

This tutorial is worth a reading too https://www.linuxbabe.com/linux-server/linux-software-raid-1-setup
 
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