Build Advice Advice on building a home server

[bentheblobfish]

I’m thinking about building a home server with some spare PC components lying around and some new/used ones I can purchase, but dont know where to start. My knowledge is currently very surface level in both hardware requirements and software.


I want the server to have the following media functionality;

-able to receive torrent requests from other device and add it to a plex/jellyfin library.

-automatically get<Mod Edit> and notify me when a new episode is ready.


I also want the server to have the following “google cloud” or any cloud server type functionality;

-able to access storage anywhere. downloading, uploading, deleting files, etc. Would make transferring files between PCs easier, as I have two computers in two different locations many hours away right now.

-<Mod Edit - Section removed due to Rules violations>

The components I currently have to use are;
Ryzen 5 3600X
256GB SSD (im thinking boot drive and caching)
A standard case with fans.
550W PSU

I figure i can go on facebook marketplace and buy a GTX 800 series card or something, a b450 motherboard, and 16gb ram kit. Id probably want to buy my drives new, but id get 8-16TB in 4 or 6 TB segments and run them in RAID for redundancy.

I understand docker is a powerful tool, but I am unfamiliar with it. I’m looking for advice on where to start, if my components would be powerful enough, how id configure it, or just any input you have. Maybe a guide you could point me to. Again, I am brand new to this topic, but I would love to learn about it and make a project out of it. Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

So, a Home Server doesn't need a lot of horsepower.

What OS were you thinking of using?

What is your overall budget?

RAID? Only protects against physical drive death. Does NOT protect against all the other forms of data loss.

"able to access storage anywhere "
This is for connection outside the home LAN? Be very very careful with this. It is quite easy to screw it up, and leave everything open to the public.
If YOU can access it, maybe someone else can as well.

 

[bentheblobfish]

So, a Home Server doesn't need a lot of horsepower.

What OS were you thinking of using?

What is your overall budget?

RAID? Only protects against physical drive death. Does NOT protect against all the other forms of data loss.

"able to access storage anywhere "
This is for connection outside the home LAN? Be very very careful with this. It is quite easy to screw it up, and leave everything open to the public.
If YOU can access it, maybe someone else can as well.

I’m flexible with the OS. Ive heard ubuntu is best and im willing to learn.

Budget is probably $200ish including drives, outside of the parts i already have. would it be more cost effective to sell my 3600x and just buy an optiplex or something to gut?

Im aware of the security risk this poses… I was looking into that and it might be past my level of expertise at the moment. I dont want others to have access to my network (obviously) and this server could very well be my worst vulnerability. I might limit it to a plex server and a NAS that could only be accessed by one location (at least to start). Id still love to be able to remotely start torrenting and store it on the nas though.

What are other forms of data loss? how could i prevent this?

 

[USAFRet]

Data loss - Physical drive death is only one. Accidental formatting, malware, other corruption. RAID does nothing for that.
This needs a real backup routine

External access - Anything outside your home LAN counts as 'external'.

Every IP address gets pinged all the time, just to see what happens. Currently, your router and its firewall simply throws those requests away. As it should.

Open a hole in that, and you expose a vulnerability.

When I had my QNAP open to outside access (strongly locked down), it logged access requests all the time, from all over the planet. Ohio, Finland, Russia, Portugal, etc, etc, etc.
They're not looking for 'you', but simply a system that answers a request.
Like if someone knocks on your door. Say nothing, and they just go away. If you reply "Go away"...now they know there is something behind that door (IP address). And may poke harder, looking for a hole.

 

[bentheblobfish]

Data loss - Physical drive death is only one. Accidental formatting, malware, other corruption. RAID does nothing for that.
This needs a real backup routine

External access - Anything outside your home LAN counts as 'external'.

Every IP address gets pinged all the time, just to see what happens. Currently, your router and its firewall simply throws those requests away. As it should.

Open a hole in that, and you expose a vulnerability.

When I had my QNAP open to outside access (strongly locked down), it logged access requests all the time, from all over the planet. Ohio, Finland, Russia, Portugal, etc, etc, etc.
They're not looking for 'you', but simply a system that answers a request.
Like if someone knocks on your door. Say nothing, and they just go away. If you reply "Go away"...now they know there is something behind that door (IP address). And may poke harder, looking for a hole.

gotcha. so a system that receives requests to download a torrent could expose my network?

what is a different data backup i could implement?

 

[USAFRet]

gotcha. so a system that receives requests to download a torrent could expose my network?

what is a different data backup i could implement?

Just torrenting, probably not.

But if you're at the coffee shop and need to access it, maybe.

And that is the LAST we'll speak of torrenting, right?


Backups?
3-2-1.
3 copies, on at least 2 different media, at least 1 offsite or otherwise inaccessible.
This goes for ALL of your systems.

Modified a little since I wrote this, but this:

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[bentheblobfish]

Just torrenting, probably not.

But if you're at the coffee shop and need to access it, maybe.

And that is the LAST we'll speak of torrenting, right?


Backups?
3-2-1.
3 copies, on at least 2 different media, at least 1 offsite or otherwise inaccessible.
This goes for ALL of your systems.

Modified a little since I wrote this, but this:

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

Gotcha, makes sense for the backup. Nothing I would have installed on this would be unable to be replaced, but still good to know for redundancy.

Also sorry about mentioning the T-word. didnt know it wasnt allowed.

Ive been doing some research and ive come to this part list;

3600X
gt 1030
8 or 16 ddr4 ram
550W PSU
3 drives and a spare 256GB SSD.

I was also thinking about running Unraid on it. It seems to be fairly beginner friendly, while still having a pretty high level of customizability.

Id run jellyfin or plex on it as a media server, but to access the server from a different location, do you think a Pi-hole would work? Im a little confused on how it works exactly, but my understanding is that its a VPN that lets you remote in to your home network.

So 3 things;
Would the parts list be good for activities described?
How would pi-hole work with my system?
Could I run nextcloud (safely) on my system, and how would security look with that (is it difficult to make
secure).

 

[bentheblobfish]

Sorry, last thing; would nextcloud even be necessary if I were to use the raspberry pi VPN? or could i just upload and download files?