robalees

I’m looking to replace a 2013 Mac Mini running Proxmox. Just curious if anyone has one of these or anyone heard of any negatives about them? Watched a bunch of videos and outside of a lack of 10G Ethernet, it seems to be well received!

Hey everyone

I've got an old Mac Mini running Proxmox, right now all it has is a LXC for Plex and a Debian VM for Docker (OpenVPN/Transmission and Screeps server).

What is everyone's preferred monitoring solution?

I'm mostly interested in getting easy access to syslogs, seeing CPU/RAM/Disk space for the Proxmox host, VM and LXC. I have a Mac app called Daisy Disk that shows me all my data on my disk in a nice UI, something with similar capability would be great.

I randomly installed Netdata, didn't love it. Ran into issues with Cockpit and gave up, but I'd try it again if it's considered the best. But I'd love to hear options, preferably with minimal setup and maintenance (wish is probably wishful thinking). Don't hate Proxmox VE, but I feel like I can do better.

I’ve been leaning on Lemmy communities for coding and self hosting tips. I tend to do most of my browsing on my phone and I’ve noticed Memmy doesn’t show any markdown in posts or comments.

• Any alternatives to using Memmy that is known to support code markdown?
• I’m not opposed to switching to the browser, but I don’t find the Lemmy.world layout particularly easy to navigate so I’d prefer an app or a good PWA

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12855130

Hi Lemmy!

Encountering network stability issues on my Mac mini ("Core i7" 2.3 (Late 2012)) with Proxmox VE (Linux 6.5.13-1-pve). The enp1s0f0 interface (tg3 driver) frequently drops, displaying "Link is down" messages before recovering. This affects my Plex media server and has persisted across different OS installations.

(related posts here and here)

Here are some key excerpts from the logs showing the problem:

• NETDEV WATCHDOG: enp1s0f0 (tg3): transmit queue 0 timed out
• tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: transmit timed out, resetting
• tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is down
• kernel: vmbr0: port 1(enp1s0f0) entered disabled state
• kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex

Here is when it's happened

• journalctl | grep -E "Link is down|Link is up" | grep 'enp1s0f0'
• Mar 03 00:03:05 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is down
• Mar 03 00:03:09 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex
• Mar 03 15:35:30 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is down
• Mar 03 15:35:34 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex
• Mar 04 12:43:45 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is down
• Mar 04 12:43:49 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex
• Mar 07 09:14:48 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is down
• Mar 07 09:14:52 macminiserver kernel: tg3 0000:01:00.0 enp1s0f0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex

The issue is super intermittent, but it appears to happen more when I am trying to watch something on Plex (Direct Play to Apple TV), but it looks like it's also happened over night with limited activity. I've also successfully streamed all day on multiple devices, run ping to and from multiple devices, mtr between it and my other Mac and run 16 hours of iperf3 with zero issues!

• Does anyone have any guidance on how I can determine if this is a hardware issue or could it be driver/kernel related?
• I've ordered a Plugable USB to Ethernet Adapter to see if I can bypass the NIC and test if something else is the cause, I also needed a good USB to Ethernet adapter so it was time
• Would an external solution suffice, or is it time for a new system?
• Should I focus on further diagnostics in a different environment, or is it time to retire this box and get something new?

Happy to share more of my syslog and also my network setup, I'm in a NYC apartment, so my options for changing the environment is limited. I've also not encountered (or noticed) the issue with any of my other devices on the same switch hooked up to the router in the same manner. I have tried a different port and cable so far, but not physically moved it to another switch yet.

I'm getting closer and closer to just buying a Dell Optiplex (probably 11th Gen i7), cannibalize the SSD and trying to play with more services, but my original goal was to learn and host Plex cheaply and easily using this older hardware, but my sanity is running out!

Thanks

Hey everyone!

I created a post in the Technology community regarding my home server and I got some fantastic advice from @[email protected] which led me to installing Proxmox on an older Apple Mac Mini ("Core i7" 2.3 Late 2012 model) that I've been trying to keep alive.

