I’m looking to re-purpose an old desktop into a multi-purpose home server. I’m looking for some advise on how to set things up in a way that won’t bite me in the ass later. I’m a confident Linux user, but have limited docker experience. I’m looking at using TrueNAS scale for: straight cloud storage, syncthings, home assistant, and tailscale to access it. If things go swimmingly, I might add jellyfin or *arr apps.
Here’s the hardware I already have:
- i7 6700
- 32 GB DDR4 (non-ECC)
- GTX 1060
- Storage:
- 1 TB NVME SSD
- 250 GB SATA SSD
- 4x 4 TB WD Black HDD
So, here are my noob questions:
- Is this system capable enough to handle the things I want to do?
- My first pass at research says I should use TrueCharts for Tailscale. For Home Assistant, should I also install through TrueCharts? I was reading that you can’t install community docker plugins for home assistant, but I’m not sure if that’s something I’ll need. I also don’t know if I that’s something I need. The alternative is a separate VM, but that seems a lot more complicated.
- How should I set up my drives? Should the 1 TB NVME drive be the boot drive, is that better used for something else. I’ve done some basic reading on vdevs/pools, but I’m not sure how syncthings/home assistant/other apps fit into the picture. Any good resources you could point me to for understanding this better?
The further you go, the more specialized it gets. There are people I know doing their PhDs in CS, but it was pretty much just straight math. I'm now an expert in a very specific area of robotics. But it's only worth it if you have a specific reason to go to grad school, like for a particular career path. If it's just because you like learning, it's not worth it. There's a big opportunity cost.