OS: NixOS (high learning curve but its been worth it). Nix (the config language) is a functional programming language, so it can be difficult to grok. Documentation is shit as its evolved while maintaining backwards compatibility. If you use the new stuff (Nix Flakes) you have to figure what's old and likely not applicable (channels or w/e).

BYOD: Just using LVM. All volumes are mirrored across several drives of different sizes. Some HDD volumes have an SSD cache layer on top (e.g., monero node). Some are just on an SSD (e.g., main system). No drive failures yet so can't speak to how complex restoring is. All managed through NixOS with https://github.com/nix-community/disko.

I run stuff on a mix of OCI containers (podman or docker, default is podman which is what I use) and native NixOS containers which use systemd-nspawn.

The OS itself I don't back up outside of mirroring. I run an immutable OS (every reboot is like a fresh install). I can redeploy from git so no need to backup. I have some persistent BTRFS volumes mounted where logs, caches, and state go. Don't backup, but I swap the volume every boot and keep the last 30 days of volumes or a min of at least 10 for debugging.

I just use rclone for backups with some bash scripts. Devices back up to home lab which backs up to cloud (encrypted with my keys) all using rclone (RoundSync for phone).

Runs Arrs, Jellyfin, Monero node, Tor entry node, wireguard VPN (to get into network from remote), I2C, Mullvad VPN (default), Proton VPN (torrents with port forwarding use this), DNS (forced over VPN using DoT), PiHole in front of that, three of my WiFi vlans route through either Mulvad, I2C, or Tor. I'll use TailsOS for anything sensitive. WiFi is just to get to I2C or Onion sites where I'm not worried about my device possibly leaking identity.

Its pretty low level. Everything is configured in NixOS. No GUIs. If its not configured in nix its wiped next reboot since the OS is immutable. All tracked in git including secrets using SOPS. Every device has its own master key setup on first install. I have a personal master key should I need to reinstall which is tracked outside of git in a password manager.

Took a solid month to get the initial setup done while learning NixOS. I had a very specific setup of LVM > LUKS encryption /w Secure Boot and Hardware Key > BTRFS. Overkill on security but I geek out on that stuff. Been stable but still tinkering with it a year later.

Proxmox is good as a host OS, you'll set up a VM for docker and run your stuff in that.

It has a built in backup system to image your VMs and Containers, you can combine it with Proxmox Backup Server either in a VM or on another system for incremental backups and deduplication.

As far as Nextcloud goes I'm not surprised you had issues, their setup is weird, non-standard and very unstable in my experience. I switched to Syncthing long ago and it's so much better.

I'm running a normal linux distro, with everything running in containers using docker compose files. No VMs, since they are overkill for my needs. I'm running stuff like the *arr stack, home assistant, smokeping, unifi controller, pihole etc. Setting it up is quite simple, and the distro can be whatever you prefer (I use Arch btw).

I never used unraid but was thinking about it

I went to truenas for my NAS and Ubuntu server for my application server instead. I use dockge for my docker webui and I'm happy with that setup

Nextcloud borked my Unraid server. Took me forever to find the source of constant lockups. Apart from that, the Nextcloud container took up more of my time than any other part of my server, including the OS.

This was a couple years ago. Maybe things have changed.

My Unraid server is a dream otherwise. Rock solid and 30 containers running smoothly for years and years.

Just another data point.

I used Proxmox for a long time before Unraid, but that’s when getting deep into it was a hobby. Now I just want it to work.

I have been using openmediavault for years and years. Basically debian with some configuration already done for a web gui, quick access to shares and user controls, and a simple but ready docker setup for your containers. Extremely light weight.

I have unraid on a test server, but I just can't see the point of using it over omv. Raid is not important to me, you have to make backup either way. Containers are containers, and a vm is not something I need

I use MicroOS as a base and my services are docker stacks handled with dockge. No problems until now.

For what it's worth I recently went down this rabbit hole, and I decided to stick with unRAID for the following reasons:

UnRAIDs parity is completely different than ZFS (TrueNAS) - and I'd argue unRAID is a better option for hosting a home media server. TrueNAS uses ZFS, so data on the drives is striped and they all need to be spun up together. UnRAID doesn't stripe data, so only the relevant drive needs to be spun up (+parity if you're writing). This also means if you lose parity +1 drive you only lose the data on that drive. Whereas with ZFS if you lose parity +1 you lose EVERYTHING in that array. It's also way easier to expand your array in UnRAID, simply plug in any drive (as long as its smaller than parity) and it'll just work. Expanding or adding vdevs in ZFS is not so simple and requires planning.

On top of all that, UnRAID can do ZFS too now (although I wouldn't recommend it for the main array for the reasons stated above). So if anything the question should be "what can TrueNAS Scale do that UnRAID can't do?"

I'd argue TrueNAS is better if you need top speeds and advanced features like bit-rot protection. But for a simple home media server where things like idle power-use and ease-of-use are more important I think unRAID wins hands down.

Not sure what went wrong with next cloud but it might be worth figuring it out first. I do remember having to look through a few guides. I set up mariadb, redis, and collabora containers along with it for database performance and to be able to edit docs in the browser

TrueNAS Scale if you want something simple that just works and Proxmox if you wanna configure/customize stuff with a lot more power under the hood...

Imo, either choice is better than unraid.