Home File Server

Ubuntu Linux

I chose to use Ubuntu Linux to host the FileCloud software. Linux in general is a good lightweight option for servers, and FileCloud also had good documentation for setting it up specifically on Ubuntu machines.

Cloudflare Zero Trust ("Cloudflared")

Cloudflare's Zero Trust (also known as Cloudflared) service allowed me to change my file server's domain nameservers to Cloudflare's and modify my domain's DNS records to put my file server on a secure, public URL. This made my file server accessible to me anywhere, as long as I had internet. This server acted as a self-hosted alternative to well-known file storage options such as Google Drive.

FileCloud

FileCloud is a free, open source file server software that can be hosted locally on an on-premise server.

Technologies

While I don't use this file server anymore, it served as an important alternative to Google Drive for me during a period when I needed a large amount of storage that would have easily exceeded the storage limit provided by Google Drive. Through my job, I also had access to legacy equipment that had been wiped and was ready to send to recycling, so hosting a personal file server on otherwise useless hardware was much cheaper than using a commercial data storage solution.