My Home Server software stack
My Home Server software stack
I'm writing this partly because I think others might be interested, partly because I want to know what others think of my setup, and partly because I'm going to upgrade my hardware and need to review my setup so that I can re-create it on the newer hardware.
I have an old 2009 iMac at home that wasn't being used anymore, so I installed Ubuntu server 2022.04 LTS. I have two printers, so I installed the CUPS manager, which allows my to print wirelessly from iPad, iPhones and my MacBook Air. For media, I run PlexMediaServer (video) and Navidrome. For content, I run Transmission, which I can manage from a web browser. For e-books, I use calibre which I access via a web browser (on my iPhone or a Kobo). For coding, I've installed Nginx, MariaDB and PHP.
My router has a built-in VPN, but I'd like to install WireGuard on the server. I'd also like to be able to collect and manage my family's photos. For now, I use MacOS Photos, but since we rarely plug our phones into the computer to sync them, they are usually only backed up to iCloud.
What else should I consider?
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For photos, Immich is recommended a fair bit.
If you listen to audiobooks in addition to your e-books, there is audiobookshelf. You could also consider a recipe manager, like Tandoor or Mealie, or Home Assistant if home automation seems fun.
The top of Immich's home page says "Do not use it as the only way to store your photos and videos!" Is that hyperbole or a realistic warning?
ABSOLUTELY.
Never use one source for critical data! One backup is no backups! No backups is playing with the entropic forces of the universe!
- Have at least three copies of your data - primary, backup, and offsite backup.
- Store the copies on at least two different media types.
- Keep at least one of those copies offsite - what if your house or datacenter burned down?
If you don't care about recovering your photos, by all means use an actively changing project as your sole means of data storage!
Yeah, that goes for any data though. The question was more if Immich is really so unstable that it might just shred your images because it had a bad day. And to that I can say: no, it won't. Yet, photos are very important to many people, so they put that warning there.
My practical answer: Nah, it's probably not going to nuke your files.
My software engineer answer: Never trust us to not make a mistake. It doesn't take much to accidentally nuke a directory.