Home Server OS Choices

LNoppy on 28/03/2023 - 10:56

Been running my old gaming pc* with a windows 11 install connected to my TV in my lounge room with the 3 HDDs pooled together in windows storage spaces to store a media collection. Have been using Jellyfin by having the pc directly connected to a S95b and launching Jellyfin media player from the windows desktop. The pc has been cruising just downloading using sabnzb with radarr and sonarr which im hoping to continue. Yesterday one of by HDDs from the last group buy died to my storage space as failed and I can't access the media and going to have to RMA the drive (not too fussed only kept downloaded content that i knew was replaceable if this happened.).

Moving forward I was thinking of the best way to improve things.
I was looking at something like TrueNAS core/scale or unraid to handle the NAS aspect of the server; storing media, family photos, purchasing receipts, work project files, game cache server, home appliance documentation.

I'm keen to dip my toes into self hosting as well with things like photoprism, a password manager, recipes, task manager, possibly pihole that i've got running on a rpi4b, nextcloud or something similar.

Am I best to run jellyfin server and media player on this server directly connected to the TV so I don't have to deal with compiling that jellyfin app to work on Tizen? Im guessing this way the gpu handles playing the 4k remuxes.

Will I need to run something like proxmox? Or can I just run TrueNAS or Unraid as the OS on a NVME drive and i'll be able to handle everything I want to do out of that?

Ability wise i can follow a guide and google solutions to work in terminal commands and have experience using SSH to configure my RPi.

*Fractal Define R6, 8700k, RTX 3070 or could use old gtx 1070, 3x18tb HDDs, Samsung 970evo nvme 1tb, 960pro 250gb nvme, 840pro sata, decent gigabyte z370 motherboard with 2x 1gb nic's, 6 sata connectors, 750w psu think i have 32gb or 64gb of ram available.

Computing Server

Comments

  • o53djz7qTPY4der on 28/03/2023 - 11:15
    +6

    I've tried various different OSs for my home server but returned to Debian stable about 18 months ago. It's rock solid, clean, lightweight and highly customisable. I think Bookworm is in Beta 2/Frozen and due to be released this year to replace Bullseye. I wont be upgrading for another 12 months but even then, don't see myself moving away from Debian.

    Debian does require some Linux knowledge though - plenty of resources online.

  • Switchblade88 on 28/03/2023 - 12:23

    I stuck with Win10 and Storage Spaces because that means it can do double duty as a gaming PC. TreNAS/Unraid might be OK for a dedicated hardware box with more than 3 drives but it didn't give me any advantages that I'd need.

    Especially if you've got it hooked directly to your TV - it'll be a better option than an app. Also means you can play couch co-op games!

  • Daabido on 28/03/2023 - 12:29

    2014 Mac Mini. Does most of that / all that I want. It is quiet, dependable, stable, and has more than paid for itself.

  • dogboy on 28/03/2023 - 12:31
    +1

    Tried FreeNAS and it was fine until it got corrupted and then was a nightmare to try and recover. Went back to Win10.

    • bazingaa on 28/03/2023 - 16:31

      ah good old FreeNAS, I had a Pentium-MMX running FreeNAS about 15 years ago

  • Chandler on 28/03/2023 - 13:40
    +2

    Welcome to the world of ~self-hosting~ home-server-ing!

    Personally I'd consider keeping the gaming machine for your gaming/windows needs (still connected to the TV and acting as a Jellyfin client) and getting a second machine to host your services on. I recently bought an old mini desktop (HP EliteDesk Mini) to serve as my home server, replacing my Raspberry Pi 3B. ServeTheHome has a series called TinyMiniMicro talking about doing just this - getting an ex-corporate mini desktop and using it as a home server.

