The original post: /r/selfhosted by /u/bag0bone on 2024-07-01 16:25:26.

Hello helf-sosters!

I’m completely new to the self-hosting game and I’m tryna set up a simple home server to host immich on. For some context the only networking experience I have is hosting a Minecraft server at home to play on while I was at school, 10 or so years ago 🤣 (i.e. almost nothing).

I come requesting some assistance in deciding on software and storage options.

Usage:

A. Host immich:

  • Primary usage is to use as temporary backup while I’m out and about until I can get home and do a proper backup (photography is my hobby).

  • Secondary usage is to be able to access JPEGs and videos from one place (esp. when I’m not at home).

  • Additional usage is to be able to share my photos and videos with friends (as you can do with Google Photos albums), but unless someone knows some magic, I’ve ruled this out since 1) I’m behind a cgnat 😭 and 2) security.

B. Host a VPN:

  • Primary usage is to be able to access immich when I’m not at home.

  • Secondary usage is as a VPN when I’m connected to a dodgy network, or if I need get past a certain streaming platform’s pesky sharing restrictions. As mentioned in 1. I’m unfortunately behind a cgnat so I’m guessing my best bet here is to go with something like tailscale?

Some notes:

  • I don’t plan on using this as part of critical data backup - over the last 11 years I’ve only racked up about 700gb of things so the good old copy to a hard drive and hand it to my family is easy and mostly meets the 321 principle. But I also realise having to re-build everything if a drive dies or something would be a royal pain in the backside so I’d like an option that has some level of redundancy.

  • I’ve got an old laptop that I’d like to repurpose for this: it’s got an i5-7500U, 8gb ram (not sure if soldered or not I’ll have to check), 256gb boot ssd drive. I’m thinking it’ll be useful cause it’s mildly modern hardware and laptops are power efficient. If there’s a good reason to not use it for this please let me know.

So finally, here’s what I need help with:

A. What sort of platform should I go with? Right now I’ve been looking at OMV and Truenas scale, but I’ve seen about 5 billion other options (even running VMs which I don’t really comprehend) so hoping for some guidance here, ideally open source (but not necessary).

I mucked around with Truenas a bit and that seemed alright (just using a USB stick for a storage pool). Whichever platform allows for relatively straightforward setup, managing updates and config backups, and a bit of redundancy.

B. What sort of storage and storage management (I’m not sure the right terminology but e.g. mirrored drives or RAID5 or something) should I go with? Since the data being stored/accessed is mainly JPEGs I imagine speed shouldn’t be too high of a demand?

I realise this is dependent on what platform I choose so I’ll take that into account. As mentioned I haven’t even accumulated 1TB of data over the last 11 years so I imagine I won’t need more than a few TB of usable space.

Having said that I can’t guarantee I won’t change usage later on and actually want more space. I know e.g. that Truenas offers raidz1 which seems like a good option for redundancy, but I also note that expanding vdevs is annoying at best and impossible at worst, so I’d like some pointers on what sort of options are available if I do decide to expand storage later on.

Apologies for the hefty post, I just thought it would be helpful to be thorough so you know what you’re working with. I shall be very grateful to any who offer their insights and expertise.