Server Storage Planning
Table of Contents
So why does selecting and planning the right server matter? It seems to be a simple question to answer, but it is not. Below, we will bring up key planning points you should take into consideration and why conducting a test run will save you so much grief!
In this area, we talk about server planning. Here, we will use 3 of the 10 project management (PMP) process to assist you!
Plex, Sonarr, and Radarr are going to be the largest apps that utilize the greatest amount of disk space. Plex alone with 1000 shows and 5000 movies can generate 35GB of metadata.
Conducting backups can be problematic with a server with low disk space. Take this into account.
100GB Diskspace
- 35 GB Plex Library
- 5 GB Sonarr
- 8 GB Radarr
- 15 GB Pending Uploads
- 10 GB of random garbage files left by NZBGET
- 8 GB of seeding files
So... how much disk space do you have left... oh and remember, users require disk space to transcode files for Plex, so that can eat at another 5 - 10 GB.
So what about backup space? So now there is a problem. A 35 GB Plex Library may result in another 20 GB of space for a pending zip file for upload. The point here is what planning was done prior? Let's talk about practical planning and actual planning to execute your plan!
Scope Management is the process to define a goal, endstate and processes in-between while balancing your resources to accomplish a mission. Long story short, poor planning will cost you time and money (which is known as scope creep).
So the goal here is to define your goal. Even though you may just say, just to run a server; you need to define that endstate. By creating a scope, you will prevent scope creep. If your goal is to build a remote server that supports no more than 5 people across the globe, then everything you should plan for should be based on that. Adding unnecessary and unrealistic goals will just cost you more time and money!
Prior to starting, you need to define who your stakeholders are.
If users are located in the US, GB, and South America while your server is deployed in South Korea... what problems do you think you will encounter? Understanding who your stakeholders are, what they require from you while considering their location and needs will assist you on what type of server capabilities are required. In regards to the question above, most of the users will have issues due to their locations and where the server is located at. This process should result in the questions known as RFIs (Request for Information) to help drive your understanding of the process.
Example RFIs
- Do I need two servers, one in the EU and United States for my users?
- Do I charge them for upkeep and if so; how will that work?
- Do I give my users admin rights to my programs?
Probably the most important aspect of this process. There are users who have reported to have spent over $500 monthly on a server. In having discussions with them, they failed to account for what type of server needed and required. We will provide you a list of hosting providers to help you start, but plan accordingly.
We recommend that you test PTS on a home virtual machine or Hetzner Cloud Server (which charges .01 penny per hour; no more than $2.49 per month). This way, you can test what will work for you. Be aware of each hosting companies policies, charges, and uPTSrade/downgrade cost. For example, online.net will bill you for an entire month, if you fail to cancel by the 20th month; yes an entire month!
Servers suited for members in this geographical location!
Huge transfer, but several users have reported slow Usenet/download speeds at times (depends on hardware). It seems likely that they do QoS their servers as downloads jump to 90MB/s but then slowly get throttled to around 12-50MB/s (around 100Mbps). No refunds, unless for extreme reasons beyond your control. In addition, should you reach the 100TB cap, additional bandwidth is very expensive, priced at $20/TB. Tech support is very quick to respond and provide reasonable assistance. If you're knowledgeable at Linux, you should be fine overall. Great hardware prices.
- Dedicated, VPS, Custom servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is typically around 100TB
- 10MB, 1GB, or 10GB speed connections
- Servers are located in Kansas City, KS
- Dedicated, VPS, Custom servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is typically around 30TB
- 1GB, or 10GB speed connections
- Servers are located in Dallas, Seattle, and New York City
- VPS Service
- Bandwidth transfer is typically around 8-16TB
- 10GB speeds
- Servers are located in Dallas, Texas
Servers suited for members in this geographical location!
- VPS and Custom servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unmetered
- 1GB (shared)
- Servers are located in France & Canada
Good service, but be careful; they have terrible billing practice. Your server must be canceled NLT than 20th of each month or they will rebill you for an entire month and you cannot cancel out the billing; nor receive a refund.
- Dedicated and VPS servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unmetered
- 25MB, 50MB, or 1gb speeds
- Servers are located in France & Netherlands
- Dedicated, VPS, Custom and Cloud servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is outbound and inbound unlimited
- 1gb speeds
- Servers are located in Germany or Finland
- Dedicated and Custom servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unlimited
- 250 Mbps speeds
- Servers are located in France & Canada
- Semi-Dedicated and VPS servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unlimited
- 100 Mbps (10MB) speeds
- Servers are located in France & Canada
- Dedicated servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unknown
- 1gbps (100 MB) speeds
- Servers are located in Germany
The i7 machine is an i7-4970 CPU. Live chat support is very fast at resolving issues (response under 5 minutes during weekdays in my experience).
- Dedicated servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unlimited
- 100mbps, 500mbps, and 1gbps (100MB) speeds shared
- Servers are located in Germany
Servers suited for members in all geographical locations!
- Dedicated and VPS servers offered
- Bandwidth transfer is unmetered
- Speeds - Depends
- Servers are located in Seoul, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Melbourne, Montreal, and Amsterdam
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) means that you will be sharing the machine with other people. You'll still get root access and no one else will be able to touch your files, but your Ubuntu server will actually be running as a Virtual Machine amongst many others. This option is usually far cheaper but may come with added restrictions on bandwidth and CPU usage. Much of the time, VPS's are oversold, meaning that the amount of CPU cores allocated to all of the users on that particular machine exceeds the number of physical cores. The Internet Connection will definitely be shared as well, resulting in potential network congestion. For a personal-use server without 4k files, a VPS is a good option.
Dedicated Servers are far more expensive, but you may run your CPU at 100% while saturating your gigabit line all day and no one will complain (probably). You'll usually get the full network speeds advertised, greater storage capacity and beefier CPU's. If you have many users you'd like to stream to, A dedicated server may be what you're looking for.
- Some cheap hosts advertise "dedicated servers" but actually provision VPS's! The easiest tell is if the CPU offered has more cores than what is listed. Another keyword to look for is "Fair Usage" and "Shared IP"
- See the section on "Server Requirements" for the exact specifications you should look for.
Unmetered hosting usually means it is a hosting plan with unmetered traffic, the cost of the plan is not dependent on the amount of data that is used per month.
Some unmetered plans can often be extremely limited due to the fact that the data transfer may be at a greatly reduced speed.
To put this another way, the plan may be unmetered, and unlimited, BUT the amount of data that you can use is restricted because of the speed of the servers.
Usually, you should avoid seedboxes because they often don't include root access. You'll want to install PTS-Team on a clean installation of Ubuntu with root access. Many seedbox providers buy dedicated machines from a larger hosting company, then split those machines into VPS's and resell seedboxes that way. With aim to maximize profits those resellers usually cut the monthly price very low to attract as many customers as possible and overcommit the hardware capabilities - resulting in slow response from the OS, horrible transfer speeds etc. It's ofcourse not true for all seedbox providers, but it's best to avoid them if you can, to save yourself from future problems.
Beware of websites that offer a list of "best hosting providers" (except this one). Those are usually full of affiliate-links for overpriced host providers, that spend more money on advertising than on their servers.
Hopefully, the overwhelming amount of information has been useful to you!