Home Server – Everything you want to Know!

Are you looking for a central place to store all your pictures and movies? Or do you want a place to learn new IT skills? And what about your smart home? A home server can be used in many different scenarios and can be a great addition to your home network.

When we talk about a home server most people are concerned about the power consumption, or noise that it makes. But that is really no need for that. These days you can build your own home server for around $500 that consumes only 10 watts when running idle.

In this article, we are going to take a look at where you can use a home server for, and what you need to build your own server or the options to buy one.

In this article

What is a home server?

When we talk about a home server we are not necessarily talking about a big enterprise-grade server that you use at home. A home server can be any computing device that is used for central (cloud) storage, backups, serving media files, surveillance, etc in a home environment.

Most people use a home server to play media files on their TV or use it as a central storage device for all household members. The advantage of centrally storing your files is that everyone in the household can access them. Also, you only need to back up a single device and don’t need to pay a monthly subscription for cloud storage.

IT Pro’s often use a home server to train their IT skills. If you are working in IT you may want to test scripts or programs in a safe non-production environment. A homelab server is a perfect solution for this. It gives you the ability to deploy VMs, and create a small network/domain to test and learn new skills.

Home Server Uses

A home server can be used for many different tasks. I already mentioned a couple of ideas, but let’s take a deeper look at the different functions for a server at home. We will start with the most common use cases.

Central storage with a Home Cloud Server

Files are getting bigger and bigger, and we all want to keep our photos, videos, and other files as long as possible. When you have a server at home then it makes perfect sense to centrally store your data on the server.

The problem in every household is that data is scattered over different computers and external drives. By consolidating them into one location on a home file server, everybody can easily access the files, and you can better protect your data.

When you store all your data centrally in one place, make sure you have a good backup of that data. A RAID solution alone isn’t a backup, make sure you keep a copy of the data on an external device.

One of the advantages of cloud storage is that you can access your data from anywhere in the world, even from your mobile phone. With a home cloud server, you can get the same features as with other cloud solutions, only based on your own storage.

There are a couple of advantages when it comes to running a local file server compare to using a cloud solution:

  • Speed – You can access your files blazing fast over your local network (no need to download them first)
  • Privacy – Nobody is sniffing through your files
  • Security – Full control over who accesses your data

There are different solutions available for storing data centrally. If you are using a Synology NAS then you can use the built-in features to make network shares and access your data remotely. Other good options to make a home cloud server are:

  • FreeNAS – If you don’t need cloud access

Home Media Server

The most common use case for a home server is to use it for streaming media. With a home media server, you can watch movies directly on your Smart TV, mobile phone, or computer from your own library. Besides movies, you can also stream music from your home media server.

Plex home media server

There are different solutions for creating your own home media server, but the popular onces are:

Getting started with your Home Media Server is really simple. Install the software of your choice and add your library with movies to it. Plex made it really easy to stream media, they have apps available for pretty much every device on the market, inc Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV, etc.

Central Backup Solution

Making frequent backups of your files is important. Hard drives may fail, files can get accidentally deleted, or ransomware can encrypt all your files. They are all common things that can happen to anybody.

Software can be re-installed, but family or holiday pictures can’t be retaken. So it’s really important that you make a backup of your computer on a daily or weekly basis.

Making backups should not be a manual task. It gets forgotten and you will always see that something happens when you haven’t taken a recent backup.

If you have a home server then you can automate the backup of your computers. This way you are assured that your data is safely backed up on a regular basis. Again, there are different solutions available, but a couple of good ones are:

Home Automation Platform

I love creating a smart home, and I have written a lot about it, including this list with smart home ideas . When you want to create a smart home you will need a central place to manage your smart home devices.

You could buy a dedicated smart home hub, like a Homey , which may have some advantages. But if you have a server available then you can also install your own Home Automation Platform.

A good solution is for example Home Assistant . You can install it on pretty much any platform that you want to use and it’s well-documented. Other home automation solutions that you can take a look at are:

Home Security System

Besides home automation, we also have home security. Network cameras are really affordable these days and offer good recording quality. Making them perfect to secure your home and keep an eye out on your driveway for example.

Now I am a big fan of Ubiquiti, so personally, I have a full Unifi Protect system, which you can read more about here . But for your home server, there are a couple of different options available. Among does is Blue Iris, which is really a great product (still want to incorporate it into my network as well).

Blue Iris supports motion and audio triggering and can be used to extend easily with add-ons like license plate recognizing for example.

Password Manager

It’s important to use a unique and strong password for every account that you have, to secure your online identity. The only way to do this is by using a password manager.

