Looking at hosting a basic mail/web/vpn server from home, but want it to be power efficient.
Thinking a raspberry pi with a linux setup, but not really sure of any alternatives?
Has anybody done this?
What setup do you recommend?
Do you think a raspberry pi 4 will be sufficient to do these tasks?
It doesn't need to be physical just looking at the most cost effective setup - (not including my time of course).
I think a pi would cost me about $10 a year to run.
Why you want to run a mail server locally? is it for business ? I wouldn't do that unless your internet is 99.999% reliable.
How basic is basic as a web server? just html? no database?
I know my setup is crazy, but i want my emails to be working 100%
In my past experience, internet is less reliable than maintaining it (patching) is time consuming, PI4 and SD card, so far no issues.
I want to run it for my own business and for self teaching purposes too!
I understand there are negatives to running it yourself but the cost is a big factor and the skills that come with it.
Website I am thinking just using a CMS like wordpress or similar for something very basic.
I want to run it for my own business
Don't do it, especially the mail server. It's easy to get an email server online (assuming the ISP is not blocking inbound port 25), but difficult to do it properly. It involves more than just the MTA but also DNS (DKIM, SPF, etc).
For connecting to a VPN, look at your router which might already have the functionality.
self teaching purposes
Do it on a VM with your existing hardware. VirtualBox for example.
Website I am thinking just using a CMS like wordpress or similar
Same. Get the business site hosted by someone professional. Lots of local deals here. For learning/testing, just use a VM on your existing computer.
I'm running vpn/nas/flex/HA/firewall in one pi 4 without issue. Only performance issues I'm getting when writing large files to the file server.
Mad! Do you know the power draw?
Can you actually get 100Mbps VPN on a Raspberry pi?
I don't use the full bandwidth through VPN, I only use as required bases.
All traffic — > router ->
if required, (proxy) — > [pi - vpn] — router ->
for pihole —> getway —> [pi - pihole ~ vpn] — router ->
Any chance you can share the guide you used to setup for one of these? I'm looking to build a NAS + firewall/pihole in the next few months.
I'm using basic samba share for NAS but everything else as dockers.
https://hub.docker.com/r/qmcgaw/private-internet-access
https://hub.docker.com/r/homeassistant/home-assistant
https://hub.docker.com/r/pihole/pihole
https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/transmission
Can't remember the firewall of top of my head.
I used to had Flex server on it as well, then I moved to Nvidia Shield TV Pro
Personally, I would not use Pi as NAS
Thank you! I'll start here.
@DarthAntz: For NAS, you got two solutions.
https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2019/12/24/how-to-build-a-r…
Samba share was fine for me.
@boomramada: I'll probably setup one of these for NAS, then I can use a pihole connection for things like my smart TV and connections that dont have adblocking.
Thanks for starting me on the right path.
I'm curious to know about hosting a mail server. I've been under the impression that unless an email is sent from a trusted mail server, a lot of recipients will block your emails because of suspected spam
It is something I am currently looking into, I think this is where the bulk of the setup time goes into.
Too true.
I run my own mail servers and it's an absolute nightmare to be trusted. So much so that I no longer use those addresses.
It's very sad.
There's services around that offer mail routing services (to avoid the trusted server bs).
https://www.mailroute.net/ is one (not vouching for them, but a podcast I listen to recently rolled their own mailserver and mailroute was mentioned/involved)
Trust can be established, with the right support (SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication).
but i suspect many smtp servers will reject mail from residential or dynamic ip ranges
You shouldn't have any issues running it on a Raspberry Pi. The only issue I see is the mail server. I personally wouldn't run a mail server on a home server as there are many requirements to ensure a successful and reliable mail server. Without the proper setup and configuration, you will have emails marked as spam if they are even delivered at all. You would be better off running it on a small VPS but I do not see an issue with the VPN or Web Server.
Thanks for your advice! I will just be experimenting at this stage, the feasibility of it all is still in question.
A headless RPi 3B+ with no usb peripherals runs on a 5W usb charger. The cost really is $10/year.
A RPi4 might use a little more power as the recommended is a 3A usb charger.
They are pretty cheap to run! I would say the Pi 4 would be worth though.
QNAP or Synology NAS with Docker?
Not familiar with Docker, will check it out!
Does it need to be physical? Could you look at AWS or similar?