Project
This guide describes how to configure a Raspberry Pi 5 as a home server. It can also probably be used for earlier Raspberry Pi devices, or even regular computers.
Goals
My goal with this project was to have a single tiny yet mighty device, and associated storage, that fits nicely within an electricity cabinet, and literally does it all.
It needs to provide the following features for the entire home network:
- Firewall/Router acting as gateway
- DHCP/DNS server
- Network attached storage
- Remote Time Machine backup target
- Network-wide ad-blocker
- Private Home Assistant instance runner
- SMTP mail relay server
- …
Networking considerations aside, it should also ensure that:
- All data and credentials are secure, and all disks are encrypted.
- Backups are performed automatically … or rather as automatically as possible.
Why make it available publicly?
I originally created it as a future reference for myself. I later realized it might be of interest to others, because such a consolidated reference for a setup like this one does not seem to exist elsewhere.
Disclaimer
This guide is provided without warranties, and I cannot be held responsible for any problems that may arise from using it. You should always know and understand what you are doing.
Report an issue
If you see something wrong in this guide, or you have a suggestion on how to improve it, I would love to hear about it! I tried to make issue reporting as easy as possible.
Check out how to report issues over here.
Support me
If you would like to offer your appreciation for my expertise and efforts with this guide, you can buy me a coffee!
