I need to design a server

[Hextejas]

And I figured Linux would be the best to begin with. It’s actually my son that wants it and I happen to be the only one in the family with any Linux experience( limited). I run Mint and I think it is not for him.
This is the requirement.
It is to be a server to hold videos, music, tv, movies, etc.
It also will need to be accessed remotely.
I suggested that we start with the smallest, fastest, cheapest server that will do the job locally, then work out how to be able to connect to it remotely, which in my mind will be the more difficult task.
I am not opposed to using off-the-shelf software to be able to handle the librarian task. In fact I am hoping that there is such a critter.
All suggestions will be gratefully considered.

Thanks a bunch,
George KG5TKY

 

[Vektor]

Hey Hextejas

I have used Serviio for years. My TV sees it over WiFi. My other computers access it over WiFi with VLC.

Home

Serviio is a free media server for Window, Mac and Linux. It enables streaming video, audio and images to your DLNA certified device.

www.serviio.org

Have fun

Vektor

 

[/dev/pie]

Debian is a great choice for a home server. In fact I use a mini pc with Debian and its solid. For logging in remotely you can use ssh. Just make sure you install ssh which can be found here:

SSH - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org

For multimedia you can use Jellyfin to stream media and music. You can either add the repo or use flatpak to install it.

The Free Software Media System | Jellyfin

The volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached.

jellyfin.org

Here is the link to install flatpak on Debian.

Flatpak—the future of application distribution

flatpak.org

 

[Raluxs]

Hi
On the hardware side, for testing purposes, any PC wold do the job, just add disk space as needed. For access remotely you mean inside your lan/house or from the internet? If from the internet you need to start looking how to setup a VPN. For serving the media files take a look at Plex. Good luck

 

[Hextejas]

Thank you all for the suggestions. Further,,,yes we will be accessing the files via the internet as well as from home. In the beginning from home until we have the access solid, then remotely.
Is Debian a bit too high powered for running just this one app ?
The VPN will be new to us so I guess we had better get familiar.

 

[Vektor]

Hey Hextejas
You might try TinyCore Linux. It can be as minimal as you want.

welcome - Tiny Core Linux Wiki

wiki.tinycorelinux.net

I have it on a partition and it works great. Boot from an ISO with grub.

Vektor

 

[APTI]

I have always been fond of fedora especially for a server. It is basically red hat except it is the beta test site. Fedora is solid for this and I would install samba so your windows systems are supported. otherwise setting up fedora as a server is quite easy and it supports most software. Unlike some other distros it is very up to date and that is what you want in a server.

 

[Raluxs]

I will let you in a little secret, all linux are basically the same, some are optimized for some tasks but any recent distro (distribution) would be capable to do the same tasks. So choose any one you like or feel comfortable with. Also , once you find a media server app you like, sometimes there are prepackaged downloads for some of the main distros, like Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora also more documentation and examples are found for these. Good luck

 

[/dev/pie]

Is Debian a bit too high powered for running just this one app ?

Debian is perfect for running just 1 app. What you should really be looking for is a low powered x86 mini pc. Also if you wanted to setup your own vm there is an easy setup script I use for wireguard.

GitHub - hwdsl2/wireguard-install: WireGuard VPN server installer for Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS, Fedora, openSUSE and Raspberry Pi OS

WireGuard VPN server installer for Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS, Fedora, openSUSE and Raspberry Pi OS - hwdsl2/wireguard-install

github.com

Also you can find mini pc's pretty cheap atm on amazon. Most of them come with windows installed but you can just wipe it and install Debian on it.