r/HomeServer

I have a large photo collection stored on iCloud (including family, pets, and sports) and I'm running out of space. iCloud has also been unreliable lately—syncing is inconsistent, and sometimes I can't download full-resolution photos.

I own an old iMac with an i7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. I'm thinking of turning it into a self-hosted iCloud alternative using Immich and a Cloudflare Tunnel for remote access. What do you guys think? Are there better options?

I have a decent laptop available(ultra 5 258v and 32gb). I am not using it much so why not replace my current system since it is a lot powerful.
Sinxe it's a laptop, it can survive when there is a power outage.

So my question for building a NAS. Does 4 bay 2.5 SSD enclosure exist that can be powered by USB C? 1 for data transfer and the other for power.

I could not really find one, but if this solution exist it would save me getting a ups also🥸?. I think there is a 2 bay but I prefer not...

Edit: typo

I'm sorry if it's a stupid question but I can't really find a good guide on how to start, and most importantly what hardware to get. I don't really have an old pc lying around so I'd need to buy something used. People on here said that it would probably be better to buy a desktop and not a laptop.

I'd probably use it only to watch movies on my nvidia shield and to listen to music because I want to get rid of spotify.

My budget is not really an issue, it depends on how much it would improve the setup if I get something more "expensive". Let's say i'd like to not exceed 300 euros, but open to discussions.

As I’ve said in a earlier post I am just starting out homelabbing and want to host more services I already have plex media server and a nas

Hi. As the title says. I'm researching how to configure my home server. So far, I have several questions and security concerns, so I would appreciate it if someone could help me find answers.

I've configured my first home server to do some experiments in software development. Mainly, I host some web apps, api servers, databases, etc.

My equipment:

• Router: MikroTik HAP AC2.
• Server: HP ProDesk 400 G2 MINI with Ubuntu Server 26.04.
• 300 Mbps internet channel.

My internet provider can provide a static IP (for cheap). So I've been thinking of exposing my server to the internet so I can access my local services while I'm out. I have calculated, and so far it seems much cheaper than renting the cheapest VPS.

There will be 2 types of services to host; let's call them public and private:

• Public: available from the internet via my domain - experimental apps (web apps, sites, APIs, etc). Everything is deployed as a Docker container.
• Private: services available only via some auth mechanism. It's gonna be mainly Jellifin, file server, and some self-hosted web apps.

 

I've spent some time researching with AI, and in my current understanding, public services could be protected via Cloudflare. So I configure a Cloudflare domain pointing at my static IP and some port. Then configure my router to drop all requests that are coming from any other source. It seems like it's possible to even create a separate isolated network specifically for my server. So the rest of the home network and devices should be protected. Also, it seems like it's possible to restrict Docker containers to not have access to localhost and communicate solely with the internet.

Private services could be protected via WireGuard. As far as I understand, it makes the router drop all requests unless you provide some key (that's my basic understanding of it). The goal here is to access the server and access services on localhost.

Also, it seems like it's possible to eliminate round-trip and access my server directly from my home network, bypassing the internet.

So far I have several concerns/questions:

• What are the possible pitfalls I should be aware of?
• I have no prior experience in such things, so is the above described possible to achieve, or is it pure AI galicination?
• How likely is it to get hacked, exposing some services online? Assuming that I will store some private files on that server as well (primarily my photo album).
• Is my router enough? I don't expect a high number of connections. Even if I share credentials to private services, there will be 2-3 relatives accessing it maybe a few times a week. Also, public services will not have a lot of audience (but if they do, I'm planning to move them to a VPS instead).
• What other protection mechanism could I apply so a hacker will not get access to my devices on the home network or to data placed outside of a Docker container?

Recently I started experimenting with making small localhost websites for me and my partner to use. Stuff like: Game related To-Do lists, Quest trackers, Shopping lists and "inventory" of presents we have for our families (we both have to travel quite the distance, so if we forget a present, it can be a long time before the next opportunity)

However, I currently have these running on my own computer and only while I am using it. If I go to bed early or just am not home, my girlfriend cannot use them.

Therefore I'm looking to build my first small home server and would appreciate some hardware recommendations.

My initial use cases are fairly lightweight, as mentioned above. But I might in the future want to do some experiments and potentially add other self-hosted services (examples: local git server, media share...)

My main priorities are:

- Low power consumption

- Small and quiet

- Reasonably inexpensive

- Reliable enough to leave running 24/7

I'm dealing with German prices and German market.

I've been looking at Raspberry Pis, but I'm not committed to one if there are better options.

What hardware would you recommend for something like this?

Thanks!

Looking to get feedback on the Fractal Design Node 804.

