First Home Server Setup Has No Clear Starting Point
Individuals are eager to self-host various services (media, storage, utilities) but lack the technical expertise and experience to do so reliably. They're exploring platforms like Proxmox and Docker, seeking guidance on setup, maintenance, and security, often starting with limited hardware resources.
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“For VMs run whatever makes the install/ dependencies easiest. Debian for standard stuff. Ubuntu if that's easier. When you get into graphics acceleration then maybe an arch flavor if you need very new (or very old, thanks AUR) drivers. Find a cool program / service…”
“And homeassistant or immich can be setup in there own lxc (ve) which has been nice.”
“I have similar requirements and I think a similar skillset and use Debian server (bare metal) plus Runtipi. That gives a CasaOS-esque docker management system with an app store and you can still do normal Debian stuff. For file sharing I used to do it via command line but I've recently installed the cockpit-files plugin by 45 drives.”
Recommending talos to a newbie is like abandoning a newborn in the wild
I enjoy OpenMediaVault, zero qualms for my usage! And it’s Debian based
“Just basic Ubuntu. Especially if you’re learning. You’ll quickly figure out choosing an OS doesn’t lock you into anything. Spin up a Vm or repurposed hardware and experiment. Oh and “production” and “experiment” should be separated lol”
“Hello guys, i‘m in a bit of a struggle and wanted to get some advice regarding the os for my homeserver. I started with ZimaOS on nan old laptop (7200u, 8gb of Ram) to just run Jellyfin and Nextcloud. Now I switched to Proxmox to explore the mire „professionell“side of homelabbing, but I have close to zero terminal / bash / shell knowledge. Now my question is: What OS should I pick as a complete beginner for these Services? - Jellyfin with Quick Sync - Nextcloud - AdGuard - optinally a vm for so”
“Okay for context I'm new to self hosting and mainly for now I wanted to setup a Minecraft server, possibly expand to photos/movies too in the future, but main goal is modded Minecraft to play with friends I plan to either buy a cheap workstation pc, or use a old laptop I'm new to Ubuntu, docker etc. but not tech illiterate, I'm more confused on which path to take, or how to get where I want, I know I should start by running Ubuntu on the device I see people recommend CasaOs with craf”
“its hard to answer without knowing more details. who will support it? do you have experience with it? what backup platform do you use? what storage?”
“I said i wanted to start with hosting minecraft servers and a discord bot Im not completely sure what Im going to make this project out to be. God forbid a man crosses a bridge when he gets there. I have bigger fish to fry. I came on here to ask what to do to start setting it up in the first place. One of my starting lines is literally “I have bo fucking clue where to get started.” And to answer, your question, a physical server.”
“Hello! I’m buying a house and I want to add some security. I have a Beelink S12 that I currently use for DMM and Plex, but I’m thinking I could use it to help with my plans here. I don’t want to pay for a security service. I’d like for it to be hosted at home, and I’d like to access it remotely and get notifications. My plan is to get a few exterior cameras, as well as some sensors (water leak, glass break, door, maybe others). I’m also planning to run combo CO/fire detectors, so I want a sensor”
“Im like a good 59% sure this is the correct subreddit to post in. So. I have been into PCs for around 2 years now so I know what im doing for the most part when it comes to PC building and I decided to start building a server. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jWdV4g (Also important to note: I will be repurposing an old 1TB HDD to hold backups. As well, I will be getting a UPS.) Note: No, the GPU will not be installed. Only when changes are needed. Problem is, I have no fucking clue where to get sta”
“Thanks! Do you know if it's possible to install things via SSH when using ZimaOS? For me to install nordvpn and activate meshnet it looks like I will need to do something like that. Example: sh <(wget -qO - https://downloads.nordcdn.com/apps/linux/install.sh )”
“The best guide of all time is this one from unveroleone: https://unveroleone.com/docs/home-server/media-automation/media-automation It's easy to understand and also you can use an AI Agent to talk to.”
