Three years ago I built my first PVE/PBS/Ubuntu VM/Docker setup. I have used this (a.o.) as a HAproxy backup for my postfix/dovecot/rspamd mail server setup (dovecot synced across both instances). It was also a dedicated learning experiment, my first foray into managing my own virtualisation, Linux (all macOS before, including the mail server), containers, etc.. I built this on a secondhand Intel NUC 10th generation with Corei5 and 16GB RAM and a 1TB Samsung EVO, and all server data on a hardware RAID1 enclosure (2 2TB Samsung EVO SSDs). The external 'disk' has been encrypted using LUKS from within the Debian that comes with PVE. PVE/PBS run on the same hardware, data is on the RAID1, backups are on the internal SSD (as well as in the cloud using
Apart from the NIC hangup when using hardware acceleration, this has performed well. I upgraded to PVE 8/PBS 3 in Q3 2024. When I lost access to APNS I have even run it is primary mail server for a while, when I was running into some macOS issues (macOS is less and less a good server OS).
Over the last two weeks or so the system has broken down. First it hung and it reported memory issues (but memtest86 doesn't show any problems). And then yesterday I noticed it had stopped working entirely and it turned out the external server data mount wasn't working anymore. In fact, /dev/sda had disappeared from Debian. So, the server data wasn't available and everything had broken down. I have a few months to fix this as the PVE setup runs one essential service required for my domain-wide LE cert updates which might be a pain to get running on macOS, unless I get containers running there automatically after reboot — another painful thing, probably).
I will have to buy new hardware anyway (this NUC is getting old) and I'm looking for a way to minimise the effort (e.g. reusing the internal SSD and the external RAID if it is still good and the problem is the NUC) while getting a new robust setup and while keeping the migration to low power use, small form factor, and reasonable cost. Of course, in worst case, I have to rebuild from my backups.
I have my doubts about Intel given the experience with this NUC (NIC) and general negative stories about quality. So, I wondered if I should move to AMD. And I wondered about Chinese stuff (like minisforum) versus more reputable brands like Asus etc.
Can people give me some advice? I am looking for some optimum across
restic). In this setup all data is encrypted at rest (in case of theft). This setup is also easily powerful enough to run my workloads (one VM and a number of containers on it).Apart from the NIC hangup when using hardware acceleration, this has performed well. I upgraded to PVE 8/PBS 3 in Q3 2024. When I lost access to APNS I have even run it is primary mail server for a while, when I was running into some macOS issues (macOS is less and less a good server OS).
Over the last two weeks or so the system has broken down. First it hung and it reported memory issues (but memtest86 doesn't show any problems). And then yesterday I noticed it had stopped working entirely and it turned out the external server data mount wasn't working anymore. In fact, /dev/sda had disappeared from Debian. So, the server data wasn't available and everything had broken down. I have a few months to fix this as the PVE setup runs one essential service required for my domain-wide LE cert updates which might be a pain to get running on macOS, unless I get containers running there automatically after reboot — another painful thing, probably).
I will have to buy new hardware anyway (this NUC is getting old) and I'm looking for a way to minimise the effort (e.g. reusing the internal SSD and the external RAID if it is still good and the problem is the NUC) while getting a new robust setup and while keeping the migration to low power use, small form factor, and reasonable cost. Of course, in worst case, I have to rebuild from my backups.
I have my doubts about Intel given the experience with this NUC (NIC) and general negative stories about quality. So, I wondered if I should move to AMD. And I wondered about Chinese stuff (like minisforum) versus more reputable brands like Asus etc.
Can people give me some advice? I am looking for some optimum across
- Reliability, durability, build quality
- Low power use
- Small form factor
- Reasonable cost
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