When you have a home server then it’s really easy to run your own password manager and make it available to every member of your household.

Bitwarden is an open-source password manager that you can install on your own server at home using a Docker container. You can find the complete install guide here .

Hosting your own website

You can also use your server to host your own blog or website. Hosting isn’t really expensive these days, but if you have a small website and like to learn how a web server works, then you can run it perfectly from home.

Keep in mind that you will need a decent internet connection. Mainly the upload speed of your internet connection is important to run a website.

For example, Nginx in a Docker container or Xampp are great ways to get started.

Run your own Home Gaming Server

Online games are popular and some games allow you to host your own gaming server. Running the gaming server on your home server will increase performance and stability. It also allows you to customize the gameplay.

When you are hosting your own game then the upload speed of your internet connection is important. Make sure you have enough bandwidth available.

When you have a server running 24/7 then you have a great opportunity to start monitoring your network or smart home. PRTG offers a free version that can be used to monitor your home network, think of monitoring used bandwidth, CPU/memory usages, free space, etc.

If have written an extensive article about monitoring your home network you can find it here .

home server projects

Besides your home network, you can also use the server the monitor your house. Most Smart Home sensors can monitor things like temperature, humidity, power consumption, etc. If you pull all this data into a nice Grafana dashboard you will get some great insights.

I also use my home server to monitor my car (battery level, consumption, location) and report it all back, including the weather, to ABRP .

Homelab Server

Having your own server is a great way to learn new IT skills. A homelab server gives you the ability to test new programs, learn how to install VMs, and manage Windows or Linux servers without risking any data loss.

You can use a hypervisor, like Vmware or Hyper-V to easily deploy servers and create a small network to play with. If you want to get started with Hyper-V, then make sure your read this guide on how to install and configure Hyper-V .

Building a Home Server

There are a couple of options when it comes to building your own home server. You could buy an old enterprise-grade server on eBay, like this Hp DL360 . These kinds of servers often have enough RAM, grade processing power, and support RAID configurations.

The downside of these servers is that they make a lot of noise and use a significant amount of power. You can however replace the fans with quiet models, like those from Noctua .

But for most home server configurations, these kinds of models are a bit overrated. An old laptop or desktop, however, is a great way to get started.

If you want to build your own home server then there are a couple of things that you need to consider:

  • Required storage capacity
  • Power Consumption
  • Mounting options (rack or not)

Low Power Home Server

I have put together a part list to build your own low-power home server. In idle it should consume around 10 watts and with a couple of servers running around 20 watts. Hard drivers consume the most power, so the more you add the higher the consumption.

Note I have created an updated article on building your own home server, with a complete build guide, two configuration examples and optimization guide.

A home server doesn’t really need much computing power, even an Intel G5400 is more than enough for most use cases. But the I3 doesn’t cost much more, also has lower power consumption, and gives you that little bit extra in case you do need it.

The ARCTIC Alpine 12 Passive is an excellent cooler for the Intel I3.

Motherboard

Choosing the right motherboard can really help in lowering the power consumption of your server. The Fujitsu motherboard is really energy efficient which is achieved by disabling features that it doesn’t need.

The downside of this motherboard is that they are hard to find and quite expensive. There are different models in the market, The D364x-B line comes with 6 SATA connections, and the -H line with 4 SATA connections.

Another good option for the motherboard is the ASRock B360M-HDV .

If you are using only docker images then you don’t need a lot of memory. 8 GB would be more than enough in those cases.

Try to stick with one memory module, because each module increases memory consumption.

Power Supply

The picoPSU’s are really efficient power supply for building a low-power home server. I have listed the 160W version, but the 90 watt version should also be enough with the I3-9100.

You will need to use an external power adapter with the picoPSU, as listed above.

SSD and Storage Disks

SSDs are really great to use as a boot disk and to install your servers and applications on. The NVMe SSD has a slightly higher energy consumption than normal SSDs, but this way we can use the 4 SATA slots for the storage disk.

The Intel and Samsung SSDs have the lowest power consumption. I have listed a 500GB version, which should be more than enough to run your servers.

For storage, we use normal spindle disks. The advantage of the 2.5-inch hard drives is that they use way less power than the 3.5-inch models.

Alternatives

If you don’t want to build a home server completely from scratch then there are also a couple of alternatives on the market. For example, the Intel NUC is a great little, but a powerful machine to get started.

You can also start with a Raspberry Pi 4 . Those are really affordable and are great little machines to run small programma or services on.

