So as I look to build my first dedicated media server, I’m curious about what OS options I have which will check all the boxes. I’m interested in Unraid, and if there’s a Linux distro that works especially well I’d be willing to check that out as well. I just want to make sure that whatever I pick, I can use qbittorrent, Proton, and get the Arr suite working
Easy, Linux. I prefer Arch based because of AUR.
I wouldn’t use Arch on a Server. Everything you install will probably be in a docker container anyway, so fast updates for system packages isn’t important compared to stability. Good choices would be Debian or Fedora Server. I personally use Fedora but the reason is just that I use Fedora on Desktop too, so I know they have really good defaults (They’re really fast in adopting new stuff like Wayland, Pipewire, BTRFS with encryption and so on) and it’s nice that Cockpit us preinstalled, so I can do a lot of stuff using a WebUI. Debian is probably more stable tho, with Fedora there is a chance that something could break (even though it’s still pretty small) but Devian really just works always. The downside is of course very outdated packages but, as I said, on a Server that doesn’t matter because Docker containers update independetly from the system.
I dunno what the best is, but if you choose nixos configure openvpn instead of trying to use the protonvpn package.
Just wanted to add that Wireguard is better than OpenVPN in every way and you should use that except when you want to use it for torrenting. I don’t know remember the reason but that’s the one time when you should be using OpenVPN. I think it had something to do with OpenVPN supporting TCP and Wireguard being UDP only or something like that.
interesting. proton has example openvpn configs on their site which was hugely helpful to me. dunno if they have wireguard equivalents, or if those are needed.
I’d be weird if they didn’t have Wireguard configs, Wireguard is basically the standard nowadays. It’s faster and safer (the code base is way smaller, so the chance of there being security vulnerabilities is a lot lower and can be fixed more easily).
Wireguard uses UDP which results in better latency and power usage (e.g. mobile). This does not mean Wireguard can’t tunnel TCP packets, just like OpenVPN also supports tunneling UDP.
I’m using Wireguard succesfully for torrenting.
As a note: while UDP is preferable for stability/power usage, UDP VPN traffic is often blocked by corporate firewalls (work, public free wifi, etc) and won’t connect at all. I run OpenVPN using TCP on a standard port like 80/443/22/etc to get through this, disguised as any other TLS connection.
I’m sure there are better options, but I’m running proxmox as my host and a windows server VM for my suite.
@DonnieDarkmode any linux distro you want with docker on it.
Debian with docker compose or podman.
That’s what I’m running. I’m sure you could squeeze more performance out of a specialized OS, but headless Debian is fast and easy enough.
Are there any resources available for how to do this? I feel like I more or less understand how Docker works conceptually, but every time I try to actually use it, I feel in over my head very quickly
Search for dockstarter and trash guides. It will give you the foundations of what you need
look for docker-compose + whatyouwant specifically, it’s way more straightforward. once you have one set up, it get easier adding on different software.
