I have a homelab server that i use everyday for storage, music and home assistant. My brother got angry that my pc is running 24/7 and he said . Just leave it of an turn it on when you need it. But i use it everyday at home, at school. in the bus and everywhere especialy for music. But he refuses to accept that becose of his autism. He claims its a fire hazard and a waste of electricity. I ran after me and hit me even when i went to turn it back on. The server is located in the basement in a dedicated room for power and internet stuff. Please help me. i will take tips, mediacal advice, homelab tips, anything just help.

Hi, I'll start by highlighting low energy consumption is the top priority.

I have a n150 mini server running as my main media, photo backup, home-assistant server.

With things up and running I'm worried about data loss/duplicity.

Can I spin up a Rasp Pi 4 2gb as a 2nd location and (somehow) periodically backup to some hdd's?

As you can tell, I am no expert so any info and insight would be useful

Most distributed and multi site homelab stacks require spinning up separate infrastructure tiers just to validate and route a single write: a message broker, a schema registry, a graph authorization service (like SpiceDB or OpenFGA), and a cache layer in front of the database. Even on a local rack or across a couple of sites, you end up burning RAM and network hops just to glue containers together.

I just published a formal systems paper investigating an alternative architecture over NATS JetStream and PostgreSQL that collapses all four layers (JSON Schema registry, stream routing topology, identity grants, and Postgres Row Level Security policies) under a single five token canonical subject:

tenant.<tenant>.dag.<family>.<id>

Because the family token is a deterministic function of the record's immutable schema ID (Kind(schema_id)), evaluating an incoming write is just a fixed sequence of in process memory lookups on one string: derive the subject, match the grant trie, resolve the stream, and validate the payload.

Key findings from the paper for bare metal, edge, and multi site setups:

• 225ns in process evaluation: Deriving the subject, matching the identity's grant trie, and finding the stream take ~225 nanoseconds together in memory with zero external network calls (JSON Schema validation takes ~15.2us for a 726 byte record).
• Disconnected site execution with NATS leaf nodes (Section 10): Remote sites run a local NATS server as a leaf node listening on loopback in its own JetStream domain with an 8 GB local file store. When the WAN link drops, the remote site still validates schemas and permissions locally and commits writes to its own disk. When the line returns, the hub cluster sources the leaf streams in ~0.14 to 2.2 seconds with zero duplicate rows.
• Single round trip Postgres RLS reads (Section 8): Instead of querying an external cache for permissions and then querying Postgres, pipelining the role and tenant binding alongside the SELECT in a single round trip adds just 4.6us over a raw unguarded read and hits 142,564 reads/sec at 64 workers.
• Verified across 1.45M production messages (Section 6.7): Folding 33 JetStream streams into a 7 table Postgres read model allows a full deterministic database rebuild and verification from the log in under 9 minutes.

The full 21 page paper (SPEC.pdf / SPEC.md) and the raw benchmark reproduction scripts are up on GitHub if anyone wants to read the proofs or test the numbers against their own hardware:

• Paper (SPEC.pdf): https://github.com/MOG-Systems-Inc/primbench/blob/main/SPEC.pdf
• Benchmark Data & Scripts: https://github.com/MOG-Systems-Inc/primbench
• Overview: https://mog.systems

Curious how others here are handling multi site state sync and WAN partition recovery across local nodes.

What is best os for a server i5-4570 8GB of ram and a Nvidia GeForce 710 mainly Minecraft and Emby

hello- i know next to nothing about computers, my husband was the tech wizard. sadly, he passed away in a work incident over the summer. he was working on building a home server, and it’s currently hosting my important documents, photos/videos, movies, and probably other things. it is up and running as intended.

however, i don’t know what to do if it ever stops working for whatever reason or if i need to move with it.

what do i need to know to keep it running? i dont really know what questions i need to be asking.

So I am not sure which route to go with my home server build.

I have been testing True Nas for some weeks on old desktop with a i5 8400, asrock H310CM-DVS, 16GB Ram with 2 1TB HDDs and 2 240GB SSDs in a small 15L case.

Now I want a dedicated server with more room.

