Tired of monthly cloud bills and lock-in? I was too. So I dusted off an old laptop, installed Debian, and turned it into a full-featured 4TB home server — completely free (after the initial hardware, of course).

Here’s the stack I used and why it works so well:

1. The Media Center (Plex + *arr Stack)

Migrated all my movies, TV shows, and music to Plex. To keep everything organized and fresh automatically, I added the famous *arr suite:

• Sonarr (TV)
• Radarr (Movies)
• Lidarr (Music)
• Prowlarr (Indexer manager)

Result: Zero manual downloads — everything finds itself and stays updated.

2. The Photo Cloud (Immich – Google Photos Killer)

Immich is the real game-changer here. It’s a 100% self-hosted, open-source alternative to Google Photos with:

• Automatic backups from iOS and Android
• Face recognition
• Map view for location-based memories
• Stunning timeline UI
• Complete privacy (no one else sees your photos)

Setup was straightforward with Docker Compose — and it just works.

3. Secure Remote Access (Tailscale)

No port forwarding, no exposed services. Tailscale creates a secure mesh VPN that lets me access the server from anywhere (phone, laptop, even when traveling) as if I were at home. Zero-config magic.

4. Disaster-Proof Backup (Backblaze B2 + rclone)

Self-hosting is awesome, but data loss is a nightmare. I follow the 3-2-1 rule:

• 3 copies of data
• 2 different media types
• 1 off-site

I use rclone to sync my entire library + Immich database dumps to Backblaze B2 (S3-compatible, ~$6/TB/month — way cheaper than iCloud).

The End Result

• Blazing-fast local access at home
• Off-site backup for peace of mind
• Full ownership of my media and memories
• Learned a ton about Docker, networking, and automation

If you’re fed up with subscriptions and want more control, start small — an old PC + Docker is all you need. Those green containers in Portainer are incredibly satisfying! 🚀

Have you built a homelab yet? What’s in your stack?

#SelfHosting #HomeLab #Docker #Immich #Tailscale #DataPrivacy