Operating System and Software Choice#
To VM or Not to VM#
Many people virtualize their media server operating system be it Linux windows, or even freeBSD. That was also my first choice when I first started (the system that is now a Proxmox home lab) it has its advantages like easy full system snapshots and roll backs in the event something goes wrong, as well as the ability to be high availability if I ended up deploying more proxmox servers.
Personally as I was planing on running all of my applications in containers anyway, I didn’t really find the need to have another layer of complexity on top of the base Linux install, a layer which I needed to manage upgrade as well as the added complexly of passing both the drives and the iGPU to the VM. Which is why I decided on going with a bare metal install. When considering the needs and wanting the setup to be as self sufficient and off hands after getting it configured it made the most sense.
What Flavor to pick?#
When it came to picking the flavor of Linux I had a few options, I knew for sure I wont be going or touching windows for this project, as it was just the wrong tool for the job.
First possible candidate was OpenMediaVault (OVM) which is based on Debian and has a nice web UI to which allows some easy configuration and overview of the system. It had support for both mergerFS and SnapRAID and looked like a strong choice. After looking deeper into OVM and deploying it in my home lab to play around with it, I decided it was not the right choice.
I wanted the setup to be as simple as possible having another layer on top of Debian where all the configuration was stored in a database didn’t not speak to me, the more I read and saw issues and errors which were due to the usage of the database component which stored all the configuration.
The Second Choice I was looking at the time was TrueNAS, which back then was still based on freeBSD and the Linux version was not out yet, unfortunately it required ZFS which I didn’t not want or could commit to due to my drive sizes and not wanting to commit to a data pool size upfront. It was before ZFS added the ability to adjust the pool size (recently). I also deployed it in the proxmox and didn’t like the extra layers it had on top.
All of the “User friendlily " options just didn’t speak to me, I wanted the setup to be as simple and stable as possible, which lead me to using plain good ol headless install of Debian.
When it comes to Linux distributions for stability and dependency I don’t think there is beating Debian as the father and grandfather of many modern Linux distributions. It has always been my first choice when it comes to a minimal install of a Linux server.
Debian does have its cons of due to being so stable and behind the cool new kids, it gets its toys always almost after everyone. Which didn’t present itself as an issue until I was configuring transcoding using the iGPU (well get there).
I was familiar with Debian as well APT and it was a no brain choice for me to pick it as the base for the media server as its widely supported and used int the wild.