Home Server

Overview

I decided to turn an old desktop I acquired into a home server. I wanted to improve my technical competencies and gain a better undestanding of the technologies powering everyday products. The server was initially a sandbox to mess around in, but is gradually becoming something I rely on to power other projects.

Objectives

• Understand server-client relationships
• Practice with new technologies
• Protect my personal data

Methodology

I started by installing Docker Desktop, a tool I had heard about at school. I initially spun up containers for N8N (an automation platform), and Jellyfin (a media server). I am currently testing budgeting tools, and building automations to accelerate my workflows.

Key Findings / Results

Sometimes a tool sounds really cool, but is useless without a plan. It's easy to get sidetracked by shiny new toys, but just adding more features doesn't always add value.

Code Samples

Below are some code samples from this project:

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# Example Python code
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

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# Additional code sample
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Technologies Used

• Docker
• N8N
• OSS

Lessons Learned

This project has been a great exercise in limiting scope creep and staying within limitations. I periodically have gotten sidetracked by shopping for new hardware to add more features, but am staying focused on really understanding the technologies I am using. My next steps are moving to Linux, and reconstructing my containers with docker compose instead of relying on GUIs.