Hello preppers! As I prepare further and further for the digital and traditional collapse of society (/s), I finally got to the point of building my selfhosted server.
At the moment I have a single bay Synology nas but it will soon find a new home (🗑️). I was thinking that instead of buying new tech I can be a conscious human being and recycle my old laptop.
My old MSI PE60 2QD with i7 5th Gen, its a very capable machine and having the battery, I think, is better for a sudden loss of power. I replaced it because the hinge and screen broke but I never thrown it away.
I wanted to wipe it and install some linux distro for selfhosting with, I think, Tailscale for access it remotely. I use it to store file, photos, music …normal cloud stuff.
Before wasting hours troubleshooting, I’m sure there are brilliant people here that can give me tips or a link to a simple guide to follow. (Please don’t make me ask the bots).
I’m sure this thread is already open somewhere and I’ll be happy to follow that and delete this, if so.
Thank you lemmings.
If you are going to store important data I would get a new drive. Either replace the internal or attach an external.
Also make backups.
I’m going to attach some used hard disks and ssds, I have many spare ones. I wanted to set up a RAID2 or 3, so even if some disks dies it’s not the end of the world.
From what I gather, most people use a simple Linux distro like Ubuntu or Debian with a large community knowledge base. Then run the pieces you want through Docker. It’s pretty simple once you learn how.
Your laptop will be perfectly capable.
Whatever you decide for your laptop, I’m a proponent of a barebones off-site setup if you’re trying for 3-2-1 backup or similar.
I use a raspberry pi 3 with a single HD (ZFS) retaining some number of daily/weekly/monthly snapshots. Daily rsync, everything over WireGuard+VPS (TailScale would work too).
If you plan on running the laptop all the time on wall power, make sure to limit the battery charge to 80 % or less, otherwise the battery will die pretty quickly.
Or remove the battery if you can, to spare it from pillowing. I know it has the benefits of being a “psuedo-UPS”, but unless you also have your modem/router on a UPS, it’s pointless (internet goes out; you can’t access the laptop anyway).
At the beginning I can start with the laptop battery. Later I can remove it and use an external battery/power bank to keep it running. Once I set it up I feel I’ll have more time troubleshooting this too. Thanks.
using laptops as a forever-plugged-in device (regardless if workstation or server) isn’t the greatest idea. as an intermediary solution, like until you have something more permanent in place, sure. otherwise, look elsewhere.
limiting battery charge isn’t available on all laptop models and is aimed at preserving the battery’s functionality; it doesn’t solve the issue of a forever charged and never emptied battery. on the other hand, removing the battery on a lot of models limits their performance, significantly.
what is a viable solution is if you get a laptop board that runs at full power without battery, you can remove the board from the laptop, retrofit it with better cooling and additional storage (mini-PCI or M.2 to SATA adapters) and you end up with an energy-efficient server. but that requires a lot of work and is not something recommended for non-enthusiasts.
in short, sell it or swap it for something more adequate.
