Thinkcat
Dabbler
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2015
- Messages
- 47
Hello
I have been running a FreeNAS box for some time now. I have three WD Red HDs in RAID1. The machine has 4 GB memory, an AMD CPU and does not support ECC memory.
I recently got a Haswell Xeon, a Supermicro motherboard and more memory, this time with ECC.
My point and my problem is, I want to run the machine as a general purpose server in addition to a NAS. I cannot afford two server machines, one an actual server and one a NAS. I am a student doing things at home. I keep wondering if I can use FreeNAS to do everything I could do on a general purpose server, or if I should try using a general purpose linux distribution or plain FreeBSD.
I could also try some kind of low level virtualization with VMware ESXi. One machine running FreeNAS, one running the server software. What would people suggest? What have people done with their machines?
1. A native FreeNAS with jails acting as servers. I want to run all kinds of applications, so a plugin architecture would not do here.
2. A linux machine. I would configure it to share the ZFS volumes as much as possible like FreeNAS does. I would also configure it to email me security logs. Would have to figure out how that is done.
3. Same as above, but using FreeBSD as a base.
4. A VMware ESXi system with a virtualized FreeNAS running side by side with a virtualized linux or FreeBSD server.
I have been running a FreeNAS box for some time now. I have three WD Red HDs in RAID1. The machine has 4 GB memory, an AMD CPU and does not support ECC memory.
I recently got a Haswell Xeon, a Supermicro motherboard and more memory, this time with ECC.
My point and my problem is, I want to run the machine as a general purpose server in addition to a NAS. I cannot afford two server machines, one an actual server and one a NAS. I am a student doing things at home. I keep wondering if I can use FreeNAS to do everything I could do on a general purpose server, or if I should try using a general purpose linux distribution or plain FreeBSD.
I could also try some kind of low level virtualization with VMware ESXi. One machine running FreeNAS, one running the server software. What would people suggest? What have people done with their machines?
1. A native FreeNAS with jails acting as servers. I want to run all kinds of applications, so a plugin architecture would not do here.
2. A linux machine. I would configure it to share the ZFS volumes as much as possible like FreeNAS does. I would also configure it to email me security logs. Would have to figure out how that is done.
3. Same as above, but using FreeBSD as a base.
4. A VMware ESXi system with a virtualized FreeNAS running side by side with a virtualized linux or FreeBSD server.