Looking for some advice on a Virtual Server build

[robokd]

Hello everyone,

Well what I am planning on doing is replacing four machines with one. I have a SBS2003 server that I will migrate (it works and does what I need....), Untangle box, Vista laptop with NextPVR and MCEbuddy running, and my test server, which is already esxi. I want to run these specific machines on a pair of RAID 1 1TB drives on on the motherboards built in ports. I'll also a 2 port NIC (total of 4 ports).

I also want to add a virtual Freenas and use hardware passthrough to add an extra SATA controller for 5 drives in a RAIDZ2 using a hot swap enclosure in 3 of the 5.25 drive bays. I may or may not add this at the start, and if I do, the hard drives will come later when I get more money.

Looking at SuperMicro boards and will get 16GB of RAM to start with, possibly 32GB if I get the SATA card and enclosure for the Freenas part. All that really does is keep me from having to power everything off to add the hardware.

I've searched around online and can't find too much info on the NextPVR and MceBuddy parts, those are my concerns. Just want to make sure that it'll all work before I start ordering.The NextPVR part seems fine, but I can't seem to find anything on MceBuddy.

Anyone running anything like this? Anything seem wrong with this? As far as power goes, my current SBS2003 and Untangle are running on Dell PE400SC's...... Right now MceBuddy takes about a day to convert a file with two running at the same time. I would like that to be faster, and what I've read says its all processor. Would a Haswell Xeon work?

Thank you

 

[peanuthead]

Lol. I have most of the parts you need sitting on a shelf. Studying for a big exam at the moment. I will do some research on your software packages and reply back later this evening. Dell pe400sc are old as can be too. Heck, I'd even consider letting you remotely connecting to a vm in my DMZ and letting you see how much a newer setup will bring to the table. Sbs2003 and untangle are light weight so they should not take much resources.

 

[robokd]

Yeah, my current esxi host is a PE1950 with Dual Xeon's, 8GB of RAM, and two 146GB drives in a RAID1. It gives off lots of heat and noise, so I don't use it often. I used it for a bit with MceBuddy to convert some ts files to mkv's and it seemed to take as long as the vista laptop with a Core 2 Duo processor. Yep, the 400's are P4's.... SBS2003 works, I don't use exchange anymore though.