r/HomeServer

I want to build a NAS for cloud storage, streaming and surveillance recording. I have a i5 11th gen and 16 gb ram. I was thinking about using unraid because i dont plan on buying all the drives i need in one go and it is cheaper for me to buy mismatched drives used ( ie: 2 4tb wd purple then 2 8tb wd red plus, then 2 8tb wd gold). Is it better to just try and get 2 8tb drives in one go and use a free os? I dont need tooo much storage but i also dont have tooo much money. I was thinking about 500-1000gb of space for cameras, about 4-6 tb for cloud storage and about 4-8 tb of 4k movies and maybe music. Can anyone give me a piece of advice? I would pay the 250 euro price for the unraid (with lifetimes upgrades) if it means saving costs on the drives. I also plan on adding 2 ssds maybe as cache or for apps and movie thumbnails n stuff. Thanks!

My budged is around 400 for drives (hdd, ssd)

I don't take a massive amount of photos, but between my files and random pictures or videos I take I'm running up against the Google storage limits. I could buy more but I would like to have more control and don't necessarily want all my personal stuff in the cloud.

I'm not currently interested in streaming media. I don't currently need an email server, although it might be nice to forward emails to my server for storage.

I would like photos and videos from my phone to automatically back up to my server. They currently automatically back up to Google. I use an android phone.

I would also like to be able to access my server from a PC (windows) to upload or download files. But not just my personal PC. I can access Drive from anywhere and I'd like to access my server remotely the same way.

I don't currently have the hardware but figured I'd just buy a small mini pc or build a small computer. Even something like a 512 GB m.2 is going to be massive compared to what I need.

I'm familiar with Linux a little. I have Mint on an old laptop that I've played around with but I'm mostly familiar with windows.

Assuming decent hardware, what software am I looking at to make this happen?

lenovo a100 f0j6004hcf all in one pc
i3 N305 8c 8t 3.8ghz
16gb ddr4
512gb m.2
intel uhd integrated graphics
installed linux mint cinnamon

someone traded me this for an old phone and im wondering if i can make it do something or if i should just sell it. open to ideas and suggestions!

(i already have a separate old pc hosting a plex server via unraid)

Hi

just got this UPS out of my storage and replaced the batteries. When it is powered up it shows three green lights indicating it is on, load is okay, and fully charged. Powering it off with the button it shows one green light showing the battery is charged. When I disconnect the power cable two amber lights come on. Is this indicating a fault? Or is it supposed to do that? Won't the lights eventually run the battery down and ruin them?

The problem is I want to use this UPS in a portable rack that will only be connected to the mains when in use every few weeks. Powering those two LEDs with about 0.06W will run a 7aH battery flat in 1400 hours. Can they be made to go out? The manual says
Before storing your UPS, turn it completely OFF: With the UPS ON and receiving utility power, press and hold the “ON/OFF/STANDBY” button for one second (an alarm will beep once briefly after the interval has passed), then unplug the UPS from the wall outlet. If you store your UPS for an extended period of time, recharge the UPS batteries once every three months: plug the UPS into a wall outlet, allow it to charge for 12 hours, and then unplug it and place it back in storage. Note: after you plug the UPS in, it will automatically begin charging its batteries. However, it will not supply power to its outlets (see Quick Installation section). If you leave your UPS batteries discharged for an extended period of time, they will suffer a permanent loss of capacity."

it doesn't say anything about the lights. three months is about 2000 hours so the batteries will be completely discharged.

https://preview.redd.it/kgrjhewlxh2h1.jpg?width=2816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c9ff63772a89902d981a2804a9fb16b57802332a

https://preview.redd.it/fjbw0ditxh2h1.jpg?width=2816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64e978817026ca0382e17c1f25f933dba075620c

https://preview.redd.it/08wqy2ouxh2h1.jpg?width=2816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ceb51b4feafab99c9ad02fae72225997f032386f

thanks

Phil

I asked this over at r/homelab, but I haven't gotten much of a response yet, so I'm hoping there are people here with experiences they can share.

