In a few months, I will have the space and infrastructure to join the selfhost community. I’m trying to prepare, as I know it can be challenging, but I somehow ended up with more questions than answers.
For context, I want to run a server with torrents, media (plex, Jellyfin or something else entirely - I didn’t make a decision yet), photos(Emmich, if its stable, or something else), Rook, Paperless, Home Assistant, Frigate, Adguard Home… Possibly lots more. Also, I will need storage - I’m planning for 3x18tb drives to begin with, but will certainly be adding more later.
My initial intention was to set up a NAS in Silverstone CS382(or Jonsbo N3/N5, if they’re in a reasonable price). I heard good things about Unraid and it’s capabilities of running docker. On the other hand, I’m hearing hood things about Proxmox or NixOS with NAS software running in a VM, too - but for Unraid, it seems hacky. Maybe I should run NAS and a separate server? That’d be more costly and seems like more work on maintenance with no real benefit. Maybe I should go with TrueNAS in a VM? If I don’t do anything other than NAS, TrueNAS shouldn’t be that hard to set up, right?
I’m also wondering whether I should go with Intel for QuickSync, AMD and Arc graphics or something else entirely. I’ve read that AV1 is getting popular, is AMD getting more support there? I will buy Intel if it’s clearly the better option, but I’m team Red and would prefer AMD.
Also, could anyone with a non-technical SO tell me how do they find your selhosted things? I’ve read about Cloudflare Tunnels and Tailscale, which will be a breeze for me, but I gotta think about other users aswell.
That’s another concern for me - am I correct in thinking Tailscale and Cloudflare Tunnels are all I need to access the server remotely? I will probably set up a PiKVM or the Risc one aswell, can it be exposed aswell? I will have a dream machine from Ubiqiti, anything that needs to run to access the server I may run there. I’m not looking to set up anything more complicated like Wireguard - it’s too much.
For additional context, I’m a software developer, I know my way with Docker and the command line and I consider myself to be tech savvy, but I’m not looking to spend every weekend reading changelogs and doing manual updates. I want to have an upgrade path (that’s why Im not going with Synology for example), but I also don’t want to obsess over it. Money isn’t much of an issue, I can spare 1-2k$ on the build, not including the drives.
Any feedback and suggestions appreciated :)
Was there 6 months ago, I’ll just share what I did: OS: I went with Unraid because you can mix different sized HDDs without loosing space, just make sure the parity disc is same size or bigger as the biggest one with data. I backup everything with duplicacy to a stupid nas (wd mybook i got 2nd hand) and to an external hosting via ssh.
Most CPU is used for video transcoding so I went with a 12th gen i3 12100, it’s more than enough for my usage. Just don’t make the same error as I did… I really recommend a better cooler than the boxed one. It can get loud when unmanic starts to converting bigger videos to h265.
My normal PC is fully team red as it just works better on Linux for gaming but for nas, 12th gen Intel seems to be the way to go as far as my research shows.
I don’t use a gpu and the slot for it is used for a DELL perc h310 SAS controller in IT mode for more discs.
Most services are not exposed and I use wireguard to access my server remotely. Single docker services are exposed with nginx reverse proxy manager and dyndns, my domain is set to resolve to local IP addresses when at home or through vpn, this way I can always use the same hostnames with valid certificates. I use a simple bash script in a cron job to update my dns zone.
I have other hardware to play around and did work with proxmox and other solutions, but this NAS had to just work without lot of tinkering and I’m really happy with it.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters IoT Internet of Things for device controllers NAS Network-Attached Storage Plex Brand of media server package RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native VPN Virtual Private Network ZFS Solaris/Linux filesystem focusing on data integrity
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I have one mini-ATX server with four drives in RAID 10. I find it easier to manage everything in one device. It runs Proxmox, with Almalinux in a VM that runs my Docker containers. Yes, it’s a layer of inefficiency, but I keep it that way partially because I migrated the VM to Proxmox from ESXi, and partially because I’m not confident in LXC being able to do everything Docker can.
I also run it that way because I have a handful of other VMs.
Unraid is bad at NAS and bad at docker. Go with a separate Nas and application server.
Married, we both work from home, and we’re in an apartment.
First, all of my weird stuff is not between her work and living room pcs and the internet. Cable modem connects to normal consumer router (openwrt) with four lan ports. Two of those are directly connected to her machines (requiring a 150-ish foot cable for one), and two connect to my stuff. All of my stuff can be down and she still has internet.
Second, no rack mount servers with loud fans, mid tower cases only. Through command line tools I’ve found some of these are in fact capable of a lot of fan noise, but this never happens in normal operation so she’s fine with it.
Separately I’d say, have a plan for what she will need if something happens to you. Precious memories, backups, your utility and service accounts, etc. should remain accessible to her if you’re gone and everything is powered off - but not accessible to a burglar. Ideally label and structure things so a future internet installer can ignore your stuff and set her up with normal consumer internet after your business internet account is shut off.
