Advice on first home server - HP Gen 8, what to do with it in 2026 etc
Only recently got my hands on a free HP Gen8 Microserver with 4x 1TB WD Red drives.
Have upped the ram to 16gb, changed the cpu to Xeon E3 1265L v2 from Pentium 1615 [i think].
Its currently running server 2019.
Updated the Bios, iLO - lucky for me the ROM was above the version it caused the known death overwrite issues, but was flagged as an issue. updating that fixed it, updated Intelligent provisioning, but yet to update the NIC as below videos show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5anlgbd6YU
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg3WjsxyfBc
Also have a few 500GB and 1TB 2.5 drives hanging around with also 256/512GB M.2 ssds and a couple of 2.5 240/256GB Sata SSDs.
Add to that a Unifi 7 Pro AP and a BT Hub 2 with 900Mb internet connection. Potentially could have 1.6Gbps nearer xmas,
Also have a stash of 500/1TB drives - just sitting around - 1x1TB is in a shucked seagate expansion drive.
Question[s]:
Where to to start and what would be the best way to use this server?
Wants/to dos:
Plex/Jellyfin - I know that the Xeon supports QuickSync - but not sure that this will do or shall I pass transcoding off to a micropc eg Lenovo/HP/Dell ?
Immich / Nextcloud - To finally get a central store and only have 1 service/cloud to backup and reduce the multiple subs i have
Use vSphere at work, so would like to either dabble in Proxmox and or Truenas as i personally haven't touched those, just seen videos.
Raid - Does anyone recommend getting the LSI card or run it off the inbuilt RAID or just use the 4x1TB drives as storage as a single pool with booting off the single SATA SSD ODD disc drive adapter?
Like to have - Unifi UCG-Fibre, but the cost is prohibitive atm circa £280. Any other suggestions that would play nice with the U7Pro?
If not UCG-Fibre, need a cheap PoE+ min switch - multigig/2.5Gb switch ideally for it. Any pointers that wont cost much? ebay/vinted/2nd hand/FB marketplace etc
Seen nice 2.5 drive bays in mini racks....[i do get distracted of what could be without starting to sort this out first....]
Future would be a mini rack to lumber everything into one place.
Don't mind docker, linux etc to get everything up and build out from that.
Any pointers/ advice would be great at the least cost as possible.
Thanks