Suggestions for low-end home server in 2021

lifepillar

lifepillar

Hi FreeBSD gurus,
for more than a year now I have been experimenting at home with a headless FreeBSD 12 server running in VirtualBox on an iMac 2011 (!). The VM is configured with a mirrored UFS disk and 6 GB RAM. So far, it has served me well (!), resilvering correctly after several improper shutdowns of the VM (!) while the iMac was used normally for browsing, playing games, etc (!) Most of the time, the CPU is idle, and with the services I am running it uses ~2GB of RAM. The services provide support for mail (locally), CalDAV, WebDAV, DVCS (Gogs, Fossil), project management (Redmine), RSS (FreshRSS or Miniflux), databases (PostgreSQL), metasearch engine (Searx), and bookmarking (Wallabag). Each service is in its own jail. I am the only user. Sure, I took some risks (cough cough)—but I had a plan B anyway.

Given my positive experience with FreeBSD, I'd like to finally move everything to a physical server. I'd like to add some NAS functionality (probably with NextCloud—do you have better ideas?), to be used by three/five people. No multimedia/streaming at all. No GUI.

From my virtual experience, I think that my requirements for a home server are pretty modest. As is my budget: I'd like to keep CPU+motherboard around 200€ and the whole system with a couple of (2–4 TB) SATA disks around 600–700€—so I think I am bound to desktop-grade stuff (I have found a Supermicro X10SSL-SF for 150€, but is it worth it in 2021?). This is a combination that I have found:

- Core i3 10100F 3.60Ghz
- Gigabyte B460M DS3H

Although at my price point ECC is ruled out, I'd still like to replace UFS with ZFS (so I think I need at least 8GB of RAM). If you have experience with very low-end servers, especially with recent hardware, I'd like to know what you would look for, given the above.
 
lifepillar said:
have found a Supermicro X10SSL-SF for 150€, but is it worth it in 2021?
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Absolutely. I dunno currency rates but I would take a SM board over Gigabyte consumer board.
Was the X10SSL board new or used? With CPU?

I just spent $600 on a new X10DRX to upgrade my SM chassis that had X9DRX.
The v4 CPUz are pretty affordable and the upper level ones are fast with many cores. (2697v4)
 
Phishfry said:
Absolutely. I dunno currency rates but I would take a SM board over Gigabyte consumer board.
Was the X10SSL board new or used? With CPU?
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I certainly wouldn't. I have a SuperMicro motherboard that simply won't boot FreeBSD and that'll hang when booting Linux or MemTest (also a Linux). Windows is fine, just as is ESX.
For the record, nothing is wrong with the thing. It's been tested several times when it was still in warranty, all the SM support could say was: "FreeBSD isn't supported. Use Windows".
Just my anecdotal evidence of course, the motherboard is a X10SLV-Q. Definitely NOT recommended when it comes to FreeBSD.

Note that the motherboard that's referenced here (X10SSL) is the same generation but I can't say anything for it specifically.
 
malavon said:
I certainly wouldn't. I have a SuperMicro motherboard that simply won't boot FreeBSD and that'll hang when booting Linux or MemTest (also a Linux). Windows is fine, just as is ESX.
For the record, nothing is wrong with the thing. It's been tested several times when it was still in warranty, all the SM support could say was: "FreeBSD isn't supported. Use Windows".
Just my anecdotal evidence of course, the motherboard is a X10SLV-Q. Definitely NOT recommended when it comes to FreeBSD.

Note that the motherboard that's referenced here (X10SSL) is the same generation but I can't say anything for it specifically.
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I have an ASRockRack X470D4U with two NVMe slots. FreeBSD and Windows Server see both SSDs without an issue, whereas Linux and Illumos only see the first SSD. I haven't tested ESXi.

If you don't want hardware RAID and want to use the SSDs, it's easier to run FreeBSD on this box. There are kernel flags that let Linux see both SSDs, but I haven't really run anything other than FreeBSD on bare metal servers (maybe a bit of ESXi but that's it). That with Microsoft itself paying me to develop on a Windows Server/.NET/Azure SaaS for a living.

Same with my old Haswell homebuilt PC in my dad's place (that I'm typing this from): SSD caching only on Windows 7/8 or FreeBSD for many years. I never got it to work on Linux or Windows 10 in 2016. However, ZFS-on-Linux may work now since's it's more mature, while Win7 is EOL and Win8.1 is going that way too.
 
VladiBG said:
Check the HPE ProLiant MicroServer series
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I know the ProLiant Gen 8 was pretty good, but I can't find any… About Gen 10, I have read that FreeBSD had issues with it. Is there any other model that is well supported by FreeBSD 13+ that you would recommend?
Phishfry said:
Was the X10SSL board new or used? With CPU?
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It's new, without CPU.
Phishfry said:
Use a 1220LV3 headless cpu
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In fact, I would buy the Supermicro right now, but it seems that finding old CPUs (shipping to EU) is not that easy. But, I haven't searched very hard…
diizzy said:
What actually might be viable would be the Quartz64 board paired with a SATA controller card
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I had considered ARM-based boards, but I dismissed them for the lack of SATA ports. It didn't occur to me that you could add a controller card. Not sure about how reliable they are, though.
 
malavon said:
I certainly wouldn't. I have a SuperMicro motherboard that simply won't boot FreeBSD
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Ah. I took it from granted that Supermicro and FreeBSD was an unproblematic marriage. I'll do some research about that specific model then.
 
