This is actually really interesting, I might have to try this.
I currently use a USB stick with a key file on it that I need to plug in on boot. Something like this but it wasn’t that easy for me. https://openterprise.it/2022/07/fedora-unlock-luks-full-disk-encrypted-system-using-usb-stick/
Edit: I wonder if yours will work on my VPS… I’d love to encrypt that.
Thinking more about it, If you just want to host and not mess around like I do, I would use your current computer, install Docker on it and see how you like it. Host a example website see if you can get it to work, Try a Minecraft server and see if it works… If that’s not for you then you can try VMs with an entire OS. This will be a lot more overhead but it will also work.
After you know what you like (Docker containers or an entire VM), I’d design what you want to do. Are you going to have a lot of people on your Jellyfin and Minecraft servers? how much RAM, CPU, Storage do they use?
Once you have that information, Look at prices, Do you want one big PC and will it do everything you want? If you need to buy several, maybe it’s better to get a bunch of small ones?
If it’s one big PC then you’re done. Get it, install Docker/VM and go.
If you want to play around or you need to get many PCs, do you want to cluster them so Minecraft server can move to a different PC if that PC fails? then do Swarm or K3s if you’re okay with docker.
If you need to do small PCs, maybe you install Docker normally on each and manage them separately.
In the end it’s totally up to you what you do. I use K8s :)
https://docs.docker.com/engine/swarm/
Yeah, so you have more than one PC and they will talk to each other and decide who hosts what.
For example, you host nextcloud and the cluster will decide (unless you tell it differently) it goes to PC1. Then you host Minecraft and the cluster will put it on PC2.
Now, PC2 dies, you unplug it, or generally something bad happens. The cluster will see that Minecraft isn’t running, PC2 is down, and start Minecraft on PC1. The best part, just keep adding cheap computers as you need more compute power. One container (Plex,emby,etc) can not run on two or more computers. If you need to transcoded then you’ll want one with a GPU or a more powerful CPU depending on how many people will use the service.
This all assumes you’re not using local data. Meaning if the Minecraft save and config files are on PC2 and it dies, starting it on PC1 will either not work or be 100% new. There’s other self hosted software to replicate the data to more than one computer or you can have a NAS of some sort.
It’s a bit more advanced but a lot of fun if you enjoy that kind of thing. It allows you to work on your stuff with minimal downtime. Of
I have 3 raspberry PIs, 4 various lenovo tiny PCs all in a kubernetes cluster and it seems I need more RAM than CPU. Storage is on a DIY NAS with 8*8TB disks in a raid 6.
I run bookstack, nextcloud, 2007scape, gitea, synapse, the *are stack, Plex, and a bunch of other things.
If I was just starting out I’d grab a used lenovo tiny or two, set up a docker cluster and play with that. There is software to replicate local storage across nodes that I’ve never touched but I’d try out a few of them also if you don’t want to use a NAS. Worst case, just use local storage and the containers will be locked to that host.
I think Proxmox let’s you run VMs and Containers too if you prefer that route.
Hang on, why not open the port to jellyfin to the internet?
I have a lifetime Plex pass so its not urgent but I have a containers running emby and jellyfin to check them out. When I decide which one I planned to open it up and give people logins.