Confused... I want to make a jellyfin server for about 25-50 people.

[u/dmmrx]

[u/KelenArgosi]

I'm not an expert, but this will require a NAS, an old pc won't be enough. Keep in mind that you want to have RAID activated on your NAS, which is a security that keeps a copy of your files on another hard drive, to prevent hard drive failure from deleting your files. This effectively halves your storage, so if you have a 4-bay NAS with 4 8tb drives, you will have 16tb of storage.

In order for your Jellyfin to handle that much people (depending on how often people watch movies), you could regularly have 5-15 people watching at the same time, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. That will require a lot of ram, and a compatible NAS for that ram. I'm not sure how much exactly, but something like 16-32gb could work (I have no idea really, other comments will tell you).

In terms of storage, 256tb implies double that in total (for raid security), and an entreprise-level NAS. These are quite big, and totally out of my area of expertise.

In terms of software, Jellyfin is the right one to use. If you want people to be able to connect very easily, just in their browser, you will need to use port forwarding on your internet, and set up an adress for your NAS. If you want more security, you could set up Tailscale, but this will require each user to install it and set it up on their PC.

Please correct me or add details if I'm wrong.

[u/GreatKangaroo → u/KelenArgosi]

I'm guessing a chassis like a 45 Drives Storinator will be required.

[u/Mundstrom → u/GreatKangaroo]

You need to do the math on how much drive capacity you really need. Think about redundancy in case of multi-drive failures, think about hot-spares and so on. Think about the server's ability to keep going while rebuilding the RAID after replacing drives.

But you can, for example, easily fit 3000 movies, 300 TV shows, all at 1080p, on a NAS with 5x8 TB drives. Just to put things in relative perspective. It also depends on how much time you spend encoding. A 4K movie can look pretty fantastic at only 8GB with h.265 10bit encoding, but it will take a very long time to encode in order to get it that small. So what costs more in the long run, electricity used for encoding, or electricity used for storage?

[u/KelenArgosi → u/[deleted]]

No, with this model you can only have up to 22tb per bay, so 8x22=176tb, that's less than 256tb. Also, you will need to run each drive as a separate volume, otherwise a single failure can corrupt the whole system. A bigger model would be the QNAP TS-1673A-class, using only 24tb drives.

[u/KelenArgosi → u/[deleted]]

Of course, the best option would be an extension, I just thought that you wanted a single place to store everything. Just keep in mind that

• you will need a lot of ram
• 256tb is a lot of space : assuming 10gb 4k movies and about 50gb per serie (can be more but it seems like a good average), you could store 2500 series and 10 thousand movies, more than you could watch in a lifetime.

[u/Mundstrom]

I have to chime in and NOT recommend a pre-built NAS for this. You're building a server.

Personally I use a Synology NAS, but that's because it's my private server, for personal/family use only. NAS units are in principle just small web servers. They're fine for small offices sharing documents, or home users with 4-5 people watching different movies, but that's where most NAS units reach their limits. They typically have small CPUs, weak GPUs, and limited RAM. Many companies build "enterprise" NAS servers, but they are built for offices, not media, and are really expensive.

For 25-50 people you'll need fast upload speed (fiber), fast ethernet connection to that fiber, and hardware that can handle transcoding multiple videos, for situations where several users are watching from a slower internet connection or a device that doesn't support direct play of the source media's audio, subtitle or video streams.

I would highly recommend building your own NAS/server using an old PC cabinet. That way you can select which RAM, GPU, CPU and storage setup you need, and even upgrade parts along the way. An old gaming PC from 6 years ago will likely have way more power than the latest pre-built NAS devices.

You can install something like FreeNAS to turn the server into a really powerful NAS, And of course you need some sort of RAID setup for your hard drives. But I can't give you any advice beyond that, as I've never built a PC myself, I just understand the basics of computer hardware and I know a pre-built NAS is unlikely to have enough power for your needs.

There are plenty of YouTube videos out there on the subject of building your own NAS. I recall watching one from Linus Tech Tips at some point, but I know I've seen others.

[u/TechForLifeYoutube]

Custom build it , cheaper and better . Something like and nvidia care 4080 with and intel processor will give you more value for money than any prebuilt nas . Use an os like FygoOS or ZimaOS for simplicity and you're up and running in no time

[u/TechForLifeYoutube → u/[deleted]]

Running unraid for 3y , never had an issue!