    In terms of what to run - have a look through the capabilities of TrueNAS, UnRaid, EXSi and Proxmox and decide which route suits your needs best. I personally have been somewhat following in the footsteps of Alex Kretzschmar of the Self-Hosted podcast, using some of the information on his Perfect Media Server website. And thus I'm running Proxmox. So far so good - the main service I was running on the Pi (Home Assistant, a self-hosted home automation platform) has been operating flawlessly thus far. I have had issues with the other services I'm running: UniFi Controller, Pi-hole and (just stared with) Jellyfin; but I suspect that's due to my setup/configuration (Proxmox LXC containers) and not due to my using Proxmox. As an easy fix I'm been contemplating spinning up a VM for Docker and running them through that, but I've been stubbornly refusing as I should be able to get them to work via the LXC containers (just haven't had the time to investigate/fix). After typing all this out but I'm thinking I just get it running in Docker rather than trying to get them working via LXC (they run fine but after a time I can no longer access the web UIs, and Jellyfin I need to figure out how to setup the library).

    • Noppy on 28/03/2023 - 13:48

      Yes similar to what I am thinking of running. I want to do it all in this machine as the case has good space for HDD expansion in the future.

      • Chandler on 28/03/2023 - 13:58

        Yeah a full desktop would give a large amount of flexibility and expansion space - I got the mini desktop as (for someone without a desktop at all) it was a cheap but suitable option for my current needs.

        I suggested keeping the desktop for your gaming and media consumption as I'm unsure how any of those server systems will go with running games on a Windows VM - running Windows on Linux can be complicated enough as it is (from my understanding), but then your talking about gaming on Windows and all the added complications to that (i.e .GPU pass-through); although you could shift to gaming on Linux but then there's considerations there. I also didn't think dual-booting was an option, as it would then shut-down your server/services that were running on Linux. WSL could be a feasible option but I don't know if there's enough features/community there to have it working suitably.

    • forged on 28/03/2023 - 15:31
      +2

      Good advice.

      I started out on OpenMediaVault for NAS + hosting apps in Docker which was (relatively) simple and easy to get going with.

      Have since upgraded to a bigger server with a ZFS pool, now running heaps of stuff in Proxmox. Most of my services run out of Docker containers on a big Ubuntu VM, which in my opinion is a better choice than trying to wrangle LXC - they're all managed by docker-compose configs which are a breeze to edit using VSCode remote. Have also set up reverse proxy for a bunch of stuff with Traefik, using Authentik for auth.

      There are still a couple of LXC containers, such as a NFS server for sharing the ZFS data to the virtual machines.

      • Chandler on 28/03/2023 - 23:53
        +1

        Yeah if I use Docker I use docker-compose. I like the configuration style of those sorts of tools: docker-compose, Ansible and NixOS. (yet to use either of the latter two, but)

        such as a NFS server for sharing the ZFS data to the virtual machines

        Such a simple way of sharing data across containers/VMs, and I hadn't even thought of it - thanks!

  • vodamerc on 28/03/2023 - 13:45
    +1

    +1 for Debian

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 28/03/2023 - 13:57
    +1

    UnRaid. It's excellent.

    You can "trial" it indefinitely if you simply don't restart your machine. But trust me, you'll be impressed and buy a licence. It's simple to setup then basically set and forget.

    • Kill Joy on 28/03/2023 - 14:30
      +1

      Can atest to unraid. Great flexibility to role your own setup within unraid, or use the endless images/apps provided by the community if your new. Given its popularity, pretty much everything you'd want to do has 5 forum threads discussing it ready to go with a solution to your problem.

      I find the whole licensing implimentation model annoying (must run from a USB and changing any hardware or USB can be a pain), but it's a small price to pay.

  • Morien on 28/03/2023 - 14:21

    Ubuntu Server. For no reason other than it was the initial one I chose and am now used to it. I guess from that (and the other answers here), you may deduce that you should do your diligence in choosing (as you are), but don't get too overwhelmed. Whatever you start using will probably work fine.

  • Hybroid on 28/03/2023 - 14:36

    My HP Microserver still runs Windows 7 and it's been rock solid. No need to fix what ain't broke.

  • bazingaa on 28/03/2023 - 16:30

    I use Win10 Pro + Hyper-V + Remote Desktop on Micro/Tiny PCs like Dell 3040/Lenovo M700 (~$120 from previous deals)
    But I don't have storage servers, just computing (Home Assistant :P)

  • ihfree on 28/03/2023 - 16:59
    +1

    No poll?

    I've used Ubuntu server on a PI, Microserver and now a m700.

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