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Protektor edited this page Feb 2, 2022 · 12 revisions

When discussing a server one of the things to keep in mind is to try and support as much Open-Source software and hardware as possible with full support in Linux. It is recommended to avoid using Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS because both are proprietary and will try and lock customers in their ecosystem and then use data from customers to make customers' data a product they sell to other companies.

Server Hardware

  • AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU
  • ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Motherboard
  • 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3300MHz to 3600MHz
  • Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB SSD Drive
  • ASUS BW-16D1HT Blu-ray Drive
  • PCIe 1x to SATA Card 10 Port
  • Asterisk Card Tdm410p with 3 FXS + 1 FXO Ports
  • Rackmount Case CHENBRO RM21406-460 (2U and 6 hot swap drives and 1 5.25 space)
  • Rackmount Case CHENBRO RM31408T-600 (3U and 8 hot swap drives and 2 5.25 spaces)
  • Spend the rest on large hard drives

It is recommended that AMD be used for the CPU of the server. There is nothing wrong with Intel but the Intel CPUs that have an integrated graphics chip (APU) do not perform as well as AMD. Getting a graphic card for your server is not going to be cheap, assuming you can even find one, given the supply issues of 2020 and on. The other issue is that Nvidia has not been a good supporter of the open source community and in fact their drivers are not open source and some of the features of their video cards are not always available under Linux. In 2020 NVidia is still behind in fully supporting Wayland, which most Linux distributions have moved to for their graphic user interface. It is for these reasons that even Linus, the creator of Linux, does not recommend NVidia.

The Asus B550 motherboard supports six SATA interfaces and two M.2 ports and four DIMMs. It also supports Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5Gb Ethernet under Linux. This means you can run your OS on a M.2 SSD and it supports using the second for redundance for RAID 0.

It is recommend if possible to get a case that can support hot swap hard drives because it makes it possible to add and replace failed hard drives without having to power down the server and interrupt everyone because the server is not working. Rackmount cases are prefered because it makes it easier to put all the hardware for the network in a rack and then put it in a closet or the basement out of the way and not seen normally.

Server OS

Linux has the advantage that we are not locked in to a specific vendor and we can run most of the software created for Apple MacOS, Microsoft DOS, Microsoft Windows and Google Android. It is even possible to play games that were originally written for Microsoft Windows using a special version of WINE called Proton and Proton GE that has been tuned for playing games.

It is recommended to use Ubuntu. The reason being is that Ubuntu has the largest share in the Enterprise and Cloud market. Debian has the next largest market share but Debian has the issue of not having the latest libraries and supporting all the different codecs needed for a streaming media server. It is for this reason that Debian can not be recommended and with it one of the more popular Linux distributions for home users, Open Media Vault.

The best version of Ubuntu to use is the server version and more specifically the LTS (Long Term Support) version. The reason is that we want to build on top of a stable system and don't necessarily need the bleeding edge versions of software.

Server Software

  • RAID
  • MergerFS
  • SnapRAID
  • AppleTalk (Apple File Sharing)
  • SAMBA/CIFS (Apple & Windows File Sharing)
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