I have a mini PC and a need for a home server. So I’m going to do the obvious thing.
The Hardware
- Beelink Mini 12
- Intel N100 12th gen
- 16 GB DDR4
- 500 GB SSD
Actually I have two of those Mini PCs. One of them has been running nonstop for years below the living room TV, functioning as the “media PC.” Although, it only runs vanilla Windows 11. It’s used daily to watch watch YouTube and other streaming platforms without ads (thanks to browser extensions). It’s paired with a nice wireless keyboard+trackpad combo for easy couch-oriented operation. It’s worked well for this purpose for years, which is why I think my other Mini 12 would work as a reasonably reliable home server.
Possible Use Cases
- DNS tools
- media server
- newsgroups
- home security/dvr
- home automation
- code testing and hosting
- so many other things (within reason)
The Process
I took the Mini 12 out of its box and powered it up on my desk. After plugging in a keyboard, monitor, and power supply, I pressed the button.
The Mini 12 started right up. I was presented with a login prompt for an Ubuntu installation I had done a few months ago. Since there was nothing valuable on that old installation, I figured it would be easier to start with a fresh Ubuntu install.
So I fired up Balena Etcher on my laptop and plugged in a flash drive. I downloaded the newest Ubuntu Server release and loaded it into Balena. I clicked start and about 8 minutes later it was done.
I popped my loaded flash drive into the Mini 12 and fired her up while mashing Del and F8. I’m not sure which key did the trick, but I got to the Mini 12’s BIOS. There, I found that the USB flash drive was already selected as the top boot priority and I had just wasted 2 minutes opening the BIOS.
After another power cycle, I was greeted with the Ubuntu Server installation wizard. I clicked through all the prompts. Then I gave her a host name – Betty. Reboot.
Betty booted up beautifully.
From my laptop, I called Betty over SSH and logged in. I even SSHed to Betty from my phone 😀 Success!
That’s it! Betty is built! Behold Betty!
Future Enhancements
I’ve accomplished my goal for this week. Betty is up and running! And I even found an app that let’s me call Betty from my phone using SSH 😀
Next steps for Betty…
- setup automatic drive backups to my NAS
- move Betty off my desk and into my tech closet
- NOS?
