Graphic designer, home labber, food junkie. I break expensive things. I usually can’t fix them.
Determination, patience, a willingness to learn anything you need to.
If you have those, in time, you will be able to get your lab up and running. I started mine with a minimal knowledge of Linux (I could install it from a USB and poke around). Now it’s the center of my families digital life.
You’ll get there in time.
Building a new, bigger, storage server using TrueNAS scale. I’ve been on CORE forever and it works well. Running out of space, though, and might as well upgrade the OS too.
I would highly suggest separating your storage from your compute. I’ve found this to be a cheaper and more flexible option over the years.
Mine is a snap install that started 3 years ago on virtual box and was ported over to proxmox. It has never broken, updates automatically, and generally seems to work just fine.
It doesn’t load instantly, but it doesn’t drag by any means.
I second the R5 case. I have one for my NAS and it’s been a dream to work in.
I’ve been using Trilium Notes for the better part of two years and love it. I have used Obsidian and similar markdown apps, and I find it frustrating to add images due to the need to store them in a separate folder and reference them instead of just pasting them into the page and being done with it. To me, that’s a barrier for notes when I’m trying to brainstorm. I really do like markdown, but it doesn’t work with my though process.
I have a sync server setup at home (with no outside access) and do my main writing inside my network. For notes on the go I use the Notes app on my iphone (its quick and easy) and then drop the notes into Trilium when I get home.
I have all my spare drives pooled together into a frankenNAS system in a spare Fractal R5 case. Whatever media fits gets a backup on there (in order of personal importance). Otherwise I will reacquire all my ISO’s should disaster strike.
I’m a big fan of separating my storage from my compute. I have plex running on one computer, and all the storage for it on a separate one. This allows you to have a lower powered NAS and just serves up files, and a higher spec’d (or smaller) computer for running Plex/Jellyfin.
I have a buddy who uses a mini PC with quicksync to serve up Plex to a few family members, and pulls everything from a larger NAS box running TrueNAS full of disks.
I have (more than I’d like to admit) recovered entirely from backups.
I run proxmox, everything else in a VM. All VMs get backed up to three different places once a week, backups are tested monthly on a rando proxmox box to make sure they still work. I do like the backup system built into it, serves my needs well.
Proxmox could die and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. I reinstall proxmox, restore the VMs and I’m good to go again.
Might I suggest Server Part Deals for drives? Excellent track record and very responsive. They are my goto for refurbished enterprise drives and have never let me down.
I’ve been on the snap version for three years with zero problems. It was originally created as a VM on virtualbox, then ported over to proxmox. Every OS and instance upgrade has gone off without a hitch so far.
That’s awesome. I am not very familiar with tailscale, but it sounds like the solution will work out great.
I will second trilium. I use their sync server in a VM (which is backed up with the rest of my VM’s so its easy to drop back down should something happen). The app appeals to me, even after using Obisdian for the past 6 months (i’m a fan of markdown as well).
I know this won’t help you add notes on your phone (unless you open the server up to the outside world so you can access the web interface) but I recently have been messing around with a Trilium sync server at home. I’ve been using Obisidan for a while but swapped back to Trilium on a whim. So far i’ve been loving it.
This. Smart TV’s are horrible. I want my dumb TV back.
I would go smaller with lower power hardware. I currently have Proxmox running on an r530 for my VMs, plus an external NAS for all my storage. I feel like I could run a few 7050 micro’s together with proxmox and downsize my NAS to use less but higher density disks.
Also, having a 42U rack makes me want to fill it up with UPS’s and lots of backup options that could be simplified if I took the time to not frankenstein my solutions in there. But, here we are…
I have everything in its own VM, and Proxmox has a pretty awesome built in backup feature. Three different backups (one night is to my NAS, next night to an on-site external, next night to an external that’s swapped out with one at work - weekly). I don’t backup the Proxmox host because reinstalling it should it die completely is not a big deal. The VM’s are the important part.
I have a mini PC I use to spot check VM backups once a month (full restore on its own network, check its working, delete the VM after).
My Plex NAS only backs up the movies I really care about (everything else I can “re-rip from my DVD collection”).
I’ve been using Swiftfin on my Apple TV with zero problems. Its a lot more simple than Plex.
I am with you as well. I’ve had my instance up for 3 years on 4 cores and 8GB ram and each page loads in seconds. I’m not running anything crazy on it either (stock + 3ish extras). Hard drives are 4x sas in raid10.
I have a trillium sync server setup, and connect to my network using a VM. The web interface works well enough for what I need it to do. I really wish there was an app for my phone, though.