I am in the process of setting up a home server, and I am struggling to decide. I have previously used yunohost but in the meantime, freedom box has matured quite a bit. I have also looked at Tipi.
The use case right now is, running a wireguard server and probably some notes of sorts (to be decided). A web GUI for management and updating would be much desired.
Disclaimer: I don’t have too much surplus of energy, due to a hectic life, so I would prefer something easy and without the requirement of docker/kubernettes
- Yunohost: https://yunohost.org/
- Freedombox: http://freedombox.org/
- Tipi: https://runtipi.io/
I will run on a Gigabyte Brix with:
- AMD Ryzen 4300U (4 core)
- 16 maybe 32 GB RAM
- 512GB SSD
I am open to other suggestions.
P.S. I apologise if this has been debated before, but I have not really found anything.
Thank you in advance
EDIT: I have read your recommendations and arguments, and it is noted, I am watching docker tutorials now :)
As everyone else has said, if your time is limited, your best path is docker. You don’t need to learn all of docker, but understanding how docker compose works at a fairly high level will drastically speed up setup as well as administrative tasks like updating and backups
As for what to run, you mentioned wireguard and a notes app. The notes app could be solved without needing a central server with Obsidian and I’m not seeing the use case here for Wireguard.
I would start with what problem or pain point are you trying to solve for.
In my case, I had a bunch of IOT devices all making excessive DNS queries and I wanted a network level ad blocker so I setup PiHole (2 in fact, they run my network’s DNS).
I had a large music collection and burning mix CDs was no longer practical so I setup Jellyfin (Navidrome might have also worked), and use FinAmp on my phone.
Google started being a pain in my backside so I setup Nextcloud.
Someone got me some smart devices so HomeAssistant was setup.
I needed a way to find these services so I setup Heimdel as a dashboard.
I wanted some of these publicly available so I setup Caddy as a reverse proxy.
Thank you for your input. The reason why I want a Wireguard server, is to have a secure tunnel into my growing gadgets, NAS, rpi and now a server. Using a platform would open up options to ease future deployment, or testing of services/applications.
If all I needed was a Wireguard server, I might have picked up another rpi and USB RJ45 dongle. I just wanted a server so I wasn’t restricting myself, and offering the wireguard some extra power.
