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Any use cases for my server hardware?
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Any use cases for my server hardware?

just like everyone here, I end up buying VPS deals because FOMO... now on the other hand, I have hardware that also sits idle because well I have no use case either

I would like to put them to use but don't know how or could use a pointer in the direction I should be going towards. Thoughts were to host an offsite backup as I have a Synology DS1817 at home storing all my movies and photos etc..

I have the following hardware racked at my office currently just running but not in use. Note that I don't pay for the power usage and have a public IP Address through our Internet Provider which is a managed fiber line

  • Poweredge 1950 Running pfSense
  • Dell Precision Rack 7910 - Running ProxMox

    • 2x E5-2680 v3 with 84GB RAM
    • 2x 128GB SSD (RAID1), 2x 480GB SSD (RAID1), 4x 1TB HDD (ZFS)
  • HP Proliant DL380p Gen8

    • 2x E5-2530 with 64GB RAM
    • 2x 128GB SSD, 2x 240GB SSD, 4x 1TB HDD
  • QNAP TS-832PXU-RP

    • No Hard Drive mounted yet but I have many 3TB and 4TB's available

Any insight or use cases you can provide would be great. Thanks!

Comments

  • ZyraZyra Member

    idling

  • crunchbitscrunchbits Member, Patron Provider, Top Host

    The hardware is a little under-powered for this but I think you could probably pull off some low-latency idling.

    Alternatively, Jellyfin and linux isos for friends and family?

  • rm_rm_ IPv6 Advocate, Veteran

    @Salomon123 said: I don't pay for the power usage

    Well then someone else does? Haven't heard that there was such a thing as a flat-rate power plan, not to mention to an office building, not to mention in the current pricing conditions. If so, then it appears that removing it and selling on eBay would be the more morally-agreeable thing to do, than to keep running this at the office.

  • @crunchbits said:
    The hardware is a little under-powered for this but I think you could probably pull off some low-latency idling.

    Alternatively, Jellyfin and linux isos for friends and family?

    Definitely underpowered compared to the batch of i7 12th Gen's we just bought for AutoCAD. Looked at Jellyfin and will tinker with it tomorrow when i'm at the office, trying to not waste the servers :(

    @rm_ said:

    Well then someone else does? Haven't heard that there was such a thing as a flat-rate power plan, not to mention to an office building, not to mention in the current pricing conditions. If so, then it appears that removing it and selling on eBay would be the more morally-agreeable thing to do, than to keep running this at the office.

    I operate a manufacturing facility so we have a better rate on power due to our usage, but then again power is expensive no matter what. I've sold off some of the older servers we had previously procured and never used. Keeping some hardware to tinker with helps me get through slow days at work

  • Don_KeedicDon_Keedic Member
    edited March 2023

    Man, what a great problem to have.

    It's so difficult to answer these questions because you haven't really told us much outside of some offsite backups. Getting some sort of central backup repository and having your VPS/home computers from elsewhere feed into it could be of use to you.

    The thing that sticks out the most would be the movies and stuff. Jellyfin > everything. Don't even bother looking for an alternative - that's the go-to media server now. Blows Plex out of the water in every way possible and completely free.

    Do you have any security cameras set up there? Given those specs, having a bunch of cameras+storage would be another good use.

    I'd probably also have a full desktop of Windows and Linux set up that I could remote into and use in case the computer I'm working on craps out on me or the network I'm connected to isn't allowing unfetttered internet access.

    If you want to do something "community" related - you could host a Ubuntu / Debian Repo Mirror... maybe set up a "weather station" with a webcam pointed out your window that shows all the current conditions+current photo/video

    I don't know..I could probably go on for hours. Not sure what you're into but that's a few things off the top of my head.

  • @Don_Keedic said:
    Man, what a great problem to have.

    Jellyfin definitely a good alternative, I've started to look for decent WD Red's to load up the QNAP TS-832 that I have idling at my office. Be nice to watch movies at work when its slow for sure :smiley:

    Office security cameras run on it's own NVR; running 32 4k hikvision cameras right now and it's on its own network with public IP. Data is also replicated to a secondary QNAP offsite

    The Full desktop of windows is a good idea actually; both my Mac (home) and Work Desktop (home) both crapped out due to power outages. Running it at the office with backup power would definitely help

    Waiting for summer to roll by and can do the FlightRadar24 transceiver. Don't really want to be drilling into our plant roof with rain at the moment

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