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Software for Homeserver router combo


!Selfhosted - I've just bought a #BananaPi R3. As an avid user of #Openwrt and #Yunohost I'm thinking that it would make sense to have the capabilities of both on that device since it has space for an #SSD - Does any one know of any projects that are bringing the features of both types of services together into one solution. i.e a lightweight home server and configurable router in one?

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in reply to abeorch

The R3 isn't really powerful enough for that.

On small x86 routers you can install Opnsense or IPfire which come with some non-router software to run a reverse-proxy or so. IP fire also allows to run full VMs, but the more advanced features are pretty limited.

Some people also do the reverse and run a full OS on them and then virtualize Opnsense and directly pass through a NIC to that VM.

in reply to poVoq

Yeah I was thinking that the overhead of a Hypervisor was a bit much hence something that is a bit more lightweight.

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in reply to abeorch

Why not OpenWrt?

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in reply to bizdelnick

Oh I love Openwrt andnfor router functionality its great. But I am trying to have my cake and eat it by seeing what applications I could also selfhost on the box as well. e.g. anything such as email, file sharing, activitypub server or homeassistant
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in reply to abeorch

I'd run the lightest full OS that you can, and run containers for services.
in reply to catloaf

This I need to learn more about. In terms of managing networks/routing how would that work - Use #openwrt in a container?

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in reply to abeorch

I'll be honest, I was writing while pooping and didn't really think it all the way through. A router in a container probably doesn't make sense. Maybe run the router on the OS, and then services in containers alongside. I'm not sure how janky the networking will be, if docker and the router will both be creating rules. Maybe one VM, so that it's just a plain bridge adapter, and containers in there.
in reply to abeorch

If you really want to get fancy you could use something like the frrrouting package to make any Linux based operating system your router, but that's almost entirely configured through a cisco-like command interface
in reply to abeorch

Generally speaking I would avoid combining critical networking infrastructure with other services. Just from a reliability standpoint.

Let your router be just a router. Simple = reliable.

in reply to abeorch

You can run a router VM but I run my opnsense on a thin client directly.