Difficulty

Very easy

Steps

3

Time Required

                          30 minutes

Sections

1

  • LTT Introductory Guide for Creating a Media Server
  • 3 steps

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Introduction

  • An old PC to act as your server - Any PC will do. It could be your old rig that you’re about to retire, a laptop, or a $35 Raspberry Pi.2 x Storage devices of the same size and speed - In the video, they use 2 12Tb hard drives. What they don’t tell you is that you can use any 2 hard drives as long as they have the same size, and the same read/write speed.Plex Media Server Software - This is going to be used as your media management software.Pulseway Remote Management software - This is a remote management software with a GUI interface, but you can substitute this with any remote management tool you’d like. I.E. SSH commands or VNC, but this software offers a range of tools including system alerts, remote monitoring, software management, etc.Winaero Tweaker - This kills any programs like Cortana, or other background tasks, that might bog down your server’s processing performance. However, this is not needed as a lot of programs can actually be prevented from executing on startup using Task Manager, or by running MSConfig and configuring what programs should not run on startup.Unraid - This is a program for setting up your RAID configuration. This program does make setting up a RAID 1 configuration much easier for beginners, but Microsoft does offer the ability to set up a RAID 1 configuration through their built-in Disk Management program.

This video guide is meant to be an introduction to server creation and management. There are many different ways to create a server, and there are many different intuitive ways to manage it, but many of those ways will have a very steep learning curve. This guide is simply meant to be a stepping stone for learning about the creation of a server, and some of the best practices for managing that server.

Video Overview

Step 1

              Getting your hardware ready (A clean canvas)
  • To get things ready you are going to want to open your machine up and give it a good dusting, and depending on how old it is, maybe replace the thermal paste.
  • Once your PC has been cleaned, plug it in and reset it to factory default settings. You can do this by hitting the Windows key and typing ‘Reset’ and hitting ‘Get Started’.
  • If you are running Windows 7 or 8 then now would be a good time to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11.

To get things ready you are going to want to open your machine up and give it a good dusting, and depending on how old it is, maybe replace the thermal paste.

Once your PC has been cleaned, plug it in and reset it to factory default settings. You can do this by hitting the Windows key and typing ‘Reset’ and hitting ‘Get Started’.

If you are running Windows 7 or 8 then now would be a good time to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11.

1024

Step 2

              Kill any unnecessary background tasks.
  • In the video, it is reccomened that Winaero Tweaker is used to kill any background tasks that may slowdown your server.
  • While Winaergo Tweaker can be used for this task, MSConfig can be used for configuring what programs should not run on startup.

In the video, it is reccomened that Winaero Tweaker is used to kill any background tasks that may slowdown your server.

While Winaergo Tweaker can be used for this task, MSConfig can be used for configuring what programs should not run on startup.

Step 3

              Plex Media Server Software
  • Install the Plex Media Server Software onto your server and follow the onscreen prompts.

Install the Plex Media Server Software onto your server and follow the onscreen prompts.

Congratulation, you have just created your first media server! But, as stated, this is meant to act as an introduction to server creation and management.

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                    Jacob Mehnert

Member since: 10/18/2021

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