Another popular choice for a home server is a Synology NAS. Although they are basically a NAS, network-attached storage device, they are also great devices to run your home server on. There is a big community behind Synology with a lot of cool and useful apps that you can easily install on your Synology.

Make sure you check if the model that you want to buy supports running docker images . A good entry model from Synology is for example the DS220+

Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS220+ (Diskless),Black

  • Featured dual 1GbE LAN ports to support network failover, and with Link Aggregation enabled, DS220+ provides over 225 MB/s sequential read and 192 MB/s sequential write throughput. Data can be further protected with RAID 1 disk mirroring to prevent sudden drive failure..Noise Level : 19.3 dB(A). AC Input Power Voltage : 100V to 240V AC.
  • Intel dual-core processor with AES-NI hardware encryption engine; 2 GB DDR4 memory (expandable up to 6 GB)
  • Access, share, and sync your data easily across different operating systems and devices.
  • Average 15% performance boost to photo indexing and other computing-intensive operations, as well as database response time.
  • Check Synology knowledge center or YouTube channel for help on product setup and additional information

There is always a trade-off when it comes to pre-built servers, they may have a higher power consumption or don’t offer enough room for expansion. But if you are not into building your own server then these are great options.

Wrapping Up

Having a home server is a great opportunity to learn new IT Skills and extend your home network. You will probably notice that once you have a server, you will find more use cases for it than you planned.

When using the server for central storage, make sure that you create proper and regular, backups of the data.

There is also an awesome list on Github with free software and network service that you can host/run on your own server. Make sure you check out this list !

I hope that this article helped you to get started with your own server, make sure that you read this updated article as well, if you have any questions, just drop a comment below.

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7 thoughts on “home server – everything you want to know”.

Yes! You could even load VMWare ESXI (free) and run Linux, Windows, Hackintosh.

tonido has stopped existing. They recommend migrating away per their website.

As a dumbie, can I ask. With 4 pc’s, all Win10 Pro, server (to be) is a mini box, win10 1Tb SSD. But what software??. I mainly just swap files, some streaming, themain issue is to get repeated access without credential access probs. Please any sugguestions ??

Thank you for putting this article together. There are quite a few uses for home servers, more than I was aware of. Great info!

Can I turn an old macPro with no operating system with a miminmac Monterey and an external 4Tb hdd into personal server system .I use a router with my sons internet account . Thanking you for some advice Austin [email protected]

I have no experience with MacOS

Nobody mentions using industrial motherboards with 12V only power supplies. I’m now running a Jetway NF9W-2930 but I don’t think these are available any more. Do take a look at my custom case design, email address to obtain the file in the hardware notes. https://www.thefletchers.net/aboutthisserver.html No fancy web design just very basic html!

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Virtualization Howto

Top Home Server Ideas for 2024: Projects to Start

Top home server ideas

You can simply use your home lab to run a media server, file server, or other home-oriented services. However, you can also use it as a great learning tool. In this post, we will look at some top home server ideas for 2024 and projects that you might think of trying in 2024, especially if you are new to running your own home server. We will split this up between software & infrastructure and hardware in your home network.

Table of contents

1) build a docker host to learn docker, 2) spin up a kubernetes cluster, 3) automate some processes in your home lab, 4) start playing with infrastructure as code, 5) get started with ci/cd pipelines, 6) build up your dr strategy, 1) test out a mini pc, 2) upgrade your networking to 2.5 or 10 gbps, 3) introduce nvme storage, 4) introduce a nas device, 5) build hci storage, wrapping up home server ideas, software and infrastructure home server ideas.

  • Build a Docker host to learn Docker
  • Spin up a Kubernetes cluster
  • Automate some processes in your home lab
  • Start playing with Infrastructure as Code
  • Get started with CI/CD pipelines
  • Build up your DR strategy

Especially if you want to get into more modern infrastructure, learning Docker is a definite must. Containerized applications are the new normal with microservices. Back in the day with legacy applications, organizations built monolithic apps running in virtual machines .

Docker containers

However, now, Docker has revolutionized the way we think about software deployment. By building a Docker host in your home lab , you can gain hands-on experience with containerization. It also allows you to understand the basics of how to create a container, container image, and work with containers. You can also easily spin up proxy services like Nginx Proxy or Traefik that can handle your SSL certificates .

Note the following posts I have created on Docker that help teach the basics:

  • You searched for docker – Virtualization Howto

I also think learning Docker first is a great gateway to learning Kubernetes, which we will discuss next.

Kubernetes is the de facto way to run containers in the enterprise. You can think of it like running a server cluster for your virtual machines , except for containers. With Kubernetes you have a control plane that schedules your containers, respins them if you have a host failure, and can load balance for performance purposes.

