In this post I will tell you the reasons and steps to setup your own home server, ich is actually very easy to do with modern hardware.

The Hardware#

For the hardware of the server I have decided to use the ZimaBoard, because it is cheep in relation to the mass of functions and ports it contains.

The ports I use#

I only use 3 of the 7 ports. The first one is the Ethernet port wich I’ve connected to my router. The second one is the Sata port wich I’ve connected to a 12 TB ironwolf HDD via the Sata cable in the ZimaBoard box. The last port is connected to a 512 GB no-name USB SSD.

The other ports#

There is one more Ethernet port wich you can use to connect your PC to transport large files in a short time. The next one is a second USB port wich you can use to connect a USB stick to transfer data on the hard drive. The last unused port is a second Sata port to expand your storage but there is one problem because you have 2 data connections but only one power connection so you need a special cable and I don’t know where to find this cable.

The most important functions#

The best function is that CasaOS is pre-installed so I don’t have to do this my self (but maybe I will install ZimaOS in the future). It’s also nice that video trans coding is supported by the device.

The setup#

The first startup is actually very straight forward so everyone should be able to this, but I will guide you trow the steps to be sure. First of all you should plug in all your cables and ends with the power cable. after about one minute you should be able to create a account using your web browser. In the user’s manual of the ZimaBoard you will read about a domain but that didn’t worked for me that why I tipped in the IP address, wich you can find in the interface of your router. After you have done that you will be forced to setup your account and then is everything very intuitive.

Why?#

This is a very philosophical question, so let me tell you my point of view. Having a own server is very practical because you can install multiple programs. I will write more about the most important programs and usage in the future in a other post.