I’m commenting on this again because I actually tried this tonight. The info is pretty sparse. I know it’s an alternate install method, but in bottles there’s a lot of variables.

Even just knowing which runner was used in testing would help a ton, as there are quite a few, and each has tons of versions.

Thanks!

The Linux install method link on that page leads to a page not found

On my main server: I have my SSD RAID1 ZFS snapshots of my container appdata, VM VHDs and docker image, that is also backed up as a full backup once per night to the RAID10 array, then rsynced to the backup server which then is uploaded to the cloud.

The data on the RAID is backups, repos or media that I’ve deposited there for an extra copy it for serving via Plex/Jellyfin. I have extra copies of the data, and if I were to lose the array totally, I wouldn’t be pleased, but my personal pictures/videos wouldn’t be in danger.

I run two back up servers, which both upload to the cloud. One of which takes bare metal images of all my computers (sans servers bulk drives), the other which takes live folders.

This is more due to convenience so that I can pull a bare metal image to restore a device, or easily go find a file with versioning online if necessary on both accounts.

As a wise man said, you can never have too many backups.

The biggest reason I personally use and would recommend Unraid is it simplifies everything, specifically around docker.

Deploying docker containers? There are community apps where people have set up scripts so all you have to do is fill in the blanks for your set up and bam, your container is deployed and running.

Managing you can add your own items and fill in your own blanks, or change them and it’ll deploy and remove the old container.

I’ve used portainer, compose, and looked into runtipi for docker management, and tried out windows server, Ubuntu, proxmox, truenas for HV/VE/OS, and while they all had bits I liked they all lacked something, and unraid had it all or a way to have it.

The initial reason was ragged arrays for why I chose it ever the others, but now I like its simplicity, and don’t find myself wanting for more control over anything.

Depends on how safe you want to get but you could look into VLANing off all your piracy stuff, then VLANing IoT, then the rest on another for security purposes.

If that’s the case you’d want a good router (Mikrotik for best bang for your buck but most difficult to use, Ubiquiti for the opposite), and a managed switch (I personally love HPE for switches. Their enterprise brand is much better than their consumer stuff). Then you can set that all up in whatever Hypervisor or OS, or whatever you choose to move those all around on the NICs to keep your precious stuff safe.

For set up, you’ll want to look at the *arr stack. Check out trash guides for a getting started, there’s also servarr for even more info. But with those you can set it to auto download movies, comics, tv, books, audiobooks, all sorts of stuff. Then there’s all sorts of ways to feed it to devices and out into the net to others if you choose.

But be very very very cautious about that last part, not just for the obvious reasons of laws and whatnot, but when you start to poke holes for allowing stuff out, you could be allowing stuff in. And there’s lots of people who want in. So setting up your external access with credentials, MFA, certificates if you can, my opinion on those 3 is must, should, could respectfully.

Then you can thing about backups. You should backup your new server once you get it all the way you like of course, but now you can keep your backups of all your computers. So do you want single file backups, directory backups, drive backups, baremetal backups? Some combo? All the above? Who knows it’s all your choice!

Then you can host databases, services, your own smart tech whatever. It’s a blast. Enjoy it all. But I also recommend looking into docker as well! It’s huge as far as hosting a bunch of services.

For drive config, depends on how you plan on using your server, and how you plan in dividing up the data between ssd and platter drives, but if it were my set up I’d do raid-10 for both arrays. Reason? Speed and single fault tolerance. Bigger reason? I don’t trust anything with a single copy. 3-2-1 rule. If you have data you need to have protected that can’t stand an array failure, it shouldn’t only be in the array. But that’s just me. I run multiple servers and keep cloud storage.

Yup. That simple.

Can’t see that word and not think of Barrett’s Privateers

To expand on that you are likely on Windows if the percentages means anything, Windows 10 Pro is required to run VMs on your local machine.

I’d recommend grabbing a second machine to be your homelab, even if it’s not great, just so you don’t mess anything up locally.

If you go with a second machine you can put win10pro on it and not activate it and then host VMs. Or there are other ways to get keys for pro. Completely legally of course.

Windows server (load a VM and load STANDARD not Dataserver) 2019 and 2022 both have evaluation versions. You can load these up, install any features you want to try, test any labs in any modules of any courses you’re taking, then nuke and reload if necessary.

If you’re not familiar with Linux try Ubuntu, Manjaro, and Fedora. Learn to install a few things from the GUI stores and the CLI repositories. Learn how to add repositories. Learn how to copy, move, make, delete, rename files/directories.

Then start a project. Something silly or stupid like a media server, backup server or download station. Build that out with your new knowledge, push your boundaries.

It might seem like a bit much but there are practical questions on the exam where you have to work through things in a VM and it isn’t just a multiple choice question. You’ll feel a lot better being comfortable in an environment.

On top of that that practical experience will come in handy in interviews.