{"id":2036,"date":"2025-05-17T12:08:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T11:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2025-08-30T15:00:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T14:00:55","slug":"enter-the-server-part-four-yes-10-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/17\/enter-the-server-part-four-yes-10-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter the Server &#8211; Part Four (Yes, 10 Years Later!)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"474\" height=\"356\" data-attachment-id=\"1777\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/07\/enter-the-server-part-one\/c03760124\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124.png\" data-orig-size=\"474,356\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"HP Proliant Microserver Gen 8\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1777\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124.png 474w, https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here we are again&#8230; almost a full decade later, with part four of my home server saga!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yes, unbelievably, it&#8217;s <em>still the same<\/em> server from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/07\/enter-the-server-part-three\/\">all those years ago<\/a>: the ever-reliable <strong>HP Microserver Gen8<\/strong>. Quiet, stable, and surprisingly capable after all this time. It hasn\u2019t been running ESXi Free for a while now, and many of the original services have been retired, either because I no longer needed them, or I found better alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, it\u2019s running <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.truenas.com\/truenas-scale\/\">TrueNAS Scale<\/a> (Dragonfish-24.04.2.5)<\/strong> \u2014 and the transition was mostly smooth. The only hiccup? I had to wipe out my previous RAID setup. TrueNAS doesn\u2019t play well with hardware RAID, especially with the <strong>HP Smart Array P420 Controller<\/strong> I had added years ago. It has its own storage architecture that prefers direct disk access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Still Running:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>File Sharing<\/strong> \u2013 Native SMB shares from TrueNAS. Solid and reliable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Backup<\/strong> \u2013 Using <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bvckup2.com\/\">Bvckup 2 Pro<\/a><\/strong> on my PCs, targeting the Gen8 for storage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Plex<\/strong> \u2013 Long gone. These days, streaming services like Netflix and Prime have taken over.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Download Management<\/strong> \u2013 Also retired.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>SFTP Server<\/strong> \u2013 Used to share public files, but no longer needed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>VPN \/ Private Cloud<\/strong> \u2013 Replaced everything with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tailscale.com\/\">Tailscale<\/a><\/strong>, and it&#8217;s been a game-changer. Seriously, one of the best additions I\u2019ve made. If you don&#8217;t know Tailscale, it\u2019s a zero-config VPN that uses WireGuard under the hood and creates a private mesh network between your devices \u2014 wherever they are. I can now access the TrueNAS dashboard, SMB shares, or SSH into my server from literally anywhere (even my phone), with no firewall tweaks or weird NAT rules. It even supports MagicDNS and exit nodes if you want all your traffic to route securely through your home network. Well&#8230; now recalling I had to make a few tweaks, because I installed Taiscale in my EdgeRouter X&#8230; but I didn&#8217;t had to, I just wanted to play with it a bit more, because, hacking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gen8 is now handling a few extra duties that weren\u2019t part of the original plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>UniFi Network Controller<\/strong> \u2013 Running on a lightweight Ubuntu VM. TrueNAS\u2019s built-in virtualization makes this easy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>AdGuard Home<\/strong> \u2013 This one has become indispensable in a household with teens, smart TVs, tablets, and IoT clutter. I run <a href=\"https:\/\/adguard.com\/en\/adguard-home\/overview.html\">AdGuard Home<\/a> in a container on the Gen8. It acts as a local DNS sinkhole, filtering ads, trackers, and shady domains before they even reach your devices. It also gives me visibility into where traffic is going and what\u2019s being blocked. It has centralized content filtering (for devices that don\u2019t support ad blockers natively), you can set per-device rules (yes, you can &#8220;accidentally&#8221; block TikTok and other social media sites just for the kids). It has a minimal resource usage as it\u2019s very lightweight and the web interface is clean and simple to use. Total win.<br \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Next?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless the Gen8 suffers a critical hardware failure, I plan to keep it running. It\u2019s not the fastest thing in the world, but for what I need, it\u2019s perfectly fine. If something dies, I might go with a newer Mini PC build. Compact, silent, low power, and capable of running Proxmox or even TrueNAS Scale with ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Funny thing \u2014 I\u2019ve already replaced my personal laptop with a Mini PC (but that\u2019s a story for another post).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, though?<br \/>Ol\u2019 Faithful lives on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we are again&#8230; almost a full decade later, with part four of my home server saga! And yes, unbelievably, it&#8217;s still the same server from all those years ago: the ever-reliable HP Microserver Gen8. Quiet, stable, and surprisingly capable after all this time. It hasn\u2019t been running ESXi Free for a while now, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,6,3,4],"tags":[423,419,378,379,381,421,420],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-stuff","category-hardware","category-linux","category-windows","tag-bvckup","tag-gen8","tag-hp","tag-hp-proliant-micro-server-gen-8","tag-nas","tag-tailscale","tag-truenas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/c03760124.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.odrakir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}