Now that the foundation for the home network had been laid, it was time to install a small home server that would also provide some network services as a comprehensive NAS replacement. The biggest challenge here was undoubtedly the network cabinet, which was actually far too small.
It was foreseeable and already teased in the first part of the series that a small server would be built in the course of the project as an “all-in-one solution” for archiving data and providing a few simple network services. During the planning and implementation of this wish, I unfortunately ran into various problems. In the end, the biggest hurdle was the network cabinet, which was far too small and into which you can’t simply slide a discarded old 19″ server, which you can buy on every corner for little money.
Requirements – What must the “server” be able to do?
What was initially only intended as a compact and energy-saving NAS solution in the form of a small QNAP or Synology quickly developed into the desire for a “real” server. Let’s not kid ourselves: Hobby rarely has anything to do with reason, does it?
Data storage
First and foremost, I was interested in secure “archiving” of data. A place where I can store my photos and documents relatively securely, some of which I’ve been keeping alive for decades. Of course, to guarantee real “security”, you would have to back up all the data in several places at the same time and go to a huge amount of effort, but I wouldn’t want to go that far for a few photos and videos. A few terabytes would be enough for my “important” data and memories. I had initially considered a RAID 5 system, which offers a good compromise between price/performance and reliability. As this is mainly for archiving and I don’t need to constantly transfer the data back and forth, I don’t need super-fast SSD storage or 10G LAN.
Network services
During my studies and also to live out my hobby and play around, I had already played around with various network services over the years. Unfortunately, you can’t avoid essential things like databases etc. and if you develop a certain interest in them, it can sometimes be really fun to get to grips with the various technologies and services. I also recently enjoyed filtering DNS queries to specifically block advertising content from websites, which I will also present again in the next part of the series.
Docker and virtual machines
The next feature that has increasingly piqued my interest is the use of Docker and virtual machines in general. I like testing out new operating systems and it’s often a bit annoying to fiddle around with USB images or risk breaking something on the production system. Wouldn’t it be great if you could run virtual machines on your home server and access and play around with them via the web browser from any client on the network?
The solution: UnRaid Server
After careful consideration, the decision was made that a small home-made server based on normal consumer hardware would be the simplest solution. A simple NAS would have been too little for me to play with and would most likely have ended up offering poorer value for money – especially in view of the range of functions and computing power that can be realized with a home-built server. I will present the UnRaid operating system, its installation, configuration and some application scenarios separately in another article. In the context of this article, I just wanted to mention it once, as it played a decisive role in the selection of the hardware.
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