Kubernetes, often just called K8s, is the next step after Docker. By spinning up a Kubernetes cluster, you can learn about orchestration, scaling, and management of containerized applications. This home server idea I think is a great next step to learning more about the foundation of most cloud computing environments and running modern microservices-based apps.

Kubernetes container orchestration

There are some great ways to easily spin up Kubernetes, since it is not necessarily known for being easy. You can spin up a microk8s cluster very easily or you can spin up something like K3s, using K3sup.

Take a look at all my Kubernetes content here:

  • Kubernetes Archives – Virtualization Howto

If you already have a basic home lab configured, one of the best skills to learn is automating processes in your lab. If you are doing certain things manually, read up on how you can do the same things programmatically. Start easy, using some type of Bash script with Linux or using PowerShell on the Windows side.

Powershell automation

A few ideas for great projects to automate are deploying new virtual machines , managing network configurations, or even automating data backups. This helps in understanding the potential of automation tools and scripting.

Take a look at my automation related posts:

  • You searched for automation – Virtualization Howto

After you start with automating a few small tasks or even larger tasks like deploying infrastructure in your home server environment, you can move into Infrastructure as Code concepts. Infrastructure as Code “describes” the way the infrastructure should look. The code then makes that happen or it aligns your infrastructure back to what is described in code.

Terraform infrastructure as code

Start with tools like Terraform or Ansible in your home lab. This will allow you to start provisioning infrastructure and writing configuration management playbooks to configure your infrastructure once it is deployed.

Take a look at my devops and infrastructure as code related posts:

  • You searched for infrastructure as code – Virtualization Howto

I think one of the great projects that more legacy operations guys can get their heads around is building and using CI/CD pipelines. CI/CD pipelines are what modern devops professionals build to deploy needed infrastructure, build container images, and deploy those images in the cloud environments to which they are deploying.

Ci cd pipeline for devops

CI/CD pipelines are crucial for automating software delivery processes. Implementing this in your home server setup can be a learning curve, but it will help you move into the area of modern software development practices and DevOps.

Check out this recent post showing a basic example of setting up a CI/CD pipeline using Gitlab:

  • GitLab CI CD Pipelines for Home Lab: A Step-by-Step Guide – Virtualization Howto

As mentioned in the above section covering introducing a NAS in your home lab environment, one of the primary use cases is to provide a target for backups. If you already have a home lab environment you have provisioned, an extremely important project you may consider is bolstering your DR strategy for home lab services. I know what you are saying, home lab services are just for testing.

However, if you are like me, you may have spent hours upon hours getting configurations lined out or other setups functioning exactly as you want them. Having to recreate things from scratch is no fun, even in these types of environments. I promise you, you will thank yourself for having backups when the right data loss happens.

Disaster recovery is essential even for home servers

Building a DR strategy as part of your home server can ensure your data and services can be quickly restored in case of hardware failure or other disasters.

Hardware related Home Server Ideas

Now, let’s move into the realm of hardware projects that you might want to tackle in 2024. Note the following:

  • Test out a mini PC
  • Upgrade your networking to 2.5 or 10 Gbps
  • Introduce NVMe storage
  • Introduce a NAS device
  • Build HCI storage

Mini PCs are a great way to actually get into running a home server. The reason for this is they are relatively cheap, they are easy to get, and many of them will run modern hypervisors like VMware ESXi, Proxmox, and a few options like XCP-ng, KVM, Hyper-V, etc.

Mini pcs are hugely popular and make great home servers

If you are looking at getting into running a home server, buy a mini PC and load a hypervisor. You can do this in just a few minutes and easily spin up a Docker host to tackle project 1 listed in the first section. Mini PCs also have a very small footprint and are generally very power efficient, unlike enterprise servers. They’re ideal for tasks like media servers, file servers, Pi-hole, or running lightweight virtual machines, with some having more compute power to run other services.

Check out my recent posts on Mini PCs:

  • You searched for mini pcs – Virtualization Howto

I prefer these over a Raspberry Pi, since they contain much more compute power and don’t limit you to the ARM architecture for running a small homelab.

For those that may be looking for a project in the network realm, looking at upgrading your networking to 2.5 or even 10 Gbps may be a worthwhile goal. While 1 Gbps is definitely sufficient for small environments, upgrading to 2.5 or 10 Gbps opens more possibilities for future experimentation with hyperconverged infrastructure or even having a faster Internet connection than 1 Gbps.

