If you’re setting up Proxmox either use the Proxmox ISO or start with Debian Bookworm. The only Linux machines I have with a GUI are my desktop and my laptop, both running Debian with KDE. All my servers run Debian unless there’s a good reason not to.
I found myself in a similar situation last year. MXRoute’s lifetime plan works well for those domains that just need basic email and not a lot of storage.
I don’t, but I’ll run some and try to remember to post back.
Nice writeup. As long as you can throw fast drives, fast networking and plenty of RAM at it Ceph is happy.
Ceph seems to work fine on my cluster at work. For less than $40k I replaced my whole VMware vSAN cluster and we’re saving as much again in software licensing over the next 5 years with buying support from Proxmox. Also much lighter as far as administrative tasks to keep it up to date and running well.
3x Supermicro SSG-110P-NTR10
Look at your school’s policy manual. There’s likely a policy regarding what they can and cannot do with images of students. Every school I’ve worked for has some kind of policy around this. In all of them I’ve read you can opt out of photos being published, but there’s usually a caveat that by participating in any school sanctioned event, participation is considered consent to be shown in photos and video of the event.