A few years ago I migrated my Plex server from Windows to a Linux docker container, hastily set up on an Intel Core i5-11320H system with Iris XE 96EU graphics. OS is OpenMediaVault with the Extras add-on to manage docker containers. The GPU is used by Plex for media transcoding, which is why I chose that hardware and it works great. My media is SMB mounted from my NAS. OpenMediaVault is primarily a NAS OS with the Docker features not being a focus. I have plans now for a number of other Docker containers, and while I have a Proxmox host, I don't want to put Docker inside LXEs, so installing a new OS onto the i5-11320H and dedicating it to Docker makes sense for my needs. I would like to have a nice web interface for managing the system and containers.

I did some research and I'm considering Debian with an install of Cockpit and either Cockpit Docker Manager or cockpit-podman. Seems like podman is a better way to go since it doesn't run as root? Any reason to stick with Docker over podman? Bummer there is no way to manage SMB mounts in Cockpit the way you can NFS mounts. (There is cockpit-file-sharing, but that's for managing shares hosted on a system running Cockpit that are being offered to other systems.) I've appreciated seeing at a glance if my media shares are mounted to OMV in the main dashboard... Is there something better than Cockpit I should be looking at that does everything I want?

Hey everyone, sorry if my English isn't great — it's not my first language and I used AI to help me write this post!

I want to repurpose a Lenovo IdeaPad (Ryzen 5, 12 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD + 2 TB external) as a home server to run **Immich** (self-hosted Google Photos replacement) and a **game server** (e.g. Minecraft) for playing with friends occasionally.

The problem: no Ethernet port, so it has to run over WiFi.

My questions:

1. Am I crazy for running a home server over WiFi, or is it actually fine for this kind of use?
2. Do you see any hardware bottlenecks with these specs for what I want to do?
3. What Linux distro would you recommend for someone without much server experience?

Open to any opinions!

[ EDITED ]

My laptop's specifications are:

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega Mobile GFX (2.10 GHz)

Graphics card: AMD Radeon(TM) Vega 8

RAM: 12.0 GB

Storage: 512 GB SSD + 2 TB external HDD

Hello everyone, I’m looking for a small, inexpensive computer (around 200 euros) to store data—specifically from Wikipedia—to train a small AI model I’m coding. As I mentioned before, I don’t have much money since I’m 16, and I’m also not very knowledgeable about this area. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

Please suggest some hardware and software for my homelab.

I'm in the process of designing a custom chassis to 3D print for my NAS, and the more I look at reference cases, the more trouble I'm having understanding the logic behind the design of a lot of common hot swap HDD trays/caddies.

It seems like a common feature to include is a spring-wound door that opens when you press the eject button (see image below). Every source I can find says they're handles, however in quite literally every instructional graphic, photo, or video I've found, the subject seems to attempt to pull the caddy out almost every way you can think of EXCEPT by this 'handle'.

Across all of the different trays I've seen that include this, I legitimately don't think I'd have ever arrived at the conclusion that any of them were intended to be a handle if i hadn't been told that's what they were. Quite a few I've seen look pretty flimsy and also seem like they'd create a lot of additional manufacturing effort.

On top of that, I've seen plenty of caddies that have a similar release button, but with finger pockets/grips on the front that you can pull instead, which seems to make far more sense in my mind.

So what exactly am I missing? I can't imagine so many companies chose this design if it didn't have some significant benefit or functionality.

https://preview.redd.it/ugepc2yhic2h1.png?width=973&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d832005da682d942468593490c0654cff8c9e71

Hey everyone, im trying to learn and get in to homeserver and linux. I have experience in linux servers(i opened minecraft server with ubuntu server with my old laptop) but not in homeserver. I'm trying to figure out SFF or Mini-Pc would be better for me. The things im planning to use this server for:

Jellyfin&Arr , Adguard Home, Immich, Nextcloud, if possible a modded minecraft server that can handle 5 players with good amount of mods. I couldnt figure out what is NAS exactly so i need some ideas about it. I also plan to use tailscake to get access to my server when i have internet. I live in Türkiye so i have limited options i think. For budget i plan to use this long term so max 300 dollars.

