Hey guys, I’m new to self-hosting; I’m trying to set up cloud storage to store pics and other content. However, I’m unsure whether to use my old computer, Buy NAS or ResberryPie to set up a home server.
Also, what is the best privacy-friendly OS to use with the home server?
Lastly, do’s and don’ts.
Any help would be appreciated (:
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If you want something that works without you fretting with the base system too much, and gives you a decent GUI to handle the base: Proxmox. Run VMs, run containers on said VMs, and experiment as much as you would like.
I will personally not be doing this (I plan to run Alpine as my base instead of Debian, even though I hold the latter in very high regard), automate provisioning with Ansible, and exclusively use Podman instead of Docker. I’m willing to go through the pains of not using Docker directly, but at least I’m not learning how to run everything on k8s (which is not a bad idea at all, but for most homelabs without HA, it’s overkill).
Learn networking, learn container orchestration, learn GNU/Linux (or in my case, non-GNU/Linux - yes you plebs, musl is good) security, auth basics, UNIX permissions, general automation, and give yourself time.
Also, do not become the family system-admin without having a fair bit of experience doing this already. You don’t want the homelab becoming a job, which means getting to fix it at your own schedule, not when Jellyfin is broken and Wifey is bearing down on you because you cancelled Netflix in favour of your Linux ISO-powered library.
Start with hardware you have already, its high likely overkill anyway. If you have CPU that supports quicksync (intel 7th gen or newer iirc) you could remove GPU to reduce power consumption. QuickSync will make streaming easy.
Raspberry pi cant transcode so its not best for media server, but it can direct play so that might not be an issue at all. I upgraded from rpi to desktop PC because I had issues with power on rpi USB ports for storage. Its also impossible to upgrade RAM on rpi. Good thing about rpi is super low power consuption, but some small factor PCs can drain ~10W. My PC was at 22W with 3 SSD. You can get power meter like Shelly plug S to see power consuption yourself.
Any OS (I use debian) of your choice + docker and docker-compose. Then install portainer and manage all services from there.
- For pictures try Immich, its amazing.
- For cloud storage Nextcloud
- For media streaming consider Jellyfin (much better than Plex IMO)
- Check wiki.servarr.com if you are downloading content with torrents or usenet. It can automate everything and provide awesome UI for users. Next level torrenting
- If you have only 1-2 users consider Wireguard or tailscale to connect when not at home.
I was going this route and Im super happy with everything
Raspberry pi cant transcode so its not best for media server
To expand on that:
Kinda right and still wrong.
You actually can transcode. But the performance wont be great.I tried it with Jellyfin by transcoding anime episodes thanks to SSA subs (1080p ~1GB @ 20min episodes). Performance was about 0,7-0,9x
because I had issues with power on rpi USB ports for storage.
Corrupted my kernel by having 2 USB powered disks on it (hdd and ssd) and wondered why the write performance sucked so hard if I wrote to both at the same time.
Then I updated the kernel and corrupted it c:Check wiki.servarr.com
Don’t forget trash guides.
The 2 usb ports on RPI share the same usb controller and pcie lines, so you can’t expect max throughput on both ports simultaneously
Problem was less the throughput and more the power it could provide to supply both a 2.5" hdd and ssd.
If you connected the monitor your could see a bolt on the monitor probably warbing about undervoltage/power.
When I upgraded the kernel it went down during the upgrade.
Do backups. Don’t forget to test if recovery works as expected.
Always remember: RAID is not a backup.
Having only one backup and the server dying means you now have no backup, therefore the 3-2-1 scheme for backups is worth looking into.
I wouldnt never do raid with only 2 disks, it doesnt seeem safe tbh, 3 disks min (2 disks as backup)
Raid 1 on two drives is perfectly reasonable.
its little money vs time you spent on it (backups are almost always missing something)
Raid 5 with 3 drives survives one dying disk. Raid 1 (mirroring) with 2 disks survives one dying disk. if either setup loses two disks all the data is gone.
When you run 3 disks then the odds of two failing are higher than if you run 2 disks.
So 3 disks are not significantly safer and might even be worse.
That being said: both setups are fine for home use, because you’ve set up real backups anyway, right?
you can use raid 1 with 3 disks gg (or 4 or 5 or 6…)
yes
Go for a used small form factor PC. They usually have a decent amount of house power and can house many drives
Old think pads can be had for dirt cheap on eBay, you’ve essentially got a little server you can hide anywhere, you don’t have the keep the lid open (disable sleep on lid close, you can hide it wherever you want now) , ANDmost importantly it has it’s own little integrated UPS :)
Good one. And Lenovo battery management utility allows setting the state of charge level. Set it for 50% and the battery will last mostly forever.
