Power Up Your Server Game with Intel NUC: The Energy-Efficient and Quiet Solution for Hosting Multiple Virtual Machines

If you're in the market for an energy-efficient and quiet server to host your virtual machines, consider using an Intel NUC. In this blog post, we'll explore the benefits of using an Intel NUC, like the NUC11, as a virtual machine server, and how it can be used to host a variety of different servers.

The Intel NUC is a small form factor computer that packs a punch, despite its size. Its powerful processor, ample RAM, and storage space make it a viable option for hosting multiple virtual machines.

One of the most notable benefits of using an Intel NUC as a virtual machine server is its energy efficiency. Compared to traditional servers, the NUC requires much less power and generates less heat. As a result, it can help keep your energy bills down and create a more comfortable work environment.

Another benefit of using an Intel NUC as a virtual machine server is its quiet operation. The NUC is designed to be as quiet as possible, unlike traditional servers which can be disruptive and noisy. This means that it can be placed in your home office or living room without causing any disturbance.

Building a DIY Cloud Platform with a Raspberry Pi and the Argon EON: How to Use Ubuntu's Logical Volume Management System for Maximum Storage Efficiency

In a previous post, I talked about the Argon EON, which is a device that allows you to connect four hard drives (two 3.5" drives and two 2.5" drives) to a Raspberry Pi. I've been using this device as a network-attached storage (NAS) to back up our main NAS at home, using Open Media Vault (OMV) for management.

OMV is a package that enables you to quickly set up and manage a home server. One of the benefits of OMV is that it offers plugins that allow you to customize the features of the server installation. I found the MergerFS plugin helpful to create a virtual file system that spans the different drives. However, I wasn't able to create a RAID, as the 3.5" drives were significantly larger than the 2.5" drives.

Since I wanted to use the Raspberry Pi in the Argon EON to try out some locally hosted cloud platforms, I wanted to make sure that I could use the collection of drives in the case for this installation. Unfortunately, I didn't find similar plugins to span multiple file systems in Nextcloud or OwnCloud. So I decided to manually create a logical volume with Ubuntu's Logical Volume Management (LVM) system.

Uncovering the Exciting New Feature in Plex Media Server: End Credits Marker Detection

As I was working in my office, something caught my attention: the cooling fan of the Intel NUC running our Plex Media Server was spinning rapidly. I wondered what could be causing the machine to work so hard. In the past, I had encountered run-away processes like Ubuntu's keyring, which had caused the same issue. Fortunately, I was able to kill the process and rotate logs to clear up space on the boot partition.

However, this time was different. I logged into the machine and couldn't find any runaway processes that had previously caused the issue. Instead, I noticed that a Plex Media Server process was taking up 100% of the CPU. Curiosity piqued, I launched the Plex web UI and saw that it was doing credit detection.

Streamline Your Raspberry Pi Projects with DietPi: A Highly Efficient and Customizable Operating System

I was looking to start a new project for one of our Raspberry Pis.  The setup of these projects often requires installing an OS (for me, usually either Raspian or Ubuntu), and then downloading, installing and setting up the software for the project.  Before going through these steps again, I wanted to see if there was a way to make this setup easier, and I found DietPi.

DietPi is a lean, streamlined operating system that's been optimized specifically for single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi and Odroid. It's an open-source project, which means it's free to use and modify, and it comes preloaded with a range of software that makes it easy to get started on your projects.

One of the great things about DietPi is how efficient it is. It's designed to work on hardware with limited resources, which makes it perfect for home automation, media centers, and network attached storage. This lean design also means that it requires minimal RAM and disk space to run, giving you more bang for your buck when it comes to using your hardware.

Disabling sleep on Ubuntu 22.04

I just upgraded one of my Linux servers to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, from 21.10, which was already at end of life.  The upgrade process went fairly well, and since I needed to reboot the computer (and there were already interruptions of the VMs running on this machine), I decided to start upgrading the software on some of these machines.

While I was going through this process, everything became unresponsive, both the host server and the VMs, and these connections were closed.  I walked to the Linux host server, and I noticed that the machine was asleep.  Once I pushed the power button, the machine woke back up, and I was able to connect again.

I wanted to find a way that I could prevent the server from going to sleep.  The Ubuntu sleep service allows this behavior to be controlled.

I used the following commands to disable sleep on the Ubuntu server:

systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target

Once I ran that command, I verified that sleeping would be "masked" with: 

systemctl status sleep.target

The output indicates that sleeping is masked:

Install Ubuntu Netbook Remix in VMWare

I like playing with different distributions of Linux, and am pretty curious about distributions that are geared towards netbooks.  I was curious about checking out the latest version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but I wanted to check it out in VMWare Workstation before actually installing it on my netbook.  Unfortunately, the installer is intended to be copied to a USB thumb drive and installed from there.  This doesn't work in VMWare.

This page has instructions on how to install UNR in a virtual machine.  These instructions create a disc image that can be mounted our burned to disc.