You will get different answers. Some people like proxmox with ZFS. You can run vms and lxc containers pretty easily. Some people like running everything in a container and using podman or docker. Some people like to raw dog it and just install everything on bare metal ( I don’t recommend this approach though).

The setup I currently have are 3 servers. One server for compute. This is where I run all my services from. 1 server for storage. 1 server for backup storage.

The compute server is set up with an NFS share that connects to the storage server. These all have a 10gbe nic on a 10gbe switch.

If I could go back and redo this setup again, I would make a few changes. I do have a few NVMe drives in my storage server for the NFS share. The compute server has the user home directories on there, as well as the permanent files for the containers that have volumes. This makes it easy for me to backup that data to the other server as well.

With that said, I kinda wish I went with less storage and built out a server using mostly nvmes. My mobo doesn’t do bifurcation on its x16 slots and so I can only get 1 NVMe per slot. It’s a waste. Nvmes can run somewhat hot, but are smaller and easier to cool than platters. Plus it’s faster to rebuild if something were to happen. You could probably get away with using 1 parity drive because of this.

I would still need a few big drives for my media, but that data is not as critical to me in the event I lost something there.

What I would look for in a storage system are the following:

• mobo with rdimm memory
• bifurcation pcie slots to add adapter cards for NVMe drives or lots of NVMe slots on the mobo.
• if doing 10gbe, use sfp+ nics and a sfp+ switch (runs cooler). Then you would just get sfp cables instead of cat6/6e.
• management port (ipmi)
• as much memory as you can afford

With those requirements in mind, something like an ASRock server motherboard using an AMD epyc would normally fit the bill. I have seen bundles go for about 600-700 on AliExpress.

As far as the OS. I treat the storage server as an appliance. I have truenas on there. This is also the reason I have a separate computer server as it makes it easier for me to manage services the way I want, without trying to hack the truenas box. This makes it easy to replicate to my backup since that is also truenas. I have snapshots every hour and those get backed up. I also have cloud backup for critical data every hour.

Last, but not least, I have a vps server so I can access my services from the internet. This uses a wireguard tunnel and forwards from the vps to the compute server.

For the compute server, I am managing mostly everything with saltbox. Which uses ansible and docker containers for most services.

No matter what you choose, I highly recommend ZFS for your data. Good luck!

If you’re running a lot of stuff on the same server, I agree with others that you’d want to use containers or VMs to avoid possible dependency hell. I prefer containers so I don’t have multiple OSs using RAM. I’ve never used Proxmox, but if I understand correctly, it’s an OS specifically built for running containers and VMs more easily, so I’m guessing that’d be a good choice. I personally just use Ubuntu LTS or Debian, Docker, and SSH to administer my servers, because that’s what I’m familiar with.

A cheap used Desktop PC off Craigslist or whatever should be fine. Desktops are more upgradable and configurable. You’d want to make sure the CPU and Mobo support however much RAM you’d want. Ext4 is fine if using a single disk; ZFS for multiple disks with redundancy. Preferably, a smallish SSD for the OS disk, but not required.

*arr stack for pirating: https://wiki.servarr.com/

Jellyfin for serving media. You may want something like the cheapest Intel Arc GPU for transcoding if you’re going to serve HDR video to low-spec devices.

Nextcloud for basic file sharing. NFS for high performance file sharing with Linux machines, if needed. Syncthing for syncing files if you need that.

Immich for something similar to Google Photos, if needed.

Yes

You’re asking a very general question, and will get a lot of general answers.

Figure out what you want to run first, get it running on what you have available, then adapt if you run into issues.

I wouldn’t be asking just what other people think you should do because you’re going to get a lot of noise.

Just install Linux on the laptop and start experimenting.

Yunohost is very easy, but something like Debian or Fedora Server Edition will be more flexible.

You didn’t mention your budget. That will impact things.

If you have a closet with a rack you have a lot of options, hardware-wise. If you’ll be running this in your living room, for sake of your sanity, something like an AMD mini-PC with a small NAS for additional hosted storage via NFS would probably be your best bet.

A PC with Proxmox could do this handily. I have a cheap Ryzen 5500u mini PC hosting my Plex server, audiobookshelf, home assistant, and DLNA server (AssetUPnP). It’s only 6 core/12 thread and32GB RAM but still has resources to spare. You could totally do an 8c/16t one and throw more RAM at it.

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Edit - oh, and don’t forget that if you’re going to be hosting a public instance, you’ll need a good internet connection (with good up and down speed, generally fiber is good for that) and a public IP.

Use whatever you have and test different setups. I would start by installing Proxmox and setup ZFS on some drive that not the boot partition. For just checking it out with some lightweight VMs and containers any CPU that’s not 20 years old will suffice, the more RAM the better. Play with VMs, backups etc in small scale. You can use your old external USB HDD, etc, just to figure out things like ZFS.

Don’t buy anything before getting some experience and having some kind of plan.