“Yeah it's a lot at first haha, thanks for the advice! I'll try to document everything as I go, glad there are communities to turn to in case things go wrong”
Hello everyone I had an old computer lying around at home and thought I’d try experimenting with Home Assistant. After doing a lot of reading to figure out how to install it,…
“Yeah, I have tried researching all the options here. Can you install things via SSH on truenas as well? For my remote setup to work I would need to install nordvpn and activate meshnet directly on the device. Example: sh <(wget -qO - https://downloads.nordcdn.com/apps/linux/install.sh )”
“> Grab debian, grab a system with 2 NICs, make it your router/firewall/gateway.The problem with this (assuming you meant a generic (x86?) system) is that you won't get wire speed processing (no hardware offloading), so network performance will suffer. Unless you buy a dedicated router board (which is typically ARM), like say something like the Banana Pi BPI-R4. But installing/configuring a standard distro line Debian for such a board would be a PITA (if you want to do it right and set it up opti”
“So, I self-host AIOStreams. I want to share it with my family and my friends. But i'm afraid that they gonna share it with someone else or accidentally leave it used on other device and other people keep using it. I know the best way to keep it from abuse is to not share it at all or share it with someone who really understand the risk and can keep it to himself. But sharing is caring right?? I think limiting 1 IP at a time for 1 user will solve this problem. I read this doc ( https://docs.a”
“Hey all, The company I'm part of just took over a lab/office sublease, ~8500 sq ft, with inherited cabling, rack, AV, Brivo readers. The previous tenant is pulling their gear (Meraki MX85 + MS350s + MR57), so I need to figure out the firewall/switches/APs from scratch. There's ~20 people right now. Answers for the usual questions: Compliance: SOC2 this year, so I need VLAN segmentation on instrument PCs + central logging. We have cyber insurance. Heavy traffic load internally, as we have”
“It used to be me. I resisted Linux for many, many years. Then I just went and started doing the foundational Linux courses, I think the ITIL learning path or something, and a Docker course from Nigel Poulton that I had access to on Pluralsight. Opened up new career options when I could actually drive it.”
“I just use restic. It works on everything and can create really small incremental backups really quickly. All it really needs is ssh credentials to the destination server / a network share / a physical drive attached to the host. The only “downside” is that it’s all managed via the CLI”
“Have heard good things about it, just haven’t found a way to get NordVPN meshnet working on it. If I end up skipping that part of my setup (or make it work on my router somehow) then that OS is high on my list since it is beginner friendly (or looks like it at least haha )”
“I personally use Ubuntu and have no complaints. Pretty common and well documented. I’m a bit new into linux myself and idk how important OS is… Usually it’s “headless” and accessed only through SSH in a command prompt on another computer. edit: As long as it’s still being updated for security and such it should be fine, my personal suggestion is to use whatever is most common and well documented to reduce headache later.”
“Yeah for now I am tempted to do exactly that. Might study proxmox on the side for a more complex setup further down the line if I change hardware. Gives me some time to adjust to the jungle of Linux command lines / terminal usage as well since that is completely new to me. Tips on Linux os? The main ones on my radar is Debian, Ubuntu or Zorin.”
“Look up how to use cloud init and use the Debian 12 cloud image. Qm disk import is the command. I've started doing this and it makes everything a breeze. Combine that with docker and komodo, lovely.”
“A lot of people saying to use proxmox here but I don’t think you need it. Using docker on any linux OS will do what you want it to without the extra overhead of Proxmox.”