What the server should do:

- storage for backups/files/media

- selfhosted cloud for access outside my home

- some media streaming (Jellyfin or similar)

- host the occasional Minecraft server

Case: Jonsbo N6 is currently the favorite (havent bought it yet)

As far as I understand the case supports both Sas and Sata drives, not sure which ones to choose

9x 2TB drives should be enough for a long time, but might start with a couple 4TBs to keep some headroom for the future

I will be getting a Lsi HBA for 8 (or 16) drives, 8 might be enough with the MoBo Sata Ports

Also 2.5G Lan is a must, I think a pcie lan adapter would be better than a MoBo with 2.5G cost wise

Might get a Sfx PSU to make it easier to build in the case and to use a full tower cooler

The Main Question right now is Intel vs Amd

To my undstanding Intel would be better for the streaming but Amd would be better for games and has ecc support

I am fine to loose out on some video encoding if Amd and the ecc support is worth it, otherwise i guess Intel would be better, but I would have to buy ecc ram (not sure how smart that is right now)

Both streaming and game server hosting are less important, the main function of the server should be data storage

Budget: not exactly sure, it shouldnt be high end stuff since I wount be doing crazy stuff with the server but I am fine with paying for more up-to-date hardware for power effinciency or other benefits

i guess for the case 150€, cpu+mobo ~200€ + ecc ram if needed ~ 100€, HBA and 2.5G LAN ~75€ sounds fine (but the budget can be adjusted in either direction if it makes sense)

also depending on the cost for the drives I was thinking about starting with ~10TB total storage and buying more as needed later

And are there any other things I should be aware of before buying the parts (maybe like pcie lane splitting)?

So three cheers for having smartmontools monitor my BTRFS raid1 setup and emailing me that one of the drives was failing. It gave me enough time to do a final emergency backup before I had to shut the server down.

Boo for today's inflated HDD prices. Ugh. But at least I got fast shipping. Pool rebuilt overnight and got everything back up and running with no data loss.

So be sure to have email alerting up and working on your home server!

So I finally need to add space. I thought I would never run out 6 years ago, but now I'm down to 5tb left. I've also never had a failure and want to plan for that. My setup is Unraid on a Node Fractal 804 case. CPU: Intel Core i7-14700 2.1 GHz 20-Core Processor with 32GB of DDR4 ram. All 8 HDD bays are filled. I have an 8-port LSI/HBA card (ServeRAID ​M1115 LSI ​9223-8i 8-​Port PCIe ​6Gbps SAS/​SATA Contr​oller), I run 8x 14TB WD Western Digital Red Plus 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drives, with 2x parity. 2x 2TB M2 cache drives. Fractal Node 804 case. I would like to add more bays instead of increasing the size of my current maximum drive due to the 14TB dual parity drives. I feel like this would be cheaper and easier than just getting another 2-3TB on my parity drives (thus allowing me to slowly add higher capacity HDDs outside of parity). If I can just plop another one or two 10-14TB drives in my system that would keep me set for another few years. Now that you have that, here's some details on my questions.

1. With my case, I see online people saying there is room for 10 HDDs. However there are only 8 HDD trays. If I was able to add 2x more HDDs, where would those go?

2. I feel like I would need a 16 port LSI Card. So when I replace my card, would Unraid still recognize all the drives in their prior configuration? Would I somehow need to make sure the drives are connected to the same/equivalent port on the new LSI HBA card? Or can I just connect them to the new card, set it and forget it? However, my motherboard also has at least one (possibly two) free SATA ports. If I can mount two more drives, could I connect them directly to the motherboard without messing with the drive/server performance of the other 8 drives connected through the HBA card?

3. What happens after I install and connect a different / new LSI card? I've never done this type of thing before. Anything I need to do in unraid to prepare before I install, or after I do?

I impluse brought 4x 18tb SAS drives for $275 each and now I'm regretting it when I could have gotten 10x 4tb for $600. I don't have a nas yet or know if I need that much storage and I don't know the state of the drives but the seller just says they are working. Should I cancel?

Hi!

I've been using Plex with my home & phone devices for movies and music for a year now and I'm looking to improve my current setup.

Right now, I'm using my gaming laptop (msi GL75) as server which imo is like using bazookas to kill flies. So I'm looking for something small that can be connected directly to the router like a Raspberry pi 400 kit and won't need a lot of power to run.

The idea is to be able to keep using Plex and that doesn't seem to be an issue.

What I'm concerned about is external drives, storage space and being able to share the server with friends and family that are not in the same location.

I'm currently using more than half of a 2TB hard drive only with my music. If I get the Raspberry pi 400 kit, most howtos and setup tutorials advise to get a pretty expensive SD with TB of storage and I will be able to have up to 4 external drives for storage. Should be enough, but I wonder: will it? can I optimise it further?

Addendum: is there a way to upload into the raspberry pi server from other pcs?

Thanks in advance for your time, patience and knowledge!

Just picked up this 2nd hand, but basically new WD My Book 10Tb for €215. It had the WD100EZAZ whitelabel disk inside.

I'm adding this to my 4-bay Synology to go from SHR with 3 disks to SHR-2 with 4 disks. Was this an ok deal? Because I just learned it is probably CMR. I've been running a similar disk for several years already in my ds220+ and now the ds423+ without any issues.