I personally have very limited experice with Supermicro but they seem to be a bit overrated compared to any other brand within the same category from my point of view.

lifepillar
Pretty much anything from Dell and Fujitsu will work just fine, some of their RAID cards might be a bit of a pain though (poor / no driver support).
In general they work just as good as your integrated SATA controller, some Marvell and JMicron controllers can be a bit interesting though...
 
lifepillar said:
Ah. I took it from granted that Supermicro and FreeBSD was an unproblematic marriage. I'll do some research about that specific model then.
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Yeah that is very disappointing. And their solution of "just using" Windows instead is laughable.

Me: Doctor, my mother is ill
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Doctor: Buy a pair of underpants instead
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Possibly overkill for a home server usecase but can an iXsystems machine be an option?: https://www.ixsystems.com/ix-server-family/
You would hope it supports FreeBSD ;)

Edit: Just looked at the prices of these. Yes, they *are* overkill for a home server. How about a classic Intel NUC? ;)
 
lifepillar said:
I know the ProLiant Gen 8 was pretty good, but I can't find any… About Gen 10, I have read that FreeBSD had issues with it. Is there any other model that is well supported by FreeBSD 13+ that you would recommend?
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The Gen10's issues were ultimately resolved in newer releases. However, there is a Gen10+ which has many of the Gen8's features, but is more expensive.

I sold my MSG10 for a HPE ML110 Gen10, and later paired that with a homebuilt ASRock X470D4U-based server.
 
There is no wrong answer. One mans micro-server is another mans junk.
kpedersen said:
How about a classic Intel NUC?
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That is a good suggestion for space saving. They are widely used in digital signage now.
I use an old D525 Atom MSI Windbox with Intel 480GB datacenter drive for NFS fileserver among others on my network. Silent and rugged.

I have always been an advocate for PCEngines APU2/3 but they are out of stock until fall.
 
In some cases Gigabyte's Brix series are more interesting than Intel's NUCs (some carry dual Intel NICs), the gaming series also supports multiple SATA HDD/SSDs but they're more likely EoL by now.
 
Phishfry said:
There is no wrong answer. One mans micro-server is another mans junk.

That is a good suggestion for space saving. They are widely used in digital signage now.
I use an old D525 Atom MSI Windbox with Intel 480GB datacenter drive for NFS fileserver among others on my network. Silent and rugged.

I have always been an advocate for PCEngines APU2/3 but they are out of stock until fall.
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Back in 2015, I wanted a "low power" Mini-ITX home server coming from a 3GHz Prescott Pentium 4. But I ended up with two power-hungry tower servers and a SFF OPNsense box. But hey, I have Gigabit symmetrical internet now and my next place also has it, versus the 10/5 I had then.
 
Same deal. They have SATA and mSATA

And this platform was what I was refering to in Neels retort.
Many would consider the APU a joke for a server. But in reality with SeaBIOS it is one of the most open platforms.
True the AMD Jaguar is seriously dated. But for example I am running Munin server on APU1 (a 10 year old CPU) and the box has very low cpu utilization. So much so I added APC daemon to monitor UPS. Still near zero load.
When Munin does its collection it does jump up but it is still a great micro-server.

So my point is anything reliable could be tasked as a server. Even if considered older junk to some people.
Like asking what is better. Car or Truck. Ford or Chevy. Football or Cricket.
 
lifepillar said:
But for storage/NAS use?
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What other SBC offers ECC right out of the box? APU2/3/4 does.
For years it was built onboard but not enabled(SeaBIOS lacked support) now remedied.
There was also a manufacturing option on APU1 for two SATA2 ports.

The problem with 2.5" drives is there are no case options for brackets. They do sell the needed cable for cheap.
You must get crafty. I mounted mine on the lid. Used the bottom threaded holes on drive for mounting.
Lid then doubles as heatsink for the drive.
 
They are very un-shiney. Outdated for what? PCEngines is still releasing firmwares.
Sure I would like to see a mobile Ryzen and SFP-10G but that would cost $500
 
I see it as a utility tool. Providing a box with multiple functions but not particularly great at any.
For a firewall it can't even serve filtered gigabit throughput.
But I like the expansion slots. Only lately has Jetway started to match 3 full MiniPCIe slots on a SBC.
 
After (a) pondering over all the above (very useful!) posts, (b) based on what I can find in my region, (c) what fits in my closet, (d) and stretching my budget a bit, I am considering a new ProLiant Microserver Gen 10 Plus with Pentium G5420, which I can get for ~435€. On Amazon, I have found 16GB ECC modules (Crucial CT16G4RFD8266) for about 100€. This may not be exactly very low-end, but according to the reviews I have found online, it seems solid. Anything I should be aware of to run FreeBSD on that?

As a very low-end option, Quartz64+SATA controller card looks interesting, but maybe a bit too experimental for me right now (plus there are some availability issues currently).

NUCs, BRICs & co are a viable intermediate option, but I don't particularly like them—see Car vs Truck comment above 🤷‍♂️

As much as I'd love to assemble my own thing, it seems to me that the added flexibility comes at a price, be it economical or in terms of time spent to search for all the pieces of the puzzle.
 
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