I want to make a server for hosting media through Jellyfin, and maybe some Nextcloud functionality. I prefer to use containers, but something like TrueNAS’ extensions/plugins sound good as well. This is my first server, so I don’t know what to choose. My possible options are:
Debian
Ubuntu
Fedora
TrueNAS Scale Which one should I choose? I am fine with using either Docker or Podman. (Edit: The server will be running on an old laptop with a single drive slot.)
I’m running Fedora Server + Cosmos Cloud. Freaking awesome. Fedora Server comes bundled with Cockpit, which makes admin work much easier, and Cosmos Cloud makes Docker very easy, and automates your security.
I use RHEL/Rocky 8 for all my home server stuff mostly because i like my home server stuff boring and stable.
Since you were considering TrueNAS, maybe consider something like Debian/Ubuntu + CasaOS. That will give you a good base and webui to work with.
It’s not going to be a lean as it could be but it should give you enough guard rails and hand holding to get you started. Then you can figure out the rest of your needs from there. If you don’t like it you can always wipe it and try again with something else.
I’d stay away from the TrueNAS, Unraid, Proxmox, etc. mostly due to your hardware and that it’s your first home server.
They’re not bad at all, but a lot of the stuff is abstracted from you and since you’re more than likely going to want to tinker with it having a standardized base install with a distro that has a lot of documentation is going to be very helpful.
For a home server, I personally prefer Unraid (which is built on top of Slackware). It has a pretty good UI for managing Docker containers, and also supports KVM (built-in) and LXC (via a plugin).
You just need to set services.jellyfin.enable = true; in your system configuration and that’s it. It’s not containers, but it’s better than containers.
Whatever you’re most comfortable with. It’s a simple enough ask that you can do it in Ubuntu server or Debian quite easily.
I would recommend at least using docker but you don’t have to.
Truenas isn’t very forgiving with drive configuration. I really like it but it isn’t great for randomly adding drives here and there. Unraid might be a better choice for home usage. I have never had good luck with their built in app stuff but I’ve also never really tried past it not doing what I want.
I run truenas with a ubuntu server vm and docker some stuff in that. I also run proxmox on another server and a dev server running Ubuntu server that I docker things on.
If one wants the NAS functionality then yeah unRAID is great. If not I think they’d be served as well or better with Ubuntu and docker (ideally with portainer UI)
Proxmox. I’ve been using it and deployed jellyfin in a container, they have a bunch of one-click deployments and it’s great. Or you can just use a VM to group Docker containers together. Having a beautiful web interface is huge, Plus being able to access that interface from anywhere via WireGuard/Tailscale is great.
If you do choose to go down this route, there is a “no-nag proxmox” script somewhere, and it will disable some warnings and give you deeper customization options. Well worth a look!
I’ve never used Proxmox, but have a Docker setup on Ubuntu Server with Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Immich, and a bunch of other smaller things. I still don’t understand why use Proxmox over Docker. What does it give you that Docker doesn’t?
Proxmox is completely different from Docker. Proxmox is focused on VMs, and to a lesser extent LXC containers. If you think you will have a need to run VMs (for example, a Windows VM for a game server that doesn’t support Linux) Proxmox is great for that.
I run Docker on a dedicated VM inside Proxmox, and then I spin up other specialized VMs on the same system when needed. The Docker VM only does Docker and nothing else at all.
Based on that generic request, you’re just going to get everyone’s personal favourite server OS here. You’ll need to give more details to get something tailored to your needs.
I would like to recommend an Ubuntu Server LTS which is almost as solid as Debian in my opinion but with many useful features like nonfree drivers accessible right away and newer packages.
I’ve recently switched from Ubuntu Server LTS to Debian stable because Ubuntu started adding snaps to Server too, and the LTS support was restricted behind machine registration which doesn’t smell good to me.
I haven’t had to deal with any unusual driver support on Debian, probably because I use Intel CPU+GPU for transcoding not Nvidia.
The only external thing I’ve installed was adding the official Docker repo to have the latest Docker, docker-compose-plugin, containerd etc. straight from the source.
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