I am adding a 7800xt I had laying around and because I am changing the motherboard, I was wondering whether I should pick one with 2 Pcie16 slots, just in case I'd want to fit 2 7800xt in there (local llm, server is on Linux).

Anyone tried?

Hello together,

my Internet ah home is getting to slow for all the Backups - so I‘m looking for the cheapest 4-bay-Nas coLocation in Europe. I don‘t need all the stuff like emergency energy and so on - but I would be happy if they don’t lost the hardware.

Anybody having Tipps?

Hello, I have recently fallen down the rabbit hole of servers, and have had an interest in computer technology for a few years now. It started with curiosity for how things work when I was young, growing into interest in electricity and circuitry, then building a computer. Now I am in the process of making a small server setup to run Plex for my family, and switch from a prebuilt Synology setup just for fun and creativity. I would also like to store photos and videos.

I have come up with a list of parts and am trying to build inspiration and ideas from people more experienced in this community. I am also wondering which OS to run. For what I am intending to use it for, I have heard great things about ZimaOS. I have also heard it's very good for beginners. Any words of wisdom helps and is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

So I've gone down a path of trying out jellyfin originally out of curiousity but now also out of potential money saving. I've as of now just been set up with an optiplex that I mushed together a docker with some youtube tutorials and got a few movies on it. I've been now considering making a more dedicated system with storage to fully migrate from all my subscriptions and have had a few questions mainly about storage and processing. 1) The optiplex has a i5-9500 but is also a sff so not a ton of space for drives, should I invest a bit more into something better or could I make it work maybe with external storage? 2) when (if) I buy storage would it be fine to just start with two 4tbs for mirroring, I don't know if the rest of the family wants to fully invest $600 into two 12tb drives just yet as we're still new to this. All this while trying to not be more expensive than subscriptions lol. Any insight is appreciated thank you!

Well now I know what ECC is. Probably not worth it to dump more money into another project just to build around the memory...

Hi all, sorry to copy and paste the below from a previous post on r/homelab but looking for help from anyone willing to lend an eye

Im looking at purchasing a Supermicro H11SSL-i Motherboard + AMD EPYC 7551P 32 Core CPU from china and im hoping someone with some experience can confirm part compatibility for me?

Im new to the Epyc platform and not sure if it has any strange pitfalls

Link:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/For-Supermicro-H11SSL-i-Motherboard-AMD_1601799787652.html?chatToken=U1ZkdVJIVkhVRXB3VVd0MVF6QnFTSEJEV21jNEt6SmtiMnBMZWprNGIxVlNlRGRFYm05WmJXa3JlRzlZU2xoNFZVSjRSV0Y2V0dkTVMyWm1Mell4UTJJclNFeFVaRlkwUW5SelVITnZOWFJyU0hRMU1DczVNaTlDVWxjMGVrSm9SMmR6TWxVNVFqZGlWV05pU21WMFRWbEtkbkZOVUVOcmNGUnlOR3A0ZDFrM2EwcHNWSHBPWmxGWE1razNTblFyVGt0RlVWUjVUVkJQWVV4amFWTnNlV0UyUTJNMlVYQk5ZMGxRTHpGNEswY3lZblowVlV4SWRHdEVPSE55YW5oRSZ2ZXJzaW9uPTIuMC4w&encryptTargetLoginId=8pctgRBMALOSe5bpy2TwBGvJCIB9a5KT

Im also looking at picking up some RAM to go with this combo and currently found a cheap deal on some 2133 ECC LRDIMM's (Yes i know this is slow but money is tight)

Below is a copy and paste of what seller placed in the title but if more info is needed please feel free to ask

Kingston KCS-UC421LQ/32G DDR4-2133 ECC LRDIMM PC4-17000 4Rx4 Server RAM

So i've got a jellyfin server up and running from my primary PC, but I want to make the leap to a dedicated home server that can be on 24/7 and host more than just jellyfin. Looking around for an easy solution i did see a synology NAS that looked sleek but it's so expensive, and that's when I remembered I had an old PC i built a while ago collecting dust in my closet.

My issue:
My current case doesn't look great if I were to put it in my living room or even in my current office, and the case itself is older and not really meant to hold a lot of large HDDs (current one I have is an 8TB WD red plus NAS HDD). So i figured it's a lot cheaper to just buy a new PC case than get a ~500$ synology enclosure.

so I am just using a old pc as my homeserver so I don't really have ups for it. I currently on windows but will install something like casaos. I can do it on windows by not having a password but if I want to use casaos and ssh into the server I need to have a password. how do I make it so that while connected to electricity it starts the pc and starts running all my services like jellyfin and Adguard home. (plz don't tell me to buy a ups or something rn, I don't have that much important file on their just media files)