Home Servers\Homelabs: NAS, Plex, & Everything Else

[Sonny Bonds]

I'm thinking about investing in a home server to mess around with (in small part to mess around with Linux more and also just to have another nerd project for fun), but I'm not sure what to get. Or if I even want anymore electronic hardware around my place.

I checked other forums and...some of those people have too much money (and more space than me).

Do any of you have servers or a NAS? What do you use it for? How much did it cost?

 

[MR. SNIFLES]

YOU CAN BUILD A GOOD ONE FOR REAL CHEAP. THEY DON'T REQUIRE MUCH POWER. YOU JUST NEED A FAT HARD DRIVE.

 

[Solano707]

Intel NUCs are great for this.

 

[el_oh_el]

I have aboud 46TB worth of movies and tv shows that I stream to friends and family. Anywhere to as much as 10 people stream at a time so far, but usually around 2.
What you should look into purchasing depends ENTIRELY on your use case. Otherwise we are pissing in the dark here

 

[JerkPork]

NVIDIA Shield to run Plex Server (and client if you want to). Point that to a NAS.

 

[Ukbrotha]

I have a Synology server. Its great.

 

[xXMASHERXx]

I'm thinking about investing in a home server to mess around with (in small part to mess around with Linux more and also just to have another nerd project for fun), but I'm not sure what to get. Or if I even want anymore electronic hardware around my place.

I checked other forums and...some of those people have too much money (and more space than me).

Do any of you have servers or a NAS? What do you use it for? How much did it cost?

In order to give you a good answer we need to know what you are trying to do. If all you want to do is play with linux, you can create a VM for that.

 

[Golayitdown]

I built a NAS server that doubles as a tinkering machine for all kinds of stuff. I heavily use Docker which lets me sandbox all kinds of stuff. I use OpenMediaVault as my OS. It's based on Linux Debian under the hood but has a web interface which allows it to run headless after the installation.

I'd suggest stating your needs before trying to get suggestions to buy something either way. I like to build, tinker, and upgrade my computers so I went the from scratch route.

 

[el_oh_el]

I built a NAS server that doubles as a tinkering machine for all kinds of stuff. I heavily use Docker which lets me sandbox all kinds of stuff. I use OpenMediaVault as my OS. It's based on Linux Debian under the hood but has a web interface which allows it to run headless after the installation.

I'd suggest stating your needs before trying to get suggestions to buy something either way. I like to build, tinker, and upgrade my computers so I went the from scratch route.

Docker is fukkin amazing honestly

 

[Golayitdown]

Docker is fukkin amazing honestly

The idea is remarkable. Being able to sandbox shyt and remap ports has simplified my setup so much. Years ago, I would have damn near had to reinstall or restore my server OS when some of my core apps has fatal errors because of how involved the installation process is and how much some of these things touch.

Now it's damn near a 10 second process to get something back to its factory state with absolutely zero effect on the OS. Not to mention if I want to change my OS, my entire docker config is portable.

 

[el_oh_el]

The idea is remarkable. Being able to sandbox shyt and remap ports has simplified my setup so much. Years ago, I would have damn near had to reinstall or restore my server OS to when some of my core apps has fatal errors because of how involved the installation process is and how much some of these things touch.

Now it's damn near a 10 second process to get something back to its factory state with absolutely zero affect on the OS. Not to mention if I want to change my OS, my entire docker config is portable.

Yep, exactly. Every service has its own little OS sandboxed off to the side.

 

[TripleAgent]

NVIDIA Shield to run Plex Server (and client if you want to). Point that to a NAS.

This (Kodi, not Plex)

I have a Synology server. Its great.

And this. This NAS is great. Just lost an old hard drive. New one came overnight from Amazon, restored, and I'm good

 

[soulfuljah]

I'm in the process of building up my joints now:
*Main Server - Xeon Gold 6138/256GB/2x480GB and 2x960GB NVME/Still debating on motherboard and case
*Storage Media - Xeon D-1541/8x10TB Hard Drives/64GB RAM

Spoiler

Xpenology

*Lab Box - X10DRL-CT/2xE5-2650Lv3/256GB RAM/Some random NVMEs
*Backup/Veeam - X10SRi/E5-2630Lv4/32GB RAM/4x10TB Hard Drives

I got a server that I'm trying to get rid of now. 2 10 core CPUs with 192GB RAM.

Seems like this is a never ending project. Everytime I check my projects account.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

I want learn Linux system administration, but I'm also really into the idea of a home media server.

 

[Golayitdown]

I want learn Linux system administration, but I'm also really into the idea of a home media server.

If you choose a linux based media server, you can dabble in both.