Also keep in mind if you both switch over so every movie and show you watch only ever comes from Plex (which we both like), in an extended power outage situation all of your media will be inaccessible. It might be good to save a few emergency-entertainment shows to storage you can browse from your phone, usb or iXpand drive you can plug directly into your phone for example.
What my setup will soon be for hardware: Gen 2 AMD epic 16 core CPU, Supermicro motherboard with lots of pcie slots, 128g ram, Intel arc a40 GPU, HBA card attached to a super micro disk shelf
Software: Proxmox for host is, Truenas Scale (just NAS) in VM with HBA card passed into VM, Plex in VM with Intel GPU passed in, 3 VMs for docker swarm (headless Debian)
Other thoughts: Cloud flare will only be helpful for things you want exposed to the internet. If you do that make sure you have a reverse proxy. This is how I expose services for non-tech family.
VPN will be more secure, but can also be more of a pain. I generally only do that for things only I need or only techy savvy people will use.
I’m a very satisfied proxmox user and I have almost all applications deployed with VM or containers. If you’re no a begginer into Linux/nas I think it is the best choice. On the other hand I would totally discard TrueNAS because it is too restrictive and hard to customize.
After years of messing around with cheap and unreliable hardware and complicated setups, I settled to a very stable and simple setup: one huge Dell server with a lot of spare SAS bays and plenty empty memory slots, driven by Proxmox. Within it only 4 VMs: One for pfSense, one for Home Assistant, one for Docker, and one for Ispconfig, as I host for some friends. I ended up using Truenas as it was such a pain to maintain and totally useless for my use case. Proxmox is good enough to run a simple ZFS Nas if you don’t need to manage dozens of shares and users. It’s now so hassle free that I start to become inclined to brake something just for the sake of it.
Which model Dell?
Buying few-year old enterprise gear can be a really cost-effective way to get a ton of power and expandability. But the noise, footprint, and power requirements seem pretty niche, even for homelab/selfhost people.
But I’m curious if you’re talking about a full-depth rack system like I’m assuming, or something else.
Personally, I switched to a handful of very small-footprint systems (mostly NUC/SFF PCs, and some laptops). And use cheap jbod enclosures when I need to add external storage.
It’s a R730XD. It draws 168W idle with 128GB of 2400Mhz, and 8 x 3.5" spinning drives. I started with small desktop computers, but I ended up compromising about everything: ram, disks, cards. Everything was braking one after an other, mostly because heat I would think. I (and my family) was constantly annoyed by the outages, so now I invested in a proper rack in my garage. It’s sometimes noisy, it’s somewhat power hungry, but god… Professional hardware is so comfortable to work with. iDRAC, ipmi, very good temperature management, lot of room for upgrades, reliability, I wouldn’t go back to the nightmare of half-assed computer. I now run everything I can think of so smoothly that I rarely get complains from anyone. It’s not only from the hardware side to be honest. Using traefik has been a massive improvement to ease my reverse proxying. Finally getting rid of Truenas a huge relief. And switching from a hardcore 20 year long Gentoo user to a Portainer’s noob a clever move to finally get some time to use the services I host instead of messing around with hundreds of config files.
By the way, I do not understand the huge paranoia about facing services to the internet. I’m happy to share my mail, websites, jellyfin, cloud services and what else to everyone interested. In the more than 30 years I’m online, I never been hacked in anyway. I might be lucky.
I’m currently using Unraid for pretty much every thing you listed, and I love it so much. I really appreciate being able to set up almost everything through the web interface. It makes my hobbies feel fun rather than just an extension of my day job.
That said, I bought the licence before they switched to a subscription model. So if I were starting over I might look into free alternatives.
Been running Unraid for almost a year. I was previously running Windows with nearly zero insight into the health of my apps, RAID, etc. Made me very nervous. Unraid makes it all so easy.
I’m running many of the apps you mentioned and the implementation of docker on Unraid is easy to install, update, etc. I used docker on Windows but it was not the same. I’m not a software dev, so I’m not sure why you said Unraid’s docker implementation is hacky. It seems good to me.
The reason I switched to Unraid was I had to add more storage to my RAID and that was impossible in Windows without destroying the RAID and losing my data. I considered TrueNAS, but my understanding is the same is true. They’re supposed to be adding that capability soon ™️ but who knows when that’ll actually be available and reliable. Unraid let’s you add more storage whenever and the drives don’t have to match. I love the flexibility.
I use Nginx Proxy Manager docker to access my apps externally. My SO is not tech savvy and after setting up the individual apps with the domain I have, it’s usually smooth sailing. If I ever need to do any mucking about with the server itself, I turn on UI teleport. I also have a PiKVM but have only needed to use it a couple times. It’s just not necessary with how reliable Unraid is.
My server has an i5-6600 and utilizes QuickSync, which is great. More energy efficient than a dedicated GPU. I’ve considered adding a GPU but I haven’t run into a situation where I need it.
Tldr: highly recommend Unraid.
