Now it consists of the following components:

  1. Hot backup server: NAS Beelink U59 + hard disk enclosure DB3502B-A + 1x 4Tb HDD – TrueNAS Scale – backups are reset here once a week via Kopia
  2. cold backup server: Zyxel NAS326 + 2 x 4Tb HDD (in the mirror) – in another room, VPN connection, the backup of the hot backup server is reset here
  3. Network server (DNS, VPN, homepage (Dashy), LB (Traefik), Uptime Kuma): Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS (RK3328, 1Gb RAM) – in general, if the WiFi router was good, then this would not be required
  4. Home server: BMax B1 Plus (N3350, 6Gb RAM) + 512GB SSD – NextCloud, Bitwarden and download temporary files
  5. Development server: GK3 Pro (N5105, 16Gb RAM) – Gitea, Gitea CI/CD agent, Sonarqube, dev-env for their applications
  6. Server for experiments: Beelink U59 (N5095, 16Gb RAM) – server for virtual machines (Proxmox or Rocky+Cockpit), turns on when you need to watch something.

Not used:

  1. Beelink U59 is good and powerful enough, but there is a fan (albeit quiet)
  2. Raspberry Pi 4 is powerful enough and without a fan, I thought to run NextCloud on it, but the document editor did not start because of the architecture – so far I have inserted an sd card with PiKVM, so that it would not be in vain, but in fact it is not used

Conclusions on hardware:

  1. Raspberry Pi 4 It is still not very well supported (I feel it on my M1 laptop) and expensive, but in itself powerful enough for many tasks.
  2. Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS is clearly weaker than the Raspberry Pi 4, but network tasks are dragging, and cheap relative to the Pi.
  3. BMax B1 Plus – an excellent fanless option – all programs run (Intel), there is Windows (if sold later), fast delivery, the new one is cheaper than Pi and all sorts of similar OrangePi.
  4. GK3 Pro and Beelink U59 (support) – good stable fast cars, but with fans, so they turn off at night according to the schedule and turn on remotely if necessary.

Conclusions on software:

  1. TrueNAS Scale works well, but it’s too enterprise for home – and it runs applications via local kubernetes (extra heating), and too often does something with sounds there (often does not allow the hard disk fan to turn off)
  2. Raspberry Pi OS is good to install (you can immediately set up an account and network), it works without problems.
  3. OpenWRT is some kind of squalor (compared to Keenetic OS - I’m most familiar with it), but it’s better than nothing (for routers that are already unsupported by the manufacturer). As a result, I just put Ubuntu on the Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS.
  4. Rocky Linux is installed so-so (you need to connect a keyboard/ mouse/monitor unlike the Pi), but beyond the norms, especially if you put [Cockpit] (https://cockpit-project.org /) for web-based management.
  5. Podman is good, but for some reason the home distropisators (CasaOS and Umbrella) ignore it (with the exception of [NethServer](https://ns8.nethserver.org/en/latest /), but it’s for a slightly larger size than SOHO).
  6. CasaOS and Umbrella seem to be made specifically for the home, but they don’t give a damn about data, that’s why I don’t use it.
  7. TimeMachine wants to backup too often and too much. Therefore, I turned it off in favor of [KopiaUI](https://kopia.io /).
  8. Cockpit is good, there are common modules and modules for NAS, but there are not enough modules for the router (the main thing is setting up dnsmasq and strongswan).
  9. CoreOS is still very promising, but the manufacturer positions it exclusively as an OS for Kubernetes.

Plans:

  1. Hot Backup server:
  2. Use Pi 4 instead of U59 – it does not require as many resources as in U59 to save a couple of gigabytes of data once a week 2. Connect the Pi via a smart outlet for remote activation if necessary
  3. Replace TrueNAS with a regular OS with Cockpit, because TrueNAS is beautiful, but not necessary. Leave the data on ZFS so as not to transfer it (there are no special claims against ZFS).
  4. Install Kubernetes on 3 U59 (as originally intended), but use it not for home purposes and not at home. After that, there will be no excess iron left.