This my personal server. The concept is to use my own server instead of others whenever possible.

# Linux server

# Advantages

  • Smart home - connect everything to your server.
  • Personal data - most data private so what is more natural than storing it at home?
  • Infinite storage - just add another hard drive.
  • Good learning experiences maintaining the server.

# Disadvantages

  • Needs some maintenance- and installation time.
  • Whenever my server is down I cannot receive emails (or anything else). I am using a Linux distribution with a rolling release. Continues updates keeps the installation up-to-date and I avoid having to upgrade to next 'stable' release every 2 years. Upgrading to next 'stable' release means days of work with reinstallations and broken configurations. And 2 years later I have forgotten how I configured it last time. With a rolling release I install once and update regularly. I hardly had any issues with these frequent updates. It keeps the server fresh and secure. Short downtimes are not a serious matter for my home server.

# Tower cabinet

I own Soldam Alcadia ZR300 Black Knight Casing bought in Japan. It can fit an extended-ATX motherboard and plenty of hard drives. I do not need any tools to open it. The crews can be removed by hand.

High-tower

Of course a cabinet alone does not make a server. But I will not go into details with the content of the cabinet. It is pretty standard components of older type. The server gets upgraded with recycled components from other desktop computers in my house.

# Fixed IP address, domain name and DNS

In order to setup a personal mail server a fixed IP address and domain name is needed. I got a fiber connection to my house from the local ISP Eniig fiber. It was installed soon after I moved into my house. A fitting domain name was found at dk-hostmaster and ordered.

I decided to store my DNS settings at Cloudflare. In order to get a secure connection to my server I had to setup many DNS records

  • A record for zndr.dk (@zndr.dk)
  • CNAME wildcard record for subdomains (*.zndr.dk)
  • A record for mail.zndr.dk
  • MX record mail.zndr.dk
  • CAA record for LetsEncrypt
  • TXT records for DMARC1, DKIM1 and SPF1
  • DS record for DNSSEC
  • TLSA records for DANE

I had to call the ISP and ask them to setup a reverse DNS record for my mail server (mail.zndr.dk) which they did. At dk-hostmaster I could login myself to store Key and activate DNSSEC.

# Hard drive docking station

It is handy to have a hard drive docking station. I also acts as an external drive. Always have some spare drives around.