“I'm planning to migrate my homelab from a bare-metal Ubuntu install to Proxmox for better service isolation and easier backups. Right now, I run my entire media stack, AdGuard Home, Vaultwarden, torrent clients etc. in docker containers on Ubuntu. From the research I've done so far, it seems the common approach is to run an Ubuntu VM for most docker workloads, while keeping services like AdGuard Home in separate LXC containers. Is this how most of you structure your Proxmox setup? If not”
“Long-time self-hoster here; running a lot of selfhosted apps that my wife also uses. Think of Home Assistant, Nextcloud, Immich, Firefly III, Vaultwarden, and more than a handful of other services. Like a lot of you, I'm the only one in my household who understands any of it, and honestly the only one who knows where half the important family stuff lives too; bank accounts, subscriptions, warranties, documents. That's been nagging at me: what happens if I'm unreachable for a while, o”
“Im just gonna get straight to the point but. Im interested as a beginner in selfhosting/networking and though that making a small Minecraft server is an excellent way to just start tinkering. I have an old desktop PC which I plan to install linux on (drbian or Ubuntu) and then using it as the server. This is just me tinkering in the "field" of self-hosting so realistically the servers probably gonna be used for a momth if less for now. And I also am looking to spend 0 dollars. Main Que”
“What a lovely post, absolutely loved the questions, you’re asking the right ones and ones I relate to! Welcome to the self-hosting world! If you’re a beginner and want stuff to just simply.. work… I’d recommend something like CasaOS/ZimaOS or HexOS. I believe you can make them work with Meshnet with some tinkering Personally, I rip them separately for convenience, but that’s because my setup is not quite finalised It’s really great that you have this futureproofing mindset, but tbh this is somet”
“Well they’re 2, it’s better to have 2 dns so if one fails you have the secondary dns. The other pi is an adsb receiver so I can have free premium in plane finder, flight aware and flight radar.”
I'm fairly new to home networking, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can while building my network (I just built my own server with some self hosted apps). My…
“Hi everyone, just discovered the world of self-hosting and I’m both very excited and very overwhelmed. I am as new to this as you can be; have only used windows, never built a computer, never set up a server, no vm experience etc. Everything is new, but I am willing to learn. The plan is to create a self-hosted Jellyfin media server out of my large collection of DVDs and Bluerays on an unused desktop computer (basically using it as a NAS). But after watching a vast amount of different YouTube vi”
“Adding to my above....: Unraid may be a good middle ground for you (but has a cost.) It still hand holds but seems to do well supporting most self hosted apps out of the box. I don't use it myself but helped a cousin set it up and I was surprised that it was pretty seamless.”
“We don't do bulk file storage on virtual guests. That said, 2.6TB isn't the worst I've seen. You have a third option, which is making a new VMDK and adding it as a separate disk.”
“I'm rebuilding my entire home media setup and would appreciate some guidance from people with experience running Debrid, Usenet, Decypharr, and Plex/Infuse together. My Hardware Internet & Network 100 Mbps fiber (fastest plan available in my area, so upgrading isn't an option) UniFi UCG Ultra router Everything hardwired via Gigabit Ethernet (NAS, Dune HD Pro 8K Plus, Apple TV 4K) NAS UGREEN DXP4800 Plus, 16GB RAM 1TB SSD (Docker & apps) 6TB WD Red Pro (more drives coming later) M”
“I created a virtual homelab in Azure with Windows Server and Windows 11, and while I did learn a little, at a certain point I ran out of things to do. The challenging part was finding something challenging. Its not fun fixing broken things when I'm the one who broke it, so I don't learn anything. Doing tasks in PowerShell was fun, but its like once you understand what and why you automate tasks and understand scripting ChatGPT and Claude can do most of the heavy lifting with that and I c”
“The best option is the one you are comfortable maintaining. Most of us aren't running the server stack for a major network, it's just our personal libraries. For local network access nearly any hardware and OS combination is sufficient. You are asking a very focused, niche community though, so you're going to get very focused, niche responses. Odds are you would be fine running Windows. Docker on Windows isn't any harder, so long as you have virtualization enabled in your bios an”
“My homelab/SelfHost needs are pretty simple, I’m learning that I don’t need much. Just an arr stack, file storage, and (eventually) ROM management. I was using ZimaOS for a while and loved it, it worked for what I needed. However after a time away from home, something happened to the hardware I was running it on and my server went caput. I used this as an excuse to try proxmox again and got proxmox going on a spare NUC (a blessing in disguise, the office PC I was running it on wouldn’t have been”
“haha, yeah. Small business here, so for us, one file that's 2.6tb in size is large for us”
“Would love to give it a while. Been trying various projects the past year. Can spin up a proxmox lxc/VM this weekend.”
