Win10 Pro - Hyper-V hosting a Server 2012 R2 Server + Gaming on Host?

Hi there

@scoob101

A better but probably more tricky solution would be to use Linux as the OS for the server (apart from the fact it's free it's 100% reliable - used as servers around the world by huge numbers of providers - it's also lean and mean so minimal overhead on the OS. Run your Guests under XEN or KVM (Linux's equivalent of HYPER-V) - Windows guests work fine and you won't have any problem with Networking / file sharing

I run my NAS servers using CENTOS -- the LMS squeezebox server runs perfectly on it too - I'm using LMS 7.9 for my squeezeboxserver software - never a glitch -- on Windows clients as well you can download the free software squeezebox player if you want to play from LMS .

I gave up on PLEX for KODI - but both work -- KODI for me works better especiallyt when subtitles are involved or ripped DVD images (iso's) as these play on the client machines (remote TV's etc) complete with menus etc just like the original DVD.

I'd invest in a small modern server box -- canibalize your HDD's from the existing system too. Using Linux you also get the advantage of Software RAID so you can optimize the I/O throughput of the guests too. The server system will run either with a GUI or totally headless -- you don't need to install a GUI and you can control it from any Windows client via xrdp (windows will simply connect to the Linux server by standard rdp - or if you don't like rdp SSH works as well).

Your main issue here will probably be the gaming one -- servers and high gaming content are fairly incomaptible when talking about Virtual Machines -- however by saving on the rediculous Windows Server licensing fees these days you could probably buy yourself a dedicated machine for gaming and still have plenty of change over (the Linux OS is free of course).

If you do get a separate gaming box then you might consider then using VMWare player on the Linux Host for running your other VM's (it's free). In this case you'd need to install a minimal GUI. Also to control the Squeezeboxserver (LMS) you'd need to use a web browser (localhost:9000 or 9001 is the url for the LMS if you control it from the HOST itself). Install SAMBA for networking, NTFS-3g for NTFS read / write and you are in business. PLEX and Squeezeboxserver are available in most distros package managers so no problem there.

Link for LMS : Some Software Beta Downloads - Version 7.9 (Linux and Windows)

Link for Squeezeplay : LMS Clients - Browse /squeezeplay/windows at SourceForge.net

This works perfectly even on latest W10 builds and looks just like the standard hardware squeezebox controller window

I have 2 HP Proliant microservers which I use as NAS's -- running CENTOS 7.5 and they run 24/7 and have been for several years -- only time I need to re-boot is if I re-compile / re-install a new Linux kernel (rarely) or want to tinker around with the hardware e.g bigger / newer HDD's. These severs have 4 easy access HDD bays and I use SSD's instead of the optical media slot - the servers can boot from the SSD where I have the OS and currently 6 VM's which are various W10 insider builds etc.

The NAS also backs up Windows clients and serves music and video to remote clients e.g remote TV's, phones, squeezebox receiver for optical input into quality amplifier etc.

Squeezeplay :



LMS server on Linux with web control :



Cheers
jimbo