I have been interested in running home servers for a few years now. I first started with a slim desktop with an i5-2400 running Windows Server. Now I have two Linux servers serving different needs. One is a file/docker server while the other is a minecraft server. Both of which are named after planets from Halo.
Before I built these servers, I had a single server that handled every task using proxmox. It was built on the same Jonsbo case as my file server but ran a 3600XT with a GT630. It was quite noisy because the GPU fans constantly ran at max speed. Its 32GB of RAM was also inadequate to run all the services I wanted to run. So, the decision was made to split the minecraft server from the file server.
Maethrillian (Main file + Docker Server)
Maethrillian is my primary data and docker server. Its purpose is to serve as a NAS and run docker services. This very website is hosted on this server as well. Its specs are as follows:
- CPU: Intel Core i3-10100
- Motherboard: Colorful CVN B460M Gaming Pro V20
- RAM: Samsung 16GB DDR4-2666
- SSD(OS): 256GB Samsung PM9B1
- HDD1(Data): 3TB Toshiba DT01
- HDD2(Data): 6TB Toshiba N300
- Network: Mellanox ConnectX-3
- Case: Jonsbo N4
- OS: Openmediavault 8
I chose the i3-10100 because I had one that I got from a friend for helping him build a new PC. I ended up finding out that the i3-10100 I got from my friend was defective and could recognize only one stick of RAM. So, I just ended up getting a new 10100 CPU.
The Colorful Motherboard wasn’t the one I originally intended to get, but ended up getting because it was cheap. The seller wanted to get rid of it as it didn’t support TPM 2.0 required to run Windows 11. Although it was cheap, I do have some gripes regarding this board for its lack of documentation and no RGB support on linux. The rest of the parts are what I had at home.
While it has a 10Gb Ethernet card, It is only connected to my main PC because I don’t have a 10Gb switch at home. Every other connection uses the integrated Realtek RTL8111 1Gb LAN.
It runs Openmediavault 8, which I had run previously on my old server as a Proxmox VM. On this server, it is running natively on the hardware. My two hard drives my collection of various media, photos and videos I take, and recordings of me and my friends gaming.
I also run quite a lot of services on it using docker. Here is every service I currently run on my server:
- immich: This is a photo and video management service that lets you back up and see your photos online. I use this to back up photos I took using my phone and cameras. On it, I have nearly every photo I took since 2014-ish, which is when I started using a smartphone.
- jellyfin: This is a media hosting service. It allows you to watch video files on your server using its webui or app. Basically, it turns your server into netflix. Using it, I can access my movies, anime and F1 VODs from outside the house.
- filebrowser: This is a simple file browser that, as the name suggests, lets you see and manage files on your server. It is used to access the files in my hard drives outside.
- kavita: This is a ebook hosting service. I use it to read some ebooks I have on my hard drive. I don’t use this service often as it lacks a mobile app.
- nginx proxy manager: This is a nginx proxy server with a webui to manage it. I use it as a reverse proxy to cast my services to the internet.
- wordpress: This service runs the very website you are reading right now.
- dokuwiki: This is a simple open-source wiki engine. I use it to host the wiki for my mincraft server. Right now, it is quite empty with only 3 articles.
- bitwarden: This is a password manager. While I don’t use it on every device I have, every PC I use has it. While some people say that self-hosting password managers is dumb, It works fine for me as I still know all my passwords. I’m just too lazy to type it in myself every time I log in.
- glances: This is a simple monitoring tool that lets you see how much resources every service is using. As this doesn’t have any authentication, this service is not relayed to the internet.
Requiem (Minecraft Server)
Requiem is my minecraft server. I currently run a private modded server using the Real Train Mod. The mod takes up a lot of RAM so the server is beefier than Maethrillian. Its specs are as follows:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
- Motherboard: AsRock B550M Pro4
- RAM: TeamGroup 32GB DDR4-3200
- SSD(OS/Data): 480GB Kioxia Exceria SATA
- Case: iGUJU M-CUBE
- OS: Oracle Linux 9
Its motherboard, the AsRock B550M Pro4, was the Motherboard I used in the previous server. But now, the system runs on a Ryzen 5600G instead of the 3600XT. This removes the need for a discrete graphics card as the 5600G has rather powerful integrated graphics(that I will never use). I got the case for free from a friend(a different guy from the friend I got the 10100 from) that had it lying around his house. The SSD was a spare I had in my house.
I chose Oracle Linux because I wanted to use a Red Hat distro. RHEL was also available, but I wanted to use something unique so I went with Oracle Linux instead. Besides, the OS itself is free unlike RHEL.
The server runs a Minecraft Forge 1.12.2 server with multiple mods. The server is whitelisted so only my friends can join the server. Real Train Mod is famous for eating RAM, so this server has a whopping 32GB of RAM inside. To accomodate all my model packs, I used to dedicate 20GB of RAM to the forge instance. However, following some advice from gemini, I have reduced it to 8GB and it seems to work fine. Now, I’m considering running a second minecraft server on the same hardware.
ipTIME AX2004BCM
This is my router. Every PC in my room uses it to connect to the internet. It’s a very basic router with a Broadcom BCM6750 Chip, 256MB of RAM and 128MB of storage. It is mainly used for port forwarding. I also run a Wireguard VPN server on it to access my server via SSH when I’m outside. I can also turn on my main PC using WOL and play games remotely using Moonlight.
Those were all the hardware I have in my homelab currently. I am currently planning on building a router to get 10Gb networking to all servers. I have already acquired a CPU for it(i3-9100) but since I am saving to visit Tokyo in August, this plan is currently on hold. I am also considering putting a 500G NVMe SSD I have in my data server to use as high speed storage.