I’ve been self-hosting Home Assistant for over a year, and I want to take the dive into more self-hosting. I want to start by converting an old laptop into a home server. Assuming that goes well, I’ll probably want to upgrade to a more modern, purpose built server and NAS fairly soon. How can I make sure that what I set up on the laptop can be easily moved to my upgraded hardware later?
Additional notes:
- I’m already using Tailscale (it’s what prompted me to want to do more self-hosting)
- I want to be able to access my server via Tailscale, but I want everything mapped to my own custom domain via a reverse proxy
- I’m planning on using Proxmox
Thanks in advance for the advice! :)
When you upgrade your desktop PC, plan for it to be the home server after that.
I got a rackmount case to transplant my old desktop montherboard into every 5 years. I also got a 4-port NIC so it can also be a router. My server is a 4th gen Core i5 and it’s still plenty of power for a home server.
If you’re a laptop guy, I’m not sure what you’d do. Maybe ask friends for their old desktops. The Win10 discontinuation next month would be a great opportunity to snap up some business PCs destined for landfill.
For Home Assistant, I think you either need Docker or a dedicated box. I kinda hate how there isn’t a .deb package for it like literally every other service on my server.