You need lots of debodated wam
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System HA Home Assistant automation software ~ High Availability NAS Network-Attached Storage NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers PSU Power Supply Unit PiHole Network-wide ad-blocker (DNS sinkhole) Plex Brand of media server package RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage SBC Single-Board Computer SSD Solid State Drive mass storage SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access k8s Kubernetes container management package
[Thread #338 for this sub, first seen 7th Dec 2023, 21:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
I personally think a NAS would probably be the easiest option and on top of that they are optimized for low electricity consumption, which a PC, especially when it’s older is not. It makes a huge difference because it’s running 24/7 for 356 days a year.
I used a PC once and didn’t realize that it took always about 300 W so at the end of the year surprisingly the electricity bill was much higher than normally.
I used a PC once and didn’t realize that it took always about 300 W
Were you mining bitcoin or something?
It was running https://zoneminder.com/ but idling it used almost the same amount. It was a old PC my dad saved from being thrown out at his company. It must have been from around 2002 or something.
Yeah - that has changed since then. Power usage in the 30 to 40W range is easily attainable of you take some care selecting the components.
I bought a NUC which took 5 W idling that was quite amazing.
Yeah, those are awesome - but even with an ATX mainboard, a CPU and a few spinning disks it’s become easier to stay on this side of 40W.
Since you’re new, I’d recommend just using the old PC to start and get comfortable. Once you’re sure you want to invest some money, you can either build it buy yourself something more energy efficient if you’re super concerned about that.
As for the best OS, just any server OS will do. I run Rocky Linux which is a RHEL derivative, but you can also try TrueNas or anything else you want. Even Windows Server would work if you wanted to go that path.
There are many paths you can take, and which you go down depends heavily on personal preference and the desired use of your system.
Any cheap PC is going to be way better than raspberry Pi.
Also, may I suggest you to checkout Immich? I am in love with the project and have been using it as Google photos replacement.
Welcome to selfhosting!
i found their site and in confused by this part of their intro page:
“That was how the idea started to grow in my head. After that, I began to find existing solutions in the self-hosting space with similar backup functionality and the performance level of the App-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named. I found that the current solutions mainly focus on the gallery-type application. However, I want a simple-to-use backup tool with a native mobile app that can view photos and videos efficiently.”
what is the main thing that separates immich from other “gallery-type applications”? wouldnt all comparable apps have some kind of gallery?
Immich is great. Works so much better as a photo storage than Nextcloud does.
Those are my old PC specs:
GPU: GeForce GT 240 DDR3 1GB CPU: unknown Motherboard: Lenovo is6xm PSU: Dell L240AS-00 240W RAM: 2x 2GB Storage: 1TB HDD and 128GB SSD
I want to build a low power consumption yet power enough server to run any apps, etc. What upgrades would be the best for my use case?
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Don’t use Raspberry pi.
- It is overpriced and slow.
- SD Card write speeds are low
- you will need external storage
- Arm architecture, so some programs might not work
- power issues
- slow USB
A cheap old laptop will work a lot better.
- it might not have AC wake up (if power goes out, you will need to manually turn it on)
- it might have always on cooler
- it supports SATA SSD without adapter
I think Raspberry pi is only good if you need gpio, otherwise save money and use an old laptop.
Don’t use Raspberry pi.
Oversimplified and in many cases is not good advice. Raspberry Pis are perfectly capable low cost home servers that absolutely sip power and take up little room.
Mini pc’s such as dell optiplex micro’s and intel nucs are also a good consideration.
Exactly. Just know the limitations and capabilities of your hardware and implement your system accordingly. My Rpi4 works well for adguard home, wireguard, NPM etc. While my media server and other resource heavy stuff are installed on a Mini PC.
For a privacy friendly OS, surprised nobody has mentioned Freedombox
It’s designed explicitly for your use case, along with an easy path to other self hosted services. When you’re ready for more than it offers through the web interface, it’s a full Debian install under the hood - so you can install whatever you need to. Privacy friendly and super stable, with smooth upgrades to new releases and security updates for old versions several years after the new one is available.
As far as hardware, your old computer is probably more powerful than a Pi and can support more drives, but the Pi will be more power efficient. As others have mentioned, if you care about your data long term then backups are a must, so a separate NAS or a Pi with a large drive for backup storage is a good idea as well, whatever OS you choose.
