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Server for a boat (self.selfhosted)

submitted 4 months ago by sailingbythelee to c/selfhosted

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Good day, friends. Since catching the self-hosting bug, I've set up a couple of Proxmox home servers with a bunch of services I enjoy.

Now I'd like to set up a server and local network on my sailboat so I can self-host servarr, pihole, and other services while traveling. The tricky part is that everything on the boat is 12V and I would rather not use an inverter, if possible. Also, it needs to be ultra-low power so I can leave it on at all times and not to deplete my batteries too much.

Criteria:

ultra-low power
Small form factor
runs on 12V
10 TB of storage plus ability to make full local backup
Capable of hosting servarr, audiobookshelf, freshrss, etc. via docker
HDMI output
Full local mirror/backup of the entire file system, including the media library.
We will have two laptops and two Android phones to access the server, so the server doesn't need to run a desktop environment.

I'll have a mobile wifi router and a cellular signal booster (or maybe Starlink eventually) for internet access. Since internet bandwidth will be limited and expensive while traveling, I don't want to have to re-download a massive media llibrary if the storage media fail. Thus, I want the media library to be mirrored or fully backed up or synced locally.

What hardware and Linux distro would you use in this situation?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I would recommend something like a Pi as well, but it looks like you're going to have to take it down to 5v. Maybe a NUC might be better.

But if you really want 20 TB, you'll need to buy two drives at least 10 TB, and you'll want them to be SSDs for the low power requirement. So that means you'll need a device with two SATA ports, because I don't think anyone makes NVMe drives that big. Oh, and be ready to pay a few thousand for each drive. Also you'll want to keep one drive offline, in an ESD bag in a dry bag. So maybe one will be USB.

But for real low power, I'd suggest just plain turning it off. Booting doesn't take that long any more. Or maybe suspend to disk, if you can find a system that supports it.

But overall, I would suggest reevaluating how important these things are to you. Generally, lots of electronics and nomadism don't go together. Have you considered books? I'm sure you can find people to swap with when you're in port.

[–] sailingbythelee 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Hmmm, looking at the cost of large SSDs, I think you're right that I should downgrade my storage requirements. Or perhaps I could use a large HDD that is turned off while underway for "long-term" storage and a smaller SSD for media that I want immediately available. That would avoid the problem of spinning a HDD while bouncing around in high wind and waves.

And, yes, we do have books, lol. But we also enjoy movies. :)