My previous setup involved OMV and Docker. Plex and Haugene OVPN Transmission app running in containers. Then I manually copied from the Transmission SMB share to the Plex media folder. All of which resides on an external 2TB hard drive. I'd run into a really irritating network issue, usually when I was watching something in Plex. In the original post, I thought OMV was the issue and was looking for a new configuration to test. This led to me setting up Proxmox and installing Plex in a LXC container. Unfortunately the network issue is persistent and based on my limited knowledge it looks like the NIC is having an issue (Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57766), specifically transmit queue timeouts and then the NIC resets. I am unable to ping the server during this time and it happens randomly per the logs, but more frequent when I used Plex. I compared an old OMV syslog to the Proxmox ones and I suspect the hardware is failing and it's time for something new!

My wife and I are trying to minimize our streaming services, but we're also not huge media watchers. Occasionally we want to watch a movie or I download an obscure British show, I'll go find it, download it and then copy via my Mac Studio with a SMB share. I will eventually look at the *arrs, but the priority is a functioning Plex server and a Haugene setup that doesn't impact my Plex functionality. I'd like to be able to direct play 4K content on my LG CX and 4K Apple TV, download to my iPad quicker than right now and maybe have someone remotely play something and it not melt the CPU (least important). I'm watching more anime, so transcoding might crop up on occasion with subtitles.

I need advice on hardware and here are some key points

• Form Factor: Compactness is key, aiming for a Small Form Factor (SFF) to save space.
• Cost Efficient: I bought and installed a 1.0TB Mercury Electra 6G SSD not that long ago and also just bought (this week) 16GB of RAM which is now likely useless. I doubt I can repurpose these parts (drive maybe), so I'd like to be a bit budget conscious. But I'd also like to save myself headaches and willing to invest a little to have the performance and reliability I want.
• CPU Preferences: I'm leaning more towards an Intel CPU, especially for their Quick Sync video transcoding, but I’m open to exploring AMD alternatives if they fit my requirements for 4K direct play and efficient transcoding.
• Proxmox Compatibility: This will remain my primary OS for container and VM management.
• Ease of Setup: I prefer a straightforward deployment/build process to get up and running without extensive tinkering.

With these considerations, do you have any hardware recommendations?

Whether it’s a specific model of a mini PC, a custom SFF build, or particular components that fit the bill, I’d greatly appreciate your suggestions.

If you think there is any chance of reviving this old Mini and have suggestions on how to avoid the NIC problems, I'm open to hearing them, but I'd hate to throw more money at this thing right now if getting something new would be less stressful.

Inspired by "What's a good piece of hardware to run a jellyfin server?" I wanted to get the communities thoughts on how to set up my home media server.

Current hardware: Apple Mac mini "Core i7" 2.3 (Late 2012) with 8GB RAM (2x4GB) and 1.0TB Mercury Electra 6G SSD that I upgraded

OS: OMV6 (6.9.14-1 (Shaitan))

Docker containers:

• Portainer
• Plex
• Transmission VPN (Haugene using IVPN)
• Autoheal
• Watchtower

Goal:

• Use this old Mac Mini for as long as possible as a media server. Be able to download with Transmission over VPN and then add them to a Plex media folder via SMB on my Mac Studio. I want to manage the containers in Portainer and I've used Stacks/Compose to add most of the containers. Use the discrete GPU for hardware accelerated transcoding, mostly so I can download movies to my iPad quicker, less so other people can use it remotely. The containers should restart if they stop and I want to keep them updated automatically if possible. I've not experimented with Servarr yet (Radarr, Sonarr), not opposed, but also happy to drag them over.

Problems:

• I don't love OMV, I seem to have a recurring DNS issue with containerd that causes Plex to stop whenever I'm watching a movie. I can run a test and leave something playing all day and not have a problem, then whenever I want to watch something with my wife, the whole system becomes unavailable and I have to watch a ping until it comes back. I'm considering a new OS, it should be accessible via VNC/SSH and have my internal and external drive shared as a SMB share to my Mac. I can't figure out how to get the GPU to be seen by OMV so everything is on the CPU, an OS where this is easier is preferred.

Questions:

• Any OS recommendations to use instead of OMV6?
• Advice on getting the discrete GPU seen in whatever OS I use?
• I can't tell if it's Haugene causing the DNS issue, I'm using public Google/CloudFlare DNS to avoid using my PiHole that runs on a Pi3b. Can I set up Docker to use a different network so it doesn't bring my whole system's IP down? It might also be Watchtower updating a container and bring it down, any advice to troubleshoot would be appreciated.

Disclaimer:

• IT guy, but mostly Mac. I can Google my way through most things, but I am NOT a Linux or Docker expert. So please go easy on me if I have any follow up questions!

Thank you in advance!