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Ask HN: Recommendation for a home server

5 points by kureikain 9y ago

Hi all, I would like to run a home server so I can use it as a backup, some small static website and serve a photo gallery(about 2TB of photo takes by iphone) it's a Golang app. So nothing crazy, just for family purpose since I'm moving away from facebook. Anyone know some cheap server that isn't too noisy and consume a lot of power? How about just using a cheap old laptop? Did anyone try these out?

iopuy 9y ago
raspberry pi 3 b/b+
Rjevski 9y ago
Do you actually want to manage a home server? I mean it’s fun and all, but maintaining it is time consuming. Personally I’d rather give some money to AWS and forget about it. But if you must, any desktop PC will do - just make sure you have reliable storage, multiple SSDs in RAID 1 (or similar that allows multiple disks to die). A laptop would work but you’ve got the issue of having a single disk (an external one over USB doesn’t cut it) as well as unreliable components - it might die after running 24/7 for a few months, most likely due to bad thermal design. You’ll also need to have a decent network connection, with IPv6 and a separate IPv4 for the server so it can be reached from the outside without any NAT nonsense, and potentially an UPS so a power cut doesn’t make all your services unavailable and potentially corrupt your data.
notheguyouthink 9y ago
This is a market I wish was a bit more served. Moderately powered PCs in nice small enclosures. Think of square blade servers you could chuck behind your TV and forget it. I've seen a couple, but often they were expensive and a bit beefier than what I wanted to pay for.
0kto 9y ago
I use a small SoC (X10SBA from supermicro) in a mini-ITX case that fits 6 HDD drives (currently 3x3TB raid6) running Arch Linux. The Intel celeron J1900 is more than up to the task, and you get a low powered device with which you can serve a website, have a NAS, media center, headless server, syncthing, etc. Great experience so far and quite inexpensive device that runs 24/7.
ApolloRising 9y ago
For what you want maybe a QNAP?
acutesoftware 9y ago
Synology make a pretty nice self contained NAS - has a GUI on top of Linux and mine has been pretty reliable. They also support golang https://www.synology.com/en-uk/releaseNote/Docker?model=DS3617xs https://www.synology.com/en-uk/releaseNote/Docker?model=DS36... Version: 1.11.2-0325 (2017-04-13) What's new Upgraded Golang to version 1.8. Supports IPv6 configuration. Enhanced the stability of Docker daemon.
simon_acca 9y ago
Search for “minipc” on AliExpress. I bought one of these as a home server, they are fanless and super versatile. Having dual Gbit NICs I am currently using mine as a router, but I have also used it as a media server/backup station/sd card data ingestion platform. It’s basically laptop hardware in a well dissipating aluminum enclosure.

5 points by kureikain 9y ago

iopuy 9y ago

raspberry pi 3 b/b+

Rjevski 9y ago

Do you actually want to manage a home server? I mean it’s fun and all, but maintaining it is time consuming. Personally I’d rather give some money to AWS and forget about it. But if you must, any desktop PC will do - just make sure you have reliable storage, multiple SSDs in RAID 1 (or similar that allows multiple disks to die). A laptop would work but you’ve got the issue of having a single disk (an external one over USB doesn’t cut it) as well as unreliable components - it might die after running 24/7 for a few months, most likely due to bad thermal design. You’ll also need to have a decent network connection, with IPv6 and a separate IPv4 for the server so it can be reached from the outside without any NAT nonsense, and potentially an UPS so a power cut doesn’t make all your services unavailable and potentially corrupt your data.

notheguyouthink 9y ago

This is a market I wish was a bit more served. Moderately powered PCs in nice small enclosures. Think of square blade servers you could chuck behind your TV and forget it. I've seen a couple, but often they were expensive and a bit beefier than what I wanted to pay for.

0kto 9y ago

I use a small SoC (X10SBA from supermicro) in a mini-ITX case that fits 6 HDD drives (currently 3x3TB raid6) running Arch Linux. The Intel celeron J1900 is more than up to the task, and you get a low powered device with which you can serve a website, have a NAS, media center, headless server, syncthing, etc. Great experience so far and quite inexpensive device that runs 24/7.

ApolloRising 9y ago

For what you want maybe a QNAP?

acutesoftware 9y ago

Synology make a pretty nice self contained NAS - has a GUI on top of Linux and mine has been pretty reliable. They also support golang https://www.synology.com/en-uk/releaseNote/Docker?model=DS3617xs https://www.synology.com/en-uk/releaseNote/Docker?model=DS36... Version: 1.11.2-0325 (2017-04-13) What's new Upgraded Golang to version 1.8. Supports IPv6 configuration. Enhanced the stability of Docker daemon.

simon_acca 9y ago

Search for “minipc” on AliExpress. I bought one of these as a home server, they are fanless and super versatile. Having dual Gbit NICs I am currently using mine as a router, but I have also used it as a media server/backup station/sd card data ingestion platform. It’s basically laptop hardware in a well dissipating aluminum enclosure.