Advice for a re-newbie

[yetiinabox]

Gentlefolk,

I am returning to BSD. It has been a wee while since I set up and administered BSD systems, but I did put in quite a few years before I gave up. I am definitely looking forward to getting off Linux. My first use case is to replace our server, a 15 year old Mac Mini that once ran OSX Server and then Debian.

Rather than make an ill-informed choice and then pester everyone with frustrating questions, I am hoping to solicit a bit of advice. I am hoping to get a used server and use jails to run various services.

Would a used Dell R640 with the H730p hardware raid card and a 2xSFP+ 10G card be an easy FreeBSD install? My sense from looking at posts elsewhere is that many people run FreeBSD on these, but I might be about to make a Well Known Mistake. It will be inside our router and firewall, so I'm not so worried about a hardened install.

Anything from raucous laughter followed by informative snorts through to gentle hints gratefully appreciated...

Many thanks!

---WBTD.

[nuintari]

More than likely it would be a very easy install. I'm running a Dell R720xd in my house, and it handles FreeBSD just fine.

Just make sure the card supports passthrough/JBOD/HBA mode for the disks. ZFS is much happier when it can control the disks directly.

[codeedog]

Which Mac mini server version? I’m running a Mac mini late 2012. A couple of years ago I bought 2x8TB SSDs and a doubler (owc) and installed them in the mini. It currently has v15 on it and a dozen jails including PostgreSQL, forgejo source control, my bespoke home automation server, a monitoring stack (grafana, Prometheus, Loki, alloy), samba server (time
Machine), package cache and local package server, and my blog builder. It’s mostly me on this thing, but the cpu hardly breaks a sweat. It’s an i7 with 16GB memory. Maybe you don’t need any new hardware?