I'm still trying to figure out what to get so im open to ideas. If possible could you guys share some ideas about what to use homeserver for other then i listed? Thank you.

https://preview.redd.it/tdvrhnyyta2h1.png?width=962&format=png&auto=webp&s=cee3f2e8231781fb3b7ea40d31b46d86873db52b

Hey! Im putting together my first server and this is the part list that I came up with. The server will be used for storing a lot of high quality video files and will be used by me and remote editors in other states/ countries to download and upload files on.

Im new to server building, but have built many computers in my lifetime, so just looking to see if im missing anything or if this part list looks good! Open to any suggestions, thank you!

​

Hey everyone,

As part of my degoogling journey, I built a home server using my old 2011 PC. So far I’ve set it up with Arch Linux, Podman for containers, Quadlet for setting up NetBird, Nginx Proxy Manager for TLS certificates, Node-RED and systemd services for automation.

To make things reasonably secure, I used Podman for my services and Quadlet to run NetBird as a systemd service.

With this setup, I’ve been able to move away from Google Photos, Google Drive, and I’m slowly moving away from Gmail too.

I’ve been keeping a small internal doc of what I did so I can remember it later. I was thinking of turning it into a proper guide if enough people are interested.

The guide could cover things like Arch setup, Cockpit setup, Podman setup, Nginx Proxy Manager setup, Node-RED automation setup, and the other steps I used to build the server.

Would anyone here be interested in something like that?

Hey everybody! I've got an old gaming computer that has been running a simple homeserver for me for a couple years now. I set it up while still learning Linux, networking, Docker, etc. all simultaneously. It took me a few weeks of tinkering on-and-off to get something that met my needs, and I've more or less left it alone since then. I've noticed lots of areas for improvement, though, and plan to rebuild from the ground up while importing user data and configuration information from the old server and retaining the large media files located on separate disks.

The big problem is that it's not very modular. Any time I need to update something, I've got to do it manually. I learned about Docker halfway through the project and didn't go out of my way to make sure everything was nice and isolated from everything else. So things are all hooked into each other and I risk breaking something every time I make a change. It's a miracle everything has held together for as long as it has.

And, of course, I'm sure there are unpatched security vulnerabilities. I want to be able to easily trigger updates to my services without risking any data and have an easy way to roll back to when I knew it all worked well.

I could use a little advice from people who know how to do a smooth transition, since this seems like the kind of thing an actual IT professional would know tools for and have experience with. I'm just an office drone who's better than average at Excel.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i7 8700K

GPU: GeForce GTX 1060

RAM: 16 GB

Storage: ~25 TB (8TBx3 slow HDDs, 1 TB fast new NVME, 256GB ooooooold SSD)

OS: Ubuntu 24.04

Services run:

• AMP game server manager (dockerized)
• Bitwarden (dockerized)
• Audiobookshelf
• Emby
• Nginx to allow me to serve my services over the internet via subdomains
• Heimdall as a dashboard
• Paperless-ngx
• Wiki.js

My questions:

1. What strategy should I use for the migration? Currently I'm planning to install a new SSD into the computer and install a new OS on that, get all the services up and running, import the configuration from my old SSD, and hook the new OS into all my media files on the big HDDs. Is that the smart way to go about this?
2. Should I use Proxmox? I'm thinking that will make #1 way easier in the future. If I understand correctly, a hypervisor would mean I could have a VM specifically for my Docker containers that I could duplicate, experiment with, etc. So if I break something, no worries!
3. What is your preferred remote desktop tool? I'm able to get everything done with a CLI, but sometimes (especially when messing with folder structures and files) I'd like to just be able to look at it the way I'm used to.
4. Is there a way to unify user management? It would be nice for people to just have a single account that all the services I want them to have automatically inherit.
5. I'm currently using an Nginx reverse proxy (which I don't really understand) to allow people to log into services using a subdomain of my URL. Is there a better or more intuitive way to do this? At this point it's black magic to me. I'd like to set it up with a DDNS, too, since my ISP won't give me a static IP.
6. What is your preferred remote backup tool? I'd like to backup the basic configuration files and such to the cloud, since everything else is replaceable. It would be nice to just take a snapshot of each of my VMs every day or week and pop them into Google Drive for a rainy day.

Thanks for the help, guys! Sorry for the wall of text, I'm just at a point where I now have an idea of just how much I have to learn.