So years ago, I had a Windows Home Server setup. (its in the archives here, but I haven’t dug up the link)
I was reasonably happy with it, except that:
- Microsoft Discontinued it, and thus almost no updates
- It would sometimes crash and need a reboot
- The client machines (aka the ones I really wanted back up, and the whole point of having the sever) never actually popped alerts to let me know “hey I haven’t been able to reach the server for three weeks now…”
After about my third multi-month backup blackout. I realized I needed to bite the bullet and tackle something different. I really wanted something that would be a drop-in replacement for WHS, with semi-automated backups and some sort of NAS shared drive options.
The best match I could find was Amahi a Fedora biased Linux solution. I figured the fact that they were selling subscriptions meant there was some incentive for them to stick around and continue to provide updates. It is billed as a really simple solution, and probably is… if you can resist the temptation to tinker with things.
So to save the time it would take to recount the saga of hammering out the wrinkles I created for myself getting things exactly how I wanted it, let’s just say I probably would have been better off doing this thing from scratch. I am by no means a professional Linux admin, but my current job has me logged into several headless boxes each day putting me somewhere near the classic “I know enough to be dangerous” territory.
That being said, I build this thing using Amahi, and it’s a good starting point. I just put the final piece in place today, giving me what for our family in 2017 is a perfect solution to our server needs (because every family has server needs right?)
- Both PCs automatically sync pictures with the server in near real-time (using a three peer Syncthing setup)
- Both PCs do nightly snapshot backups to the server ( If I were doing posts more often there would be several documenting the trials necessary to get that going)
- Both our phones dump new pictures into the PC photo pool nightly ( Thanks to the Plex mobile client )
- Our collection of child oriented video can be selectively steamed or loaded onto a phone or tablet on demand
The only real gaps are cloud backup, but I have that configured from one of the PCs and hope that the mirroring of photos between each system ensured that we have everything that’s important in on several local boxes, plus the cloud.
I could go on about the setup… there are endless details to brag about or bemoan, but this will have to suffice as a point-in-time of the state of servers and photo backup at the Nelson household.
-Jordan
Nelsons 