Hello, quick introduction. I'm self-hosting beginner, started about year ago, burned myself couple times, learned a bit, but mostly still groping in the dark as nobody I personally know does anything like this.
- Currently I do have Asustor 2-bay NAS, equipped with Celeron 5105 processor, which I managed to installed TrueNAS Scale on to its NVMe drive, with two mirrored drives for data. I host couple services there (like Navidrome or Adguard). It works OKish, although I don't feel like I'm very confident in TrueNAS.
- Recently I got HP Z2 Gen3 Mini workstation with Xeon 1245-v5 with 32GB RAM. Which - according to specs - should be much better "server" than Asustor above, although it does have just one SATA and one m.2 port.
My (probably not very smart) idea is:
- Use the HP as a Proxmox node with OS installed on the SATA drive.
- Host the services in LXCs on secondary m.2 drive.
- Wipe the Asustor and use it just as a network drive for "data" (navidrome music, immich pictures, etc.). Ideally accessible from other PCs as data drive. Not sure about OS choice for this use. OpenMediaVault? Plain Debian? Another instance of Proxmox? Or maybe even original Asustor option?
Is this a good idea? Considering reliability concerns or future-proof abilities. My thought process was this way I could swap either the HP or Asustor for something else in the future when the need (or device fail) appears. Or should I scratch the idea entirely and use completely different approach and/or devices?
Or maybe I should rather post this in a different community I don't follow yet?
It's literally based off the NAS comparison guide I posted... This is like a text book way to move forward for someone. My solution is like a giant all in one+a NAS, but a lllooottt of people have a decoupled solution.
One of the beautiful things about self-hosting; do what you want.
Yeah, I agree... I want (and have) a NAS... and a separate Server.
The NAS is a NAS, not a TrueNas running my firewall, making coffee and keeping the house warm.
I also agree with OMV for someone starting out. I stuck with it until it got a little too containerised for my own liking and ended up building my NAS out of standard Arch because I now knew what features I wanted.
And my Proxmox is on a passively cooled small, silent, box in my home office. It will be upgraded to Incus on plain Arch one day because, again, I now know what features I want / don't want.
For OP, try things, break things, try other things... just make sure you have backups 😉