Keep it as simple as possible to start with and then expand if you feel there is a need. No need for two servers. The first thing you should buy though is a book about basic network design and security if you’re not familiar with it. It may feel like overkill now but future you will thank yourself.
As for the family in the same house… I try to make it as seamless as possible. Sometimes there is no need to tell them because the new service I set up integrates nicely with our devices. And sometimes I tell them “we have X now which does this, you can go to http://x.y.z.lan or use the app”.
Some random and probably not very popular opinions.
- I would check out eBay for used parts and find a decent motherboard with an IPMI interface. Find an appropriate case with good reviews if you’re not gonna mount your server in a rack.
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- Install FreeBSD and use zfs in a raid configuration that fits you if you care about your data. Run all your services in separate jails and be done with it. You don’t need Docker anyway for your private NAS.
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- Plex, Jellyfin, the *arr stack and a few other resource hogging services have a nice web ui but that’s about it. Do you really, really, need transcoding and all the features? Set up NFS, DLNA or whatever and use whatever client you like. I can’t access my Jellyfin library right now because the backend is apparently too old (wtf). Meanwhile VLC and a few other more fancy frontend clients with cover art, ratings and stuff works just fine accessing the same files over NFS. You don’t have to run some convoluted bullshit and reinvent the wheel every time just because you can.
I can’t access my Jellyfin library right now because the backend is apparently too old (wtf).
Are you using the binhex image by any chance? I had this same problem, just had to update it from the apps/community center page instead of from the docker page.
No, the FreeBSD version from the ports tree. Equivalent to installing a package in a Linux distribution from the built-in repo’s.
I rarely use it anyway and I could just upgrade, but enforcing an update by disabling all functionality still feels a bit excessive. Makes me wonder if any other artificial restrictions have been imposed.
At least in the case of jellyfin, it’s not exactly just a “resource hogging frontend”.
For instance it keeps track of watch progress, in episode and through the series, and what did you watch last time so you can continue with whichever.
Allows you to remote control your player device (handy if it’s a TV or something like that) from your phone or another anything with a web browser.
It fetches info about the movies and series so it looks nice and for your users it is easier to pick something for themselves.
It has integration for MPV (and probably a few other players) so it does all the above.And it does all these things in a way that everything is available across all your devices. Not just the content, but watch progress and everything else.
Something tells me you also tell your family that a Linux computer with no desktop environment is all one needs for everyday tasks.
And finally for OP: you don’t have to learn FreeBSD for ZFS, because Linux has it too. Because of licensing issues installation is a bit more complicated in most distros, but if you use Proxmox, they have done that part for you.
What I’ve realized in my (very limited) experience in selfhosting, it’s always best to use a general purpose server OS rather than anything geared to a specific usecase, unless that’s the only thing you’re gonna use it for. So, if you want a separate NAS drive, then it’s a good idea to use TrueNAS on it. But on your main server, it’ll be best to use some sort of RHEL downstream distro like AlmaLinux.
The way I’ve done it is Ubuntu Server with a bunch of Docker Compose stacks for each service I run. Then they all get their own subdomain which all runs through the Nginx Proxy Manager service to forward to the right port. The Portainer service lets me inspect things and poke around, but I don’t manage anything through it. I want it all to be super portable, so if Ubuntu Server becomes too annoying, I can pack it all up and plop it into something like Fedora Server.
I’ve been running Unraid for over 5 years now and it has been great. I just checked the uptime on it and it’s been running for 146 days, 11 hours, 31 minutes. I should probably check for updates…
I used to run a Threadripper 2950x with 64GB of RAM as my main system and built a new PC when Ryzen 5000 came out and the Threadripper system became the Unraid server. I threw it into a 24-bay, 4U Supermicro CSE-846 with a LSI SAS9211-8I HBA and an extra RTX 3060 I had for hardware transcoding Plex. I have 64TB of storage at the moment with no drive being larger than 8TB. Having 24 bays is nice for that. The server is in a rack in my cellar so sound isn’t an issue for me. I’ve thought about switching to an Epyc setup just to have IPMI built into the motherboard instead of buying a separate KVM device
I have 8 containers and 5 VMs running. I have multiple VLANs setup on my UDM Pro and Juniper switches. A camera VLAN, one for IoT devices for Home Assistant. A Tailscale exit node container is all I use to access the server remotely. I also have a Rustdesk server VM setup for private remote desktop
I’m biased towards TrueNAS scale, because in my experience, it’s been really rock solid, running on bare metal. It also allows you to setup things like Nextcloud/Tailscale/ a lot more, in 1 click from their “app store”. It’s also got all the virtualization bells and whistles. As for ZFS, again, just like everything else, it’s been rock solid and setting up a ZFS pool is pretty much done for you when you install TN Scale.
As for remote access, I’ve always personally done it via a local Wireguard server and can’t really compare it to tailscare or whatever cloudflare does… Because I’ve never used those.
If you need a GPU just for encoding, go on the 2nd hand market and pick up a used Nvidia RTX 2000/3000 card. Intel Arc could also work, but it’s a bit quirky afaik…
