A Tale of a Frugal Home Server
NixOS +
A Tale of a Frugal Home Server
Note: This post is a draft
Having run an on-premise server for the past two years, I think my setup has finally +Throughout the rest of the post, you will come across the following broad strokes:'>
A Tale of a Frugal Home Server
Having run an on-premise server for the past two years, I think my setup has finally matured enough to be worth talking about.
At any point, you can check out the source code for the server’s infrastructure here for a concrete example. For each service I talk about, I will also link the respective definitions in my config.
My minimalist mindset has unsurprisingly aided the architecture of my server. Throughout the rest of the post, you will come across the following broad strokes:
- Easy is not always simple
- Simple is better than easy
- There must be one (and exactly one) way of doing something
Hardware
The server is an old laptop which was on the verge becoming e-waste. Despite having a touchscreen display, the LCD had been battered into shards, making it no better than a shiny paperweight.
Although one could have kept the display, I carefully disassembled the machine to disconnect the corresponding -ribbon cable because we are aiming for a headless setup. Removing the display also reduces the power draw.
Software
I have seen a lot of people grow monstrous fleets of docker containers in the name of “simplicity” and ease of use. +ribbon cable because we are aiming for a headless setup.
Removing the display reduced the power draw to 4 watts at idle. Thus, I would highly recommend it.
Software
I have seen a lot of people grow monstrous fleets of docker containers in the name of “simplicity” and ease of use. Yet others take this further with dedicated operating systems like CasaOS to install containerized services in a single click.
Sure, these solutions might be easy but they are certainly not simple. Containers introduce the overhead of Linux kernel namespaces. This means accessing files on the host additionally requires creating a mount namespace.
To avoid all of that overhead, I opted for NixOS.
With NixOS, I can define the state of my system in a single configuration file, ensuring that the services
@@ -27,7 +24,17 @@ but the filesystem is usually FUSE mounted as sshfs.
The adde as our user.
SFTP is fast and available on almost all platforms:
- Linux: Native support
- Android: Native support on some devices. Alternatively, use Material Files
- Windows: Supported through WinSCP
- iOS: Suppported through Pisth
Freedom from the Botnet
Finally, we can talk about weeding out the proprietary services that are holding us back and replacing them with more privacy respecting alternatives.
Google Photos → Photoprism (source)
Since I backup my phone’s camera roll to the server, it’s often nice to have these photos and videos tagged and organized. Photoprism packs all the functionality of Google Photos including tagging people, -pets and places in photos, as well as searching through them along the timeline.
