Cloud server for replacement of Google Photos and maybe some other apps.

Bellwar · May 17, 2021

Budget (including currency): Since main aim is to undercut Google Photos, it needs to be really low. I think to get into 200-250€ with no additional monthly subscriptions would be nice. But really right know is about research where can I get with this.

Country: Slovakia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Photo Cloud storage (even better with shearing externally, I found out about Nextcould, so maybe that), maybe add Bitwarden and go from there.

Basic info: So my knowledge in servers is poor. I have some basic understanding of stuff but that's it. For computers I understand principles and can set up, buy and I think would be able to build a basic PC.

Right know I am just looking into what I actually want and need to be able to get this done. That is most likely all I have to say... if you have any good guides on this, I would love to read on this more.

ISP questions: I was also wondering how is it with ISP. If I will host server at home, do I need static external IP? Do I need them to set up some forwarding on their side (every time I tried to make game server on my PC for friends I got stuck on port forwarding to the server. I could never open it up for some reason.)

Hardware: I have nothing that I could reuse (maybe I could look online for old pc). Am I right that I can make this with just small Raspberry Pi board with some 4 harddisk tower plugged to the USB?

Software: So I expect I need some sort of Linux OS, Nextcloud, app for VM and maybe something for the backup of hard disk, if one fails. Is that all? I dont really need remote access to the server itself. I would just have it at home.

I think you can see from the post that I am completely lost in it. Also it might be late but video on LTT about very easy how to set up alternative to Google Photos would be amazing.

Thanks for any help on this.

Dujith · May 17, 2021

You might want to look into Nextcloud like you said, it will run on a NAS so thats prob your best bet.

ISP wise: You will need to setup port forwarding and a DDNS service so whatever IP you have it will resolve to a DNS name. You can get those for free from NO-IP or any other DDNS.