Moving from a Mac Mini

[Andyroo]

I'm currently running the server on an old (Late 2012 i5 dual core) Mac Mini running Debian and with all of us watching the poor box struggles some days to cope (esp if I fire up an iPad client) but am limited for space so have been looking at the NUC type boxes rather than the SFF Dell or HP style machines.

I've been through the requirement specs and found a nice box in stock with an i3-1220P but wondering:

• Windows or Linux (Debian / Ubuntu preferred) and why? I'm happier in Linux than Windows
  
• Memory - thought 16GB or 32GB max - the Mac has 16GB and runs five or six containers and is not constrained but a thought is to use some as a disk cache if transcoding needs / can use it
  
• Run the OS off the nvme slot and use the 2.5" for media. Not sure what HDD are like for 4+ users and a 2.5Gb Ethernet network to the core switch then 1Gb to each user.
  
• I may need to use an external drive as media overflow though as the box will only take 1 x 2.5" (7mm Z depth max) and I do not want it on the OS drive (old habit). 
  
• Media / system backup to USB drive directly connected (and off-site rotation)
  

I'm estimating 4 local users (PC / Mac clients) with 1 iPad client and around 200+ films in mkv format (once I've spent 6 months ripping them). The switch is not constrained for packet throughput and all clients bar the iPad are Ethernet connections.

Am I missing anything to research / think about?
What do you think of the spec?

I am squeezed for space and the Mac Mini format is as large as I can go (the backup disks will sit on the floor - the overflow possibly a 2.5" external SSD sat on top)...

[Revv23]

only thing that would bother me about your setup is not having drive bays. It sounds like you are already outgrowing it talking about throwing external drives on the floor before you even have deployed the server. I'm assuming you have proper data backup elsewhere i suppose its no big deal if so. I'd hate to see 6 months work of work go down the tubes when your only drive eventually fails

As to your other concerns
-If you already know linux no reason to consider windows.
-16gb is more than enough if all you are doing is hosting JF
-this is what i would do
-you wont have any issues with that network
-I guess this answers part of my initial comment.

[TheDreadPirate]

The specs are perfectly suitable for your user count. If you choose to use a RAM disk for transcodes, get 32GB of memory, but using your SSD for transcodes is fine. As long as you're not writing transcodes to an HDD. I prefer Ubuntu over Debian. Mainly because it includes a lot of device drivers by default, though Debian can be made to install those drivers, no problem. As for Ubuntu vs Windows......its Windows. Why the F would you want to run a server on Windows? More memory usage. More jank configurations (mainly around networking and firewalls). Configuring file/folder permissions sucks. Stick with Linux.

If you go with 22.04.3 LTS Server, during install you will have the option to install the HWE kernel (kernel 6.2). Do that since the iGPU needs the newer kernel. By default 22.04 server will install 5.15. The Alder Lake iGPU support for kernel 5.15 is incomplete.

Any HDD will be able to serve 4 people. 1Gbps on the server is sufficient.

[bitmap]

Everybody already answered, but my 2012 Mac Mini died earlier this year and boy was that thing a trooper. It was a daily driver, a HTPC, a Jellyfin/micro-services server, a daily driver again, and then it decided to thermal kill itself repeatedly...

[Andyroo]

Big thanks folks.
The reason I'm stuck for space is that I have a 10" soho rack that's nearly full and only 4U almost free so if I put a NUC with its power supply in I'm stuck for drive space.
Thinking a bit about backups I can mount the drives elsewhere and back up the OS etc to that and copy the ripped files direct to another disk so no floor mounted drives needed :-)

The Linux vs Windows question came about trying to find if there were any server differences as I know the Macs are limited due to the ffmpeg fork and was concerned issues existed for Windows or Linux.

As for Debian vs Ubuntu - I'll research a bit more as I've avoided Ubuntu recently after a bad Pi experience (way too slow) and switched to Debian but to be fair - this is an Intel box so the speed is not an issue (and the latest Pi versions of Ubuntu are lots better). Given this box is going to be dedicated and headless then I may well dip my toes again.

Thank you all again :-)

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1695834950[/url]']
Everybody already answered, but my 2012 Mac Mini died earlier this year and boy was that thing a trooper. It was a daily driver, a HTPC, a Jellyfin/micro-services server, a daily driver again, and then it decided to thermal kill itself repeatedly...

Sorry to read that - I've been thinking about replacing the fan and thermal compound TBH but may pick up another as a hot (sorry) spare.

[Revv23]

Big thanks folks.
The reason I'm stuck for space is that I have a 10" soho rack that's nearly full and only 4U almost free so if I put a NUC with its power supply in I'm stuck for drive space.
Thinking a bit about backups I can mount the drives elsewhere and back up the OS etc to that and copy the ripped files direct to another disk so no floor mounted drives needed :-)

The Linux vs Windows question came about trying to find if there were any server differences as I know the Macs are limited due to the ffmpeg fork and was concerned issues existed for Windows or Linux.

As for Debian vs Ubuntu - I'll research a bit more as I've avoided Ubuntu recently after a bad Pi experience (way too slow) and switched to Debian but to be fair - this is an Intel box so the speed is not an issue (and the latest Pi versions of Ubuntu are lots better). Given this box is going to be dedicated and headless then I may well dip my toes again.

Thank you all again :-)

---

1695834950[/url]']
Everybody already answered, but my 2012 Mac Mini died earlier this year and boy was that thing a trooper. It was a daily driver, a HTPC, a Jellyfin/micro-services server, a daily driver again, and then it decided to thermal kill itself repeatedly...

Sorry to read that - I've been thinking about replacing the fan and thermal compound TBH but may pick up another as a hot (sorry) spare.

If you've already deployed JF on debian and are familiar with it I wouldn't bother trying a new distro. You know how it is with linux, you could say literally any distro and someone would suggest another. :p 

That being said nothing wrong with trying something new if you want to. Unbuntu and mint are both modified versions of Debian so would be much the same other than desktop environments and bundled software & default settings. Personally I (like you) avoid ubuntu over the other two, but different strokes for different folks.