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Advice for Setting Up a Multi-purpose Home Server (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by AlwaysADumbQuestion@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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Hi!

tldr, i want to do a lot of different things. is it recommended to use one single server?

I'm planning to set up a home server and need guidance and opinions on a few things.

Storing Personal Media: To host images from my camera and phone.
Media Server/Data Backup: To back up movies that I own, along with important documents like mortgage information and taxes documents. etc.
Virtualization: To set up VMs for testing and various other uses.
Web Hosting: I'd like to run small websites that are currently running on Digital Ocean
Networking: I have opnsense, maybe I'd like to consolidate.
General Storage: For storing ebooks and miscellaneous files.

I have several questions and concerns:

Hardware Selection: What type of server hardware should I consider for these tasks? Would it be more beneficial to build my own server or to purchase a pre-built one?
Data Segregation and Security: How should I separate sensitive personal data from public website data on the server? Are there specific security practices I should follow?
Storage Practices: What are the best practices for storing different types of data (e.g., personal, public, general storage) on a multi-purpose server?

Thank you in advance for your help and insights!

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[–] Zyrt@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A lot of people say go modern because of power consumption. I would say get as much storage as you can. Biggest thing is to just start because you will improve it over time.

You can buy a used prebuilt server on eBay or get one without drives and get the drives. For $500 you can get like a g9 hp g8 dell both will be fine

[–] wintersedge@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Couple questions:

What is your budget?
Do you already have hard drives? If yes, what physical size, storage size, and quantity?
Do you have a rack?
How much dedicated power do you have?
What area will the server live? Does it have access to HVAC? Does the server need to stay under a given decibel?
What components do you already have?

[–] AlwaysADumbQuestion@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

What is your budget?

thanks, i should've included this. i don't want to go too crazy here, I'd really love to stay under $1000.

Do you already have hard drives? If yes, what physical size, storage size, and quantity?

i do not.

Do you have a rack?

i do not.

How much dedicated power do you have?

I'm not sure what you mean. This will ideally live in an apartment and eventually a home.

What area will the server live? Does it have access to HVAC? Does the server need to stay under a given decibel?

It'll likely stay in a room designated for an office. I don't want a giant 42u rack or anything.

What components do you already have? starting from scratch!

[–] craveness@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Something like a Lenovo M70q ot similar TinyMiniMicro PC should work. Get a NAS for external storage as your needs grow.