Original post here. First, thanks to everyone who responded. Thought I’d write up an update on my progress.
I took the advice to keep the NAS dedicated to storage and bought a Beelink mini computer (2Ghz Quad core Intel Celeron; 250GB; 4GB RAM) for the server and installed Linux Mint. I decided that the perceived complexity of Docker and Portainer were more than I wanted to tackle right now and that the benefits wouldn’t be worth the effort, so I’m installing directly to the OS.
So far I have Jellyfin and Audiobookshelf up and running. Most of the setup is straightforward. I’ve spent the most time so far learning to permanently mount the NAS and set the necessary permissions. Took a bit of online research to figure this out. Second most time was setting up NordVPN with Meshnet for remote server access.
Next step is the Servarr suite. I’m thinking that’s going to be a bit more of a challenge.
Awesome to see, good luck to you!
If you’re looking for tips, I’d try to set up Prowlarr first if you intend to use it, it’ll save some reconfiguration down the line.
Though I don’t find anything as complex as mounting and permissions in the *arrs, haha.
But my favorite part about tinkering with home servers is just learning a little at a time, expanding naturally. It’s easy to find guides that are the “ultimate, best server configs”, but unless you understand what benefits they’re offering, you can’t really determine what fits best for YOUR needs.
I started with CouchPotato on Windows years ago and now have *arrs running through docker on headless boxes and keep adding on fun services.