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 (:
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
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.
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 :)
Ya know what… That’s actually a really good idea 😅😎
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.
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?
What are you comparing it with? Something like photoprism? If so, then photo prism does not allow you to have multiple users. (Atleast it wasn’t there when I used it last time)
If you compare it with Lychee, then Lychee does not have facial recognition.
The Raspberry Pi can work if you don’t need a lot of space or high performance. You will need an external drive or two for it. The power consumption will be very low too.
You can use an old PC if you need more drives. Just don’t use an old gaming PC since the power consumption will be rather high.
You can always just undervolt the cpu and take out the gpu. Sure, a 1000w power supply is going to be inefficient at 20% draw, but if you already have old hardware it isn’t always cost effective to replace it just because of a higher power draw.
Also the pi is great for stuff like dns and network storage, but it’s going to struggle with transcoding as a media server. I can’t speak for the 5 from personal experience, but the 4 was completely incapable as a jellyfin/plex server. I just use an old stripped down computer for media and the pi is relegated to dns adblocking.
For real time transcoding, you will need a PC with a newer CPU that supports hardware H.265 encoding.
Micro PC, install Linux. External nas. Or mini-pc with builtin nas.
Nextcloud is a good platform for hosting self cloud stuff. You might want a fixed ip, or other method to route if wanting to use out of home.
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.
A cheap used PC with a Ryzen 9 or something? Ez to maintain, very power efficient, especially when idling (compared to servers, not Pi), and you get to choose the important bits (like what new enterprise level disk you gonna buy, etc) as its easier to upgrade.
And you get a lot faster CPU than duo Xenon builds in the same price range (used ofc). What you don’t get is ECC & more RAM lanes.
Also much easier to make it inaudible (or like 18~19dB?) compared to servers.
I do use a Pi-based Proxmox Backup server.
Got a link for a cheap Ryzen 9 pc?
I don’t (and it depends on where you live). But R9s have been around for quite a bit, maybe try looking for a 4~5 year old 3900x (or 5900x), you get 12c/24t.
But it’s not like 7 (8c/16t) series lacks power for a home lab. Really depends on what you wanna do with it. Even a low powered Celeron is plenty for some cases.
(I am taking about used PCs)
Must not be my neck of the woods (US). You mentioned the Pi, which is in my wheelhouse of “cheap”. Personally I’ve got a couple computers picked up from the local community college for $10 running TrueNAS and Proxmox.
My Google-Fu couldn’t find an R9 3900X for under $200, just the chip, used. I had hopes you had a better source I was missing out on.
That suxs … but I was thinking 500~700 moneys. And spending some time to look/wait for a good deal. Still I think a Ryzen 3 or 5 (from 22xx onward) is a better investment especially at the beginning when you are perhaps still figuring out what to do with your home lab (and even basic things like not having your HDDs over USB lane). But you have the right idea - opportunities like those 10$ PCs is what I was talking about.
If I assume RPi 4 or 5 are at about 100 moneys (+ a decent case + maybe with an m.2 hat) - I was just trying to say that a used PC at that price offers much more. RPis are great tho, I’m glad they exist.
My RPi3 is still kicking (Single purpose PiHole)
My RPi v1.0 (doesn’t even have the mounting holes) is piholing/sinkholing for my parents for about 10 years now.
It’s getting replaced by two servers soon-ish (main and backup - also as a second location for my servers), but I might just keep it running as a secondary device. Bcs by now it’s tradition.
Also I never got around to getting it a case so it’s just dangling by the ethernet cable all this time.
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 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
Raid 1 on two drives is perfectly reasonable.
its little money vs time you spent on it (backups are almost always missing something)
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?
For a small pocket and low power consumption but incredible performance I would recommend the Odroid M1. Add a cheap nvme drive for the os (I prefer debian) and a 2,5" hdd. On top of debian you can install OMV for a webui based linux home server control. DietPi is nice for beginners too. And like other ppl already said, you can use docker/podman for running your software.
Oh and don’t forget the 3-2-1 backup rule. 3 Backups, 2 different media types (ssd, hdd, usb stick, cloud, …) and 1 offsite backup (cloud or hdd at your friend’s house).
Thank you for the info. I wasn’t aware of the 3-2-1 backup rule until now.
I started with an old computer, then I moved to Raspberry Pi’s and now in about to get rid of the last Pi since I’m replacing everting with small Lenovo or Intel PCs.
Yunohost is beginner friendly
Really depends on what you have, what you’re trying to store, etc, etc.
Like we need more info.
I’ve been running a windows desktop as my “server” for years, with a large data drive, that’s backed up by Crashplan.
It stores all our phone stuff - pictures, downloads, app Backups, etc, that get their via Syncthing and Foldersync.
I’m currently in the process of switching to a Raspberry Pi to handle a few things: Tailscale (mesh network), PiHole (for home network), Syncthing. It’s data drive (however I decide to do that, direct connected or some kind of NAS) will be backed up to a service like Backblaze B2 or something like it.
The power draw if that desktop is massive compared to the Pi. Granted the Pi lacks horsepower, but it should be fine for what I need it to do.
Sorry for the lack of clarification. I’m mainly into backing up personal and device data and the ability to add media through Plex. I’m also exploring the idea of self-hosting Bitwarden for password management, allowing access to data from anywhere through the internet. Although both Raspberry Pi and NAS are options, privacy concerns lead me to favour Raspberry Pi over NAS.
I think Pi will struggle with Plex. Maybe the latest version does it better, I’m not sure. Hit up a Pi forum or a Plex forum. I’ve seen it talked about.
There’s also mini PCs, that have real graphics, but have idle power draw of maybe 10 watts. More than idle on some Pi’s, but I believe RPi 4 idle is like 5 watts? 8 watts? I forget. Those mini PCs start around $100. They can run with a monitor or headless. You’ll see them talked about in Plex and Jellyfin forums/communities.
For everything else, you’re looking to do what I’m doing.
I just finished PiHole and Tailscale (mesh network, so all my mobile devices can now connect to home from anywhere with a transparent encrypted connection).
Bitwarden and Syncthing are next. And I’m looking to switch to dockers for this stuff.
Enabling SSH on RPi (basically you create an SSH file on the boot partition) https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-ssh/
Latest versions of RPi use nmcli command line for managing network interfaces, just an FYI.
Instructions for Tailscale on RPi https://tailscale.com/download/linux/rpi-bullseye FYI, requires a reboot after setup.
Syncthing on RPi https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-syncthing/
Here’s instructions for a PiHole Docker (I haven’t tried this, my PiHole I installed directly.) https://pimylifeup.com/pi-hole-docker/
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.
