My Self-Hosting Journey: Finding the Perfect Balance
My self-hosting journey has taken me through just about every type of setup you can imagine, all in search of the perfect mix of performance, reliability, and low power usage. Here’s the quick version of how it all evolved.
Starting Out: The Single All-In-One Box
I began with a simple all-in-one Mini-ITX machine that ran everything—TrueNAS virtualised as my main storage, plus all my VMs and containers.
It worked, but with no backups and TrueNAS running inside the same host, even something as basic as restarting became painful.
Fixing Stability: Adding a Dedicated NAS
To make life easier, I bought a separate NAS.
This let me keep TrueNAS virtualised but use it only for backups, which meant:
- Restarts became smooth
- My main hard drives could idle down
- Storage was no longer tied to a single VM
A huge improvement.
The MS01 Upgrade: Power and Performance
Next came the Minisforum MS01, paired with an Intel Arc A310 GPU.
This became my main Proxmox host, powering Plex hardware transcoding and all my VMs and CTs.
Performance was rock solid—but power usage was definitely on the high side.
Trying Redundancy: Kubernetes with RKE2 + Longhorn
I decided to experiment with Kubernetes, running an RKE2 cluster with Longhorn on three virtual machines.
It actually worked extremely well—redundancy, self-healing, and great storage management.
But the catch?
My area has occasional network and power outages, and running a full cluster on three VMs used more power than made sense long-term.
To reduce power draw, I replaced the MS01 with three Minisforum N100P nodes.
Power consumption dropped massively… but performance also took a noticeable hit.
The Middle Ground: Docker Swarm + Ceph
After Kubernetes, I tried Docker Swarm.
It was a nice middle ground—lighter to manage, simple to deploy, and enough redundancy for small workloads.
But it wasn’t as robust as Kubernetes.
When things broke, they took more tinkering to fix.
During this phase I also tried Ceph, which actually worked really well, and I had backups pushing directly to my Proxmox Backup Server.
Coming Full Circle: Back to a Smarter All-In-One
Eventually, I realised the simplest solution worked best for me.
I went back to an all-in-one system, while keeping the NAS separate for storage and backups.
I upgraded the RAM and swapped the board for a Micro-ATX motherboard so I had more expansion options.
Now the whole system runs efficiently on an Intel T-series CPU, handling:
- All my VMs
- All my containers
- Backups
- Plex
- Everything I actually need
And it does so with low power usage and zero fuss.
Today, everything runs smoothly, I barely have to touch anything, and I only get alerts when a service goes down—which is rare.
Some popular services I host
adguardhome -ad blocker / enforce safe search
bazarr -subtitle tracker
expressvpn -vpn for downloads
flaresolverr -proxy server to bypass cloudflare protection
guacamole -rdp & vnc in web browser
homeassistant -automation
jellyfin -personal media streamer
lidarr -audio tracker
mariadb -sql database
mealie -recipie manager
metube -audio / video web downloader
organizr -everything in one place
overseerr -media requests
piwigo -web browser for personal photos
plex -personal media streamer
podgrab -podcast tracker
portainer -gui for docker containers
prowlarr -trackers for downloads
qbittorrent -torrent downloader
radarr -movie tracker
readarr -ebook tracker
sonarr -tv show tracker
tailscale -vpn service
tautulli -history / stats for plex
uptime kuma -application monitor
vaultwarden -password manager
whisparr -adult tracker
wordpress -website service
A whole list can be found at https://selfh.st/ including icons.