Good day, friends. Since catching the self-hosting bug, I've set up a couple of Proxmox home servers with a bunch of services I enjoy.
Now I'd like to set up a server and local network on my sailboat so I can self-host servarr, pihole, and other services while traveling. The tricky part is that everything on the boat is 12V and I would rather not use an inverter, if possible. Also, it needs to be ultra-low power so I can leave it on at all times and not to deplete my batteries too much.
Criteria:
ultra-low power
Small form factor
runs on 12V
10 TB of storage plus ability to make full local backup
Capable of hosting servarr, audiobookshelf, freshrss, etc. via docker
HDMI output
Full local mirror/backup of the entire file system, including the media library.
We will have two laptops and two Android phones to access the server, so the server doesn't need to run a desktop environment.
I'll have a mobile wifi router and a cellular signal booster (or maybe Starlink eventually) for internet access. Since internet bandwidth will be limited and expensive while traveling, I don't want to have to re-download a massive media llibrary if the storage media fail. Thus, I want the media library to be mirrored or fully backed up or synced locally.
What hardware and Linux distro would you use in this situation?
I run a NUC and a few other network things off a 125W elcheapo $20 bestek(?) inverter off the house battery.
Sure it gets converted twice but actual watts wasted are minimal in a low power scheme, and the juice is cleaner in the end.
And consider DIYing a big house battery. The cells are cheap now. I built a 1200Ah LFP bank just because it fit nicely in the compartment. Then throw some solar at it.
And for backup, just get a large spinning external and plug it in occasionally to sync a copy. Put it back in the Tupperware for cold storage.