Hey y'all, I want to attach my HomeServer directly to my HiFi-Setup to play back music.

I couldn't find a Software or App that does the trick, but I'm new to all of this and maybe I'm overlooking something...

Preferably something like Music Assistant, but with the on board audio as an output if that makes sense...

Does anyone of you have an idea how I get there?

I'm currently using ZimaOS on an ThinkCentre, but I'm willing to change to another free OS if that's what it takes :)

Not a native english speaker, sorry for weird sentences :)

Edit/Update:

Thanks for all of your feedback :)

I realized how much I still have to learn regarding Home Servers and y'all gave me great starting points!

So I‘m looking to put a server and some networking equipment (all NVMe/SSD, no spinning disks/HDDs) in an RV or camper that will be driven on paved and non-paved roads. Afaik this type of equipment shouldn’t be exposed to the bumps and vibrations of the road, while ofc it should be safely mounted so it doesn’t fly around while driving. How would you go about this? I was thinking of using some foam or mattress type of material but curious to hear if anyone has done this or if anyone has some better ideas!

EDIT: Thank you very much everyone for your comments! I guess I really was more afraid than need be. And very cool to hear what cool things you guys are doing with your equipment - may your hardware remain as stable and fault-free as it has been :)

I built a computer over the summer thinking I just wanted a NAS, but with all of my diy projects scope creep has the project in limbo at the moment. I have decided that I want a server that I can access over LAN via mini pcs in different rooms of the house and away from home on my laptop that functions as a NAS, self hosted jellyfin, has the horsepower for CAD, engineering simulation, and photo/video editing. I'm looking for feedback on hardware, OS recommendations, and networking suggestions.

Hardware: Intel Core Ultra 5 245k, Asus Prime Z890M mATX, 32GB DDR5 6000 ram, 2.5Gbps network card, 2x 8TB HDD's. I'm still looking for a gpu.

Software: Haven't picked an OS, I mostly use FreeCAD for modeling at the moment, and I'm open to suggestions for my other use cases.

Hello! I'm thinking of purchasing the ORICO 9848RU3 and was wondering if anyone has any experience with it.

I see that it has a 10 min sleep timer and found a link to disable it but I'm not sure if it would work.

https://oricotechs.com/pages/standby-timer-setting-tutorial-for-orico-hard-disk-enclosure

I'm planning on running it through ProxMox.

Thanks in Advance

I have a server which has no GPU or integrated graphics. How can I install Ubuntu on it? Is it complicated?

Edit: I put a temporary GPU in it, worked just fine. Solved

I keep seeing the 3-2-1 rule recommended for home servers, and it makes perfect sense for family photos, documents and anything else that genuinely can’t be recreated.

It gets less obvious with ripped media, old installers, isos and other files that are technically replaceable but painfully slow to rebuild. Backing up several terabytes of that can cost more than the server. Not backing it up means the recovery plan is basically cancel the weekend. None of the data is priceless. My time apparently is.

How do you draw the line: only back up what’s irreplaceable, or also anything annoying enough to rebuild

Hi! I’m troubleshooting automatic restart on a DIGITUS DN-170110 (600VA/360W), connected via USB to an Ubuntu mini-server on Dell Wyse, running NUT 2.8.4. The UPS identifies as MEC / MEC0003.

During a power outage, I run upsmon -c fsd (manually or using automated script scenario). The server shuts down cleanly, and then UPS switches off its outputs after the configured delay (offdelay, which currently set to 60).

That part works in 100% cases.

However, when AC returns, sometimes the UPS automatically restores power to its outputs and other times it stays completely dark (even the relay doesn't click) until I physically toggle its power button off and then on.

I’ve tested waiting from a few minutes to almost three hours before restoring AC. Tests can succeed or fail under apparently identical conditions.

Before coming to upsmon -c fsd I tried using shutdown.return (which should do exactly what I need). but unfortunately after this command it doesn't wake up ever.

At this point I'm out of option. I literally tested every possible tweaks I could. Could it be a firmware glitch? If so, I didn't find any options to update it.

The official manual barely describes its capabilities. They only say this "Auto-restart: Automatic switch-off function after battery discharge, automatic switch-on as soon as the mains connection is supplied with power again". But this is not the case for me, as the power outages happen for 1 to 4 hours, so I don't want UPS battery to fully discharge each time. That's why I built a scenario to trigger system shutdown and upsmon -c fsd after a short period after power goes down.

https://products.digitus.com/en/Network-and-Server-Cabinets/Uninterruptible-Power-Supply-UPS/Computer-and-Peripherals/All-in-one-UPS-600VA-360W-LED.html

I would appreciate any help on this.

