Which OS to pair with beelink s12 mini pro reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-17 09:14 Hey folks, Hope you're all doing great! I recently got my Beelink with N100, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. I went ahead and added a 2TB SATA SSD to it. Currently, I'm deciding on which OS to install on my server. As a first step to self-hosting, I'm considering getting an external USB HDD since I don't have any storage solution in my house. My primary purpose for now is to set it up as a media server. I started with TrueNAS, thinking I could build a good media server with USB attached devices on top of the NAS OS. Unfortunately, it didn't go well as I didn't like TrueNAS apps at all; it was lagging quite badly on that machine. I switched to Unraid and am currently running it using NVME and SATA SSDs as a cache pool, with the USB HDD as a final layer when SSDs get filled up. I prefer containers more on Unraid, but I still enjoy having Docker YAML files and full control over it, given my background with containers. However, while I like Unraid, I'm still on trial and exploring multiple threads/posts. I've come to realize that I might not get a "real" storage solution from such a mini PC, as USB HDDs are not recommended. I'm unsure if it's worth paying for something that is not recommended at all. Perhaps it would be better to get a NAS when I need it and just call it a day. This brings me to the question of what I should run on this machine. I enjoy playing around with containers and OSes, and I'm considering installing Proxmox, but I'm not sure if it's worth doing that for a 16GB memory device. Alternatively, I'm thinking of going with bare Ubuntu Server or CentOS with Docker containers. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-17 09:24 Why dont you simply search this sub for terms like "which os" and "best distro"? Because this has been asked and discussed countless times already and the outcome is always the same. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-17 09:32 well I did, that’s why I end up with Unraid/TrueNAS/Proxmox.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-17 09:33 Yes and those have also been compared countless times. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-17 09:39 I think all of them are probably not the best fit for me, except Proxmox, but I’m not sure about 16GB RAM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- InfamousAgency6784 · 2023-11-17 10:04 I second that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- InfamousAgency6784 · 2023-11-17 10:32 This is bikeshedding, just pick one and get things done. If Unraid suits your purpose and you like it, just get a license already and continue using it. It's about what you like, not what people think of it FFS. Also it's not the connector that counts, it's the way you use it! Really don't sweat it. ;) USB is not recommended for NAS for a variety of reasons, whatever OS you choose, whatever skin you choose so Unraid vs. the rest is not super relevant. If you have no choice but going USB (like this), you can buy an externally-powered USB JBOD device if you want to do RAID with your USB devices. If you **don't** want to do RAID and the USB disk is punctual overflow or for timed syncs/backups, USB should be absolutely fine (unless you have a crappy controller). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-17 11:17 basically what I think is just to keep single USB device without expectations of making NAS from minipc and probably buy proper NAS when I need more storage. That’s pushed me into consideration why do I need to run NAS system not on NAS machine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- InfamousAgency6784 · 2023-11-17 12:00 I understand what you say. Basically, as long as you don't need/want any sort of RAID, SATA/nvme will be more reliable than USB but USB will do absolutely fine. If the controller resets or you mistakenly unplug the disk, once it's back on it will work as before (though, to prevent corruption in case of unexpected unplugging, powered external disk enclosures are superior). If that is your setup and your use case is to present those drives to the network, your setup is about as perfect as it can be, really. If you want RAID (which is what people have in mind when you say "NAS"), you need your drives to live in the same context (i.e. either all internally connected to the same motherboard or all connected behind the same single USB cable). A NAS machine offers that in a convenient package (usually with hot-swappable drive bays). Though for home use, you can find a N100 ITX board (or similar) with all the SATA you need and put that in a normal computer case. That's cheaper than commercial solutions and you can also go for beefier config if you want to to host more. But commercial solutions are turn-key... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-17 13:21 that’s my thinking, I’m pretty sure minipc won’t do good NAS. so investing in something they won’t play out might be not the right idea. so converting to just media server and then getting “real” NAS might be much wiser. So this bring me to the topic, if not NAS what to run on it, I’m more or less inclined to Proxmox, but not sure if this pc will be enough for it and just go ahead and install Ubuntu and use docker ---------------------------------------------------------------------- InfamousAgency6784 · 2023-11-17 16:20 It depends what you want to do with it and what your preferences are (that's something only you can determine). Even more so with something like Proxmox. The overhead compared to raw Ubuntu will be very small so I wouldn't worry and just go for whatever makes the most sense for you. The main limiting factor is your RAM and CPU, not the OS you run atop of it. ---- I know it's a very frustrating answer but what works for me probably won't apply to/work for/appeal to you at all. So you really need to try things out and see what sticks. If you want to run other services, trying it out is the only way to figure out if your N100 with whatever amount of RAM you have is enough to do the job (it probably is). Just to give you an idea, I don't like nursing machines. I like having my configurations on git somewhere and automatically redeploy on change. So I use CoreOS, Vault, Nomad and Consul to manage all my 4 machines and services. If I had just one machine, I would just use CoreOS with Nomad. That's a personal preference, for a home lab, that's all there is to it, preferences. Just like some people prefer strawberries to raspberries. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-17 16:33 so you are not running Proxmox at all? I’m not sure what proxmox overhead would be, should be close to 2GB? if so, it would be flexible enough to have ubuntu on top of the proxmox and have some additional flexibility ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Vinnie5 · 2023-11-19 06:44 I run Proxmox on the exact device you purchased (16GB) and love it. I am running a full *arr stack, Jellyfin, pihole, and even a game server (admittedly the game was released in 2008). I do have a secondary device in use as the NAS however. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-19 09:04 don’t you mind sharing how do you run arr-stack? I’m using currently docker + jellyfin lxc and what file system do you use? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Vinnie5 · 2023-11-19 14:29 I'm new to Proxmox but I'll try to share. Jellyfin on its own LXC container purely because it was the only way I could manage to get the hardware decoding / passthrough to work after hours of troubleshooting. I have docker running on an Ubuntu server VM which runs all the *arrs. I think Proxmox uses a zfs filesystem and both the Ubuntu VM and the lxc container just share a section of that local storage. I have my media files on my NAS which is mounted via NFS directly to the lxc container and the VM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- n00namer · 2023-11-19 17:33 seems like my setup, but just without NAS. Thanks