Mikrotik crs310 2.5 gbps switch

It can also significantly improve data transfer rates. This is especially important when dealing with large files or running multiple services that require high bandwidth. Look for managed switches that provide features like VLANs, LACP, and other basic networking features.

Check out my post on the Mikrotik CRS310:

  • Mikrotik CRS310-8G+2S+IN Review: 2.5 Gigabit Switch For Home Lab

No doubt like you have seen, I have been spotting crazy deals on NVMe storage. You can get 2 TB PCI-e NVMe drives for just over $120-130. Also, with Black Friday rapidly approaching, we will see even better deals. If you have been holding out to introduce NVMe storage in your home lab, no is the time to jump on the bandwagon.

One deal I have seen so far is the 990 Pro 4TB unit for $250 or so on Amazon !

Samsung evo 990 pro 4tb drive

Introducing NVMe storage into your home server environment means significantly faster data read/write speeds compared to traditional SATA SSDs. This can be a game-changer for services requiring high-speed storage, like HCI storage solutions like vSAN, Ceph, and others. It also allows you to run just a traditional VM datastore that can run many more VMs due to the increased storage performance.

Check out my posts related to NVMe:

  • You searched for nvme – Virtualization Howto

In my experience, you can also go a bit lean on memory for your VMs when you have the faster underlying NVMe storage and still have satisfactory performance.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) are great appliances that allow you to essentially run a “server” from your modern NAS. Most NAS operating systems like Synology DSM, TrueNAS, and others have the ability to run virtualization technologies like VMs and containers right from the NAS.

You can also use your NAS device as a backup target if you have yet to introduce disaster recovery in your home lab environment.

Synology nas device

I run a Synology NAS that provides a mix of scalability, user-friendliness, and good features, making it a good choice. You can also build your own TrueNAS server if you prefer an open-source route. With TrueNAS you can build up a beast of a NAS device, using an old computer or server-class hardware. The sky is the limit on performance, etc.

See my recent TrueNAS build here: TrueNAS SCALE Server Build for Home Lab .

Check out my posts covering NAS:

  • You searched for nas – Virtualization Howto

If you haven’t delved into HCI storage (hyper-converged storage), it is a great way to expand your understanding of great technologies like VMware vSAN, Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Ceph, and others. HCI storage logically combines internal storage found in your server nodes so the storage appears as one single storage location.

Vmware vsan hci storage is the industry leader for enterprise hci

Using replicas and other complex processes underneath the hood, HCI is able to protect your data from loss and offer an opportunity to have the benefits of software-defined storage.

Exploring HCI in your home lab can provide insights into a setup where compute, storage, and networking functions are tightly integrated. This can simplify management, improve performance, and offer scalable solutions as your lab grows.

  • VMware vSAN 8 – What’s New? Technical Deep Dive – Virtualization Howto
  • You searched for ceph – Virtualization Howto

Hopefully, if you are building your own homelab environment or just looking for more ideas, this covering Home Server Ideas will help you think about a few of the projects I think most will benefit from in running a home server. Getting started with Docker, Kubernetes, automation, DevOps, and other projects is definitely worthwhile for learning and career advancement.

Introducing these services and the hardware discussed will also help to take your home lab to the next level of power efficiency, performance, throughput, and taking advantage of the latest technologies, including storage with HCI.

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COMMENTS

  1. Home Server

    These days you can build your own home server for around $500 that consumes only 10 watts when running idle. In this article, we are going to take a look at where you can use a home server for, and what you need to build your own server or the options to buy one.

  2. Building your Own Home Server with a Raspberry Pi

    The flexibility and versatility of the Raspberry Pi make it an excellent platform for honing your technical skills and exploring new projects. Moreover, building a home server can be a fun and ...

  3. What do you use home servers for? : r/HomeServer

    I'm curious as to what everyone uses their home servers for. Aside from the common(NAS, media server, game server) what do you guys you the machines for? I want to know because as an enthusiest, I'd like to play around with server gear. The problem is I've got no purpose at the moment.

  4. Top Home Server Ideas for 2024: Projects to Start

    Top Home Server Ideas for 2024: Projects to Start Brandon Lee November 14, 2023 8 minutes read Top home server ideas You can simply use your home lab to run a media server, file server, or other home-oriented services. However, you can also use it as a great learning tool.

  5. I need ideas for services to run on my home server

    Ph0enix_216. • 2 yr. ago. Quite honestly, anything you can think of that you can use or implement around your home. I'm running pihole on a VM with piVPN on top of it for Wireguard, a LANcache, a Minecraft server, and a simple backup server that I can dump pictures from my phone via an SSH script. 1.