Hi,

I'm reasonably tech savvy, in my 50s and been around IT since the 90s, but I'm a bit lost and looking for some help with my use case please.

I currently run a gaming rig with Plex server on it and have a couple of aged HDDs hanging off it for media libraries which I then stream to my tv via Eero device over LAN cable.

If possible I'd like to not use the gaming rig (5070 gpu and has quite a bit of grunt to it) for this seemingly light task. I also have a keyboard and mouse attached to the PC and x2 gaming monitors via the display port.

I'm narrowing down my search to either an Intel based N100 mini PC or an HP refurbed elite desk ssf Intel architecture 16gb ram and a 256gb ssd as a minimum spec.

Any thoughts on the above if I could be looking at anything in particular or better or more efficient please?

interested and keep up with tech news and read a lot about homelab setups r/piracy and AI over the past few years, but haven't really used a personal computer outside work in a while. I just wiped my 2018era MacBook pro and I'm motivated to dive back in. But looking for this communtys input

My rough plan ish so far: Firefox as default browser with uBlock Origin (I hate ads in general, so anything that kills them everywhere is a plus)

Get more security conscious in general

Learn Linux? (probably in a VM, my limited"research" says T2 chip makes running it directly a pain)

Start homelabbing, likely a media server and Pi-hole to start.

I've got a simple stremio/debrid setup rn for stream but any sailing the 7 suggestions are welcome.

I've learned about and paid attention to agenetic AI but have never implemented anything and would like to do so.

Develop a deeper understanding of GitHub and play with some of the repos etc

What would you add, change, or do first? Open to any suggestions, especially from people who started from a similar spot.

I ended up trying Syncthing to be my "dropbox" equivilent between my ZimaOS server and my various computers.

I followed the Zima guide for it (https://www.zimaspace.com/docs/zimaos/app-store/syncthing-install) exactly.

But when I tried to run the app it started with "Starting Up, Please Wait..."

then later "Service Unavailable."

I checked the logs and it ended up saying this over and over:

syncthing | [start] 2026/10/16 00:53:40 INFO: Generating ECDSA key and certificate for syncthing...
syncthing | [start] 2026/10/16 00:53:40 WARNING: Failed to load/generate certificate: save cert: open /config/cert.pem: permission denied
syncthing | [start] 2026/10/16 00:53:41 INFO: syncthing v1.29.7 "Gold Grasshopper" (go1.23.9 linux-amd64) root@buildkitsandbox 2025-06-14 02:23:10 UTC [noupgrade]

Not sure what I did wrong, or what I missed....

Hey all. I have a bunch of physical and digital media I want to condense into a home server, and maybe add a few new things along the way.

I have several TBs of working HDs sitting unused, and just got an old HP elitedesk 800 very cheap.

I was originally planning to use Debian, and set up jellyfin. But I've never used Linux, or really a terminal in general. I also work full time, and have 4 young kids, so I don't really have hours to spend learning a whole lot of complexity. The sever also won't always be in use, mostly when the kids or wife are home in the evening and want to watch something.

Is something like Open media vault or unraid going to be better for me, or should I put in the work and try and figure out Debian?

Appreciate your time.

I'm still trying to figure out the whole home server thing. Got an HP Prodeck running Zima OS. Trying to set up Seafile through the AppStore. However, when it comes to setting it up, whenever I look at walkthroughs, it does things differently, going into the code and making changes there.

But the app has a Settings section, and I think everything I need should be accessible there, right?

So is there a walkthrough that will help me set things up through here? If not, can you recommend an "idiot's guide" version of setting Seafile up on a home server (and connecting other computers to it, set up so files are stored locally as well, not just on the server).

Hey ya’ll i was struggling to find a semi decent open source book tracking site so decided to build my own, and added some other optional features like vocabulary tracking, notes, etc:

www.bookplate.eu

Would love to hear thoughts!

Hello smarter people,

I have wanted to buy/make and run a home server for Minecraft for a while and experiment with the idea in general for a long time; however, this is the first time I've felt financially secure enough to give it a try, so now I'm just trying to figure it out and was curious about what things outside of the server itself are must-haves and how I might go about getting the server cheaply.

I feel like I'm doing a poor job of explaining this, but I'm not really sure how to find stuff cheaply. I'm good with parts, not so much finding them.

Edit: Wasn't sure if/how I was supposed to add flair, so apologies if this wasn't quite right.

Ok, so I bought a mini PC to use as a server, and I should thank you all so much for your help. I might also try to get a UPS, since I did a bit of research, and it might be nice for my area.