Editing Home Servers

This is a guide to configuring a quick Debian Home Server, made to be accessed anywhere on the Internet. It is made for use with old laptops and ARM dev boards, since both computers save power.

Running a home server is a very useful way to gain experience before managing actual dedicated server blades in the cloud.

== Why run a Home Server? ==

* [[Personal Cloud]] - It's time to make your own cloud. And you'll probably be all the better for it.
* IRC Bouncer - Stick around and get all the chat history and private messages using an IRC Bouncer.
* Torrent Seedbox - If you're in college, you had better avoid using p2p on their guarded networks. Take the responsibility on yourself by downloading from a home seedbox.
* You could also get a real seedbox which has protections against reports.

Explore other types of home servers [[Home Servers/Types|in this article.]]

== When to move to a real Server ==

* '''Redundancy and Reliability''' - Old hard drives are definitely at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to reliability, so make backups. Building systems to increase redundancy requires a RAID array (which may require a lot more than just 5-6 SATA ports), and reliability demands ECC (error-correcting) RAM.
* '''Public Websites/Datacenters''' - Unless your server is at a small business building, public websites or data hosts should not be served from your house (unless you want your ISP to raise your bill).

== Home Server ==

Guides to configuring Debian home servers.

=== Hardware ===

* [[NAS/Devices]]
* [[Seedbox]]

=== Installation ===

* [[Debian Netinstall]] - Barebones system with only what you need.
* [[Crunchbang]] - God Save the Crunch. Minimal Desktop Debian, with BunsenLabs and CB++.
* [[CentOS]] - What if Red Hat Linux was free?

=== Network Configuration ===

* [[Port Forwarding]] - To remotely access a server on the open internet, you must port forward the services.
* [[Static IP]] - You should set a static IP for a server within the router DHCP subnet.
* [[Reverse SSH Tunnel]] - If necessary, an SSH reverse proxy allows devices to communicate to a server under a firewall disallowing incoming traffic.

=== Remote Access ===

* [[SSH]] - Remotely administer your server. Also use SFTP, SSH Tunneling, X11 Forwarding, Reverse SSH Tunneling.
* [[SSH/Client]] - Access the SSH Server.
* [[OpenVPN]]
* [[WebDAV]]
* [[FTP]]
* [[DNS]] - You can use duckdns.org if you don't want to pay for a domain name, or namecheap if you do.
* [[Shell]] - Which command line shell to use. Some modifications can significantly make your life much better.

=== Services ===

* [[Torrents]] - Torrent Servers
* [[IRC Bouncer]] - IRC Bouncers are critical to idling on IRC servers and receiving private messages.
** [[IRC Bouncer#Quassel|Quassel]] - Effective, elegant, and powerful IRC client for multiple platforms, including Android.
** [[IRC Bouncer#ZNC|ZNC]] - Great for Palaver (iOS).
* [[Web Server]] - Which web server is right for you?
* [[Syncthing]] - A dropbox replacement and multi-server replication solution,

=== Storage ===

* [[Partitioning]] - How to arrange the partitions.
* [[LVM]] - Alternatively, Logical Volume Management allows partitions to be expanded or resized at will.
* [[fstab]] - Automount partitions at boot.
* [[SSD]] - Optimizations for ssd storage
* [[Bind Mount Directories]]
* [[NAS/Devices]] - Build a low power Network Attached Storage array for the home.
* [[Object Storage]] - Beyond 4TB RAID rebuild times start to become ineffective. Ceph and other object storage options will have to be explored.
* [[LTO Tape]] - The holy grail of archival storage on the cheap.
** [[LTO Tape/SCSI]]
** [[LTO Tape/FC]]
** [[LTO Tape/SAS]]
* [[Disk Recovery]] - If you accidentally blew away your partition table, you'll have to recover the data.

=== Computing ===

* [[GPU/Processing]] - A GPU can be used for much more than just games.

=== Misc ===

* [[Disable Lid Suspend]] - Don't suspend when the laptop lid is down.
* [[Disable PC Speaker Beep]] - It can be annoying if you accidentally press a wrong command and your server at home beeps randomly.
* [[Systemd/Nspawn]] - Used to create simple linux containers under the same kernel.

== Dedicated Server ==

Guides for configuring and setting up a true CentOS dedicated server/VPS.

=== Testing ===

Always thoroughly test your dedicated server before you use it.

* [[Memtest]] - Test the sanity of your memory (especially non-ECC). use memtest86++ at boot (included on most linux distro livecds).
* [[Hard Drive Test]] - Test the reliability of your hard drives.
* [[Speed Test]] - Test connection speeds and peering worldwide, as well as read/write speeds.
* [[Stress Test]] - Test the overall performance of the computer.

=== Networking ===

* [[Hostname]] - The hostname is related to your server's primary domain.
* [[Firewalls]] - Easy firewalls with FirewallD.

=== Services ===

* [[Web Server]] - A production dedicated server has a more complex web server design.
* [[Rsync Server]] - Rsync Servers are a reliable way of transmitting and syncing data across the internet, without resending what was already synced
* [https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Managing_Confined_Services/sect-Managing_Confined_Services-rsync-Configuration_Examples.html Rsync with SELinux]

=== Account Management ===

* Handling Admin Privileges
* [[King in the Mountain]] - Create an emergency root account with a special SSH key put in a safe place.
* [[Sudo]] - Give certain trusted users administrative (root) privileges, which are revokable.
** [[Passwordless Sudo]] - If you have SSH keys anyway, why type a second password?.
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	This is a guide to configuring a quick Debian Home Server ~~(with some guides about CentOS)~~, made to be accessed anywhere on the Internet. It is made for use with old laptops and ARM dev boards, since both computers save power.		This is a guide to configuring a quick Debian Home Server, made to be accessed anywhere on the Internet. It is made for use with old laptops and ARM dev boards, since both computers save power.

	Running a home server is a very useful way to gain experience before managing actual dedicated server blades in the cloud.		Running a home server is a very useful way to gain experience before managing actual dedicated server blades in the cloud.