“I have a very similar hdd backup strategy, nightly one hdd does a snapraid sync to the other and its not on otherwise. Good point”
“Not posting this as a homelab cluster pitch (already did that one over in r/homelab if anyone's curious) this is more about what you can actually run on a single one of these day to day, since I think that's the more useful angle for this sub specifically. The part that matters most here isn't the console branding, it's the architecture underneath it: Component Spec CPU Zen 4, 6c/12t, boosts to 4.8GHz GPU RDNA3, 28 CUs, 8GB dedicated GDDR6 RAM 16GB DDR5 Storage 512GB or 2TB NVMe,”
“Hello, I have a Aoostar R1 N100 but I’m planning to buy a NAS or a mini PC to expand my storage and keep my Aoostar only for Jellyfin. My problem is « How to connect multiple devices in TrueNAS ? » and if I’m not wrong it’s impossible or limited. Other problem is my Aoostar only have 1 slot for ssd and TrueNAS use all the ssd. Is proxmox the same ? I want to install my containers on my ssd So I think I will switch from TrueNAS to proxmox. But can I do it easily ? Can I add external storage easil”
“Nach Jahren mit eigenem Server (Zima OS, CasaOS, Docker, Plex, Nextcloud, ZeroTier) habe ich mal alles aufgeschrieben, was ich gerne am Anfang gewusst hätte. Rausgekommen ist ein ~70-Seiten-Buch für absolute Anfänger: - Hardware wählen (NAS vs Mini-PC) - Zima OS / CasaOS einrichten - Medien-Server + NZBGet - Eigene Cloud (Nextcloud) - VPN-Zugang ohne offene Ports - Backups nach 3-2-1 - Monitoring + Troubleshooting Keine Theorie, sondern genau das, was ich täglich mache. Für Leute, die weg von Cl”
“I'm planning to set up a website that might scale, and also need to run openclaw on the same server. Looking for best VPS hosting providers with decent performance, reliable uptime, and good customer support. What do you recommend? My budget is around $10 to $20 per month and I’d prefer an EU location reliable uptime snapshots backups and the option to scale later submitted by /u/OrthoThomas [link] [comments]”
“The problem with using k8s on homelabs, is that a lot of the applications you would usually deploy, are not designed for it; having to manage a bunch of persistent volumes because most of your applications use sqlite is not very practical, and if the backend is sqlite, then you are probably running only one pod, so no real HA (if the pod goes down k8s will start a new one though), if you have to go through hoops to deploy an application that's not designed for it decreases its value.Having said”
“Hey guys, month's ago I moved all of my self-hosted Docker containers off my individual Raspberry Pi's and onto a dedicated rack PC running docker ect. It’s been awesome having the extra horsepower, but it leaves me with a classic homelab dilemma: I now have a stack of six Raspberry Pi 3Bs just sitting on top of my rack gathering dust. I still have another 1 running pihole and another controlling the apc ect can't remember the app name. I’d love to hook them all back up and build som”
“A bit about my constraints: - Not a coder, so looking for stuff that's reasonably low-mid maintenance to set up and keep running. +1 if it doesn't break for long time. - Don't need web hosting or a static site host - my personal pages are already on GitHub Pages - Don't need self-hosted DNS/ad-blocking - already using dns.adguard.com on my devices - Free tier bandwidth is capped at 1GB/month egress, so anything bandwidth-heavy (media streaming, big file serving, remote backups) i”
“Hi everyone, I'm designing a backup and disaster recovery strategy for a production ThingsBoard deployment . My ThingsBoard works on Ubuntu + Postgres on AWS LightSail. I'm aware that there is Version Control feature in ThingsBoard but I dont think that is enough and it is not an alternative for backups ig.. For those running self hosted applications in thingsboard, can you please let me know how to backup the dB specifically and what else do you backup apart from the dB? How often and w”
“Hi everyone, I'm designing a backup and disaster recovery strategy for a production ThingsBoard deployment . My ThingsBoard works on Ubuntu + Postgres on AWS LightSail. I'm aware that there is Version Control feature in ThingsBoard but I dont think that is enough and it is not an alternative for backups ig.. For those running self hosted applications in thingsboard, can you please let me know how to backup the dB specifically and what else do you backup apart from the dB? How often and w”