PMS 4.0...PMS 5.0...PMS 6.0...No PMS 7.0! Plex/Storage server upgrade [PICS]

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BoredSysadmin

Not affiliated with Maxell
Mar 2, 2019
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GD, I wasted 20 minutes trying to find it online at midnight, while I have the actual thing sitting in the box less than 20ft away. I'll measure it tomorrow, but it approximately full rack server depth.
Edit: it's 24.5" deep
 
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IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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GD, I wasted 20 minutes trying to find it online at midnight, while I have the actual thing sitting in the box less than 20ft away. I'll measure it tomorrow, but it approximately full rack server depth.
Edit: it's 24.5" deep
Thanks. Too deep for me. I need sub 20".
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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Ok so...I did a thing.

Ever since I got my new server setup (which as been working very well), I've been staring at my everyday PC (see here) and it's pretty much been sitting idle for months (i just RDP into it from work). I considered selling this build but I put a lot of work into and I just flat out love it. So I got to thinking, how can I best make sure of these hardware resources.

So over the past few days I've been testing out the scenario of turning this PC into an All-in-One Unraid Storage server + Everyday Windows 10 VM daily driver with passed through hardware. If all went well, I'd migrate my spinners and NVMe disks over to this box (thinking a little jbod case will do the trick).

Well, so far that testing has gone very well.

Step 1: Create a Windows 10 VM with one Threadripper die (8c/16t), one 1080Ti, NVMe controller, and USB controller passed through to it. That has been a success. The Windows 10 VM works perfectly with the passed through hardware and with a PCIe USB controller passed through (which is also connected to the front panel of my case) the VM acts just like my bare metal PC did (just minus 16 threads).

Step 2: Pass the second 1080Ti through to my Plex docker container. This requires the installation of the LSIO Nvidia plugin, and two scripts to both remove the 2 simultaneous transcode limit on the 1080Ti and to add NVDEC decode support until Plex adds it. This also was pretty easy to setup and get working. As you can see from the attached screenshot (just for kicks, I won't be transcoding 4K) I was able to get six simultaneous 4K HDR10 file transcoding down to 4Mbps 720p quality at once with the GPU at less than 50% usage while CPU usage was basically nothing. A subsequent test had 5 x265 HEVC 1080p files transcoding simultaneously (must more of a real world application) and the GPU was at 10% usage. The 1080Ti with the stream limit removed is basically the same card as a Quadro P6000 :D.



I still have a little more testing to do but suffice to say things are looking good for me to migrate all my storage into this box and run all my network services + a daily driver Windows 10 VM from the same box.

So yes, I may wind up selling the new server I just built :eek:. Call me crazy...I won't deny it.
 
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IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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*UPDATE*

I have fully migrated my Unraid server over to my "PC" box and am now running my server and Windows 10 VM with passed through hardware all under the same roof. I've tone down my 24/7 OC. Before I was running my Threadripper 1950x at 4.0Ghz before but for a 24/7 server with much more load (lots of video encoding) I'm more comfortable running at 3.8Ghz 24/7. I've also configured my server to auto encode all newly added media to h265. It's all working quite nicely.

Also, now that I'm running everything from a single box on my network, I've also spend time time setting up my backup server (connected via 1Gbps 2S2 VPN at my parents home) to act as a very serviceable backup Plex server. I was delighted to find that it was running an i3-6100 with has it's own iGPU. I've passed that through to the Plex container and tested running 5 simultaneous h264 transcodes and then separately 5 h265 transcodes and it handled it without even hitting 50% usage for the most part. I've also setup a manual script I can run to rsync all my plex appdata across from my main server to my backup server in about 4 minutes if I want to take my main server offline for maintenance. This way Plex is only down a few minutes and all metadata and user watch status is in tact.







 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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running an i3-6100 with has it's own iGPU. I've passed that through to the Plex container and tested running 5 simultaneous h264 transcodes and then separately 5 h265 transcodes and it handled it without even hitting 50% usage for the most part.
Is it I3-6100 or I3-8100 could handle 5 x h265 stream?
 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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Thanks,
It is good to know, I3-6100 is "cheap", I used it in my self-build NAS.
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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You're using WIN10 desktop passed through to play games it appears too?

I was going to ask how laggy windows was in general like that for you, but with games, how's that working out?
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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Just for clarification. You're running Plex as a docker, correct?
I already have a P2000 so I'm interested in the decode mostly at this moment.

Yes running Plex and Emby both as dockers and both sharing the same GPU for HW transcoding.


You're using WIN10 desktop passed through to play games it appears too?

I was going to ask how laggy windows was in general like that for you, but with games, how's that working out?
Not laggy at all. It's basically a baremetal system with one Threadripper die (8c/16t), 1080Ti, NVMe controller, and USB controller all passed through to the VM. I sit at my desk and use my Windows VM just like it's a bare metal PC.