Hello! I am doing some if-I-die planning, and I want to create a machine that is separate from my current homelab that can a) host paperless-ngx and b) be used with keyboard/mouse/monitor if needed. I want it to replace my current paperless-ngx instance that’s hosted in my lab.
Ideally, I’d want two SSDs in RAID 1, possibly with a third drive for the OS? I’ll be backing up to my NAS and from there to the cloud, but I want to separate this machine from the rest of my infrastructure and still be able to have reliable access to the documents on it.
In theory, I could just sync the files to a USB drive and tell her to grab it if anything should happen to me, but finding the right files while stressed without the metadata stored in paperless wouldn’t be the nicest thing to make her do.
tl;dr: What should I buy to build a homelab-in-a-box that can be attached to my homelab normally but also function separately as a PC.
From your description, this new box would not be necessarily have to be a full homelab-in-a-box but needs to be enough to run on its own, with possibly an umbilical cord to your normal homelab for regular syncing. The new box needs to be fairly user-friendly, in the sense that someone else can connect it to their monitor/keyboard/mouse, enter a password, and be able to browse all the documents.
The first thing that comes to mind for me is a NUC or other small form-factor PC, with capacity for your desired SSDs. On a daily basis, this would sit somewhere convenient, like a home or maybe off-site from your homelab, with only power and a network connection. But it would run an OS with a GUI – GNOME? – even though it mostly runs headless. All your syncing could be done with rsync or whatever, and neither your homelab nor this machine should require the other in order to function properly, retaining independence. This machine could then be easily disconnected and tested semi-annually to make sure that it will work properly when the time comes.
Is this the sort of answer you’re looking for?
Also, TIL paperless-ngx