Forem: Akash Rajavnshi

🚀 Day 18-19/100 🚀

Akash Rajavnshi — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 03:39:29 +0000

PostgreSQL Disaster Recovery Testing:

Restore DB to a specific backup in Patroni HA on both VM/Container
Sync Standbys with pgbackrest
Remote S3 Backups with pgbackrest

Complete Setup For Home Media Server!!

Akash Rajavnshi — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 02:35:47 +0000

If you want to get rid of these online cloud service providers and from there tricky terms & conditions then you must read this.

Photo by Justin Bautista on Unsplash

What is Home Media Server??

A media server is a network device which acts as a central location for users to access media files on a network. There are three main components to any media server system:

Server — It is a smart device which ‘serves’ clients with the requested media files.
Storage device — This is used to store all the media files such as videos, photos, computer files.
Clients — These are devices that the end user can access the media from. Examples: TV, mobile phone, your personal computer.

All of these three components must be able to talk to each other — typically they are connected by a local area network (but it may also be connected by wireless methods).

Centralized Home Media Server

Finally, a media server system also needs to have appropriate media server software to allow users to actually communicate with the server and access files.

Which Hardware/Software is best for Home Media Server??

We can’t buy anything to set up a media server as we will need specialized components for better performance, for instance we can’t install standard HDD (WD / Seagate Standard HDD’s) in the server instead we will need an Enterprise-grade HDD (Seagate IronWolf/ WD Red Etc) for our server.

For manually creating a home server we need :

CPU — High Performance Intel & AMD Processors

RAM — HyperX Fury 4x8GB DDR3–1600

HDD — Seagate IronWolf / Pro 4TB-10TB

SSD — Samsung 840EVO

Motherboard — Asrock Z77 Pro4-M

Case — Fractal Design Define Mini

Cooler — Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT

PSU — Seasonic 400W Fanless

OS — FreeNas or Ubuntu Server

For manual setup, we will need hardware like this. the major drawback of this type of Operating Systems(FreeNas & Ubuntu Server) is that they don’t have any mobile applications so we have to use third parties apps which have another level issue in setting them up and these servers consumes a tremendous amount of electricity for a home use.

To get rid of this, I would prefer Ready To Use Nas devices which are the better option for home users and small business users. As per market recommendation, The best Nas service for home/small-Business users is SYNOLOGY.

Synology has a wide variety of NAS systems according to your need.

The Best Budget NAS is a Synology NAS DS218+

In the next section, I will tell you the pros and cons of it and also I share my complete setup to you all.

SYNOLOGY NAS DS218+ (Budget NAS)

Synology DiskStation DS218+ features a dual-core processor with AES-NI encryption engine and transcoding engine, providing high-speed file transfers and supporting real-time 4K transcoding. DS218+ is ideal for protecting critical assets and sharing files across different platforms. Synology DS218+ is backed by Synology’s 2-year limited warranty.

Synology DiskStation DS218+ is designed for home users or small businesses pursuing a compact and reliable shared storage solution, offering the flexibility to expand the 2 GB RAM to up to 6 GB RAM to process intensive workloads. DS218+ features a dual-core 2.0 GHz processor with a burst frequency of 2.5 GHz. With AES-NI, DS218+ delivers encrypted performance of up to 113 MB/s reading and 112 MB/s writing under RAID 1 configuration1 . DS218+ comes with three USB 3.0 ports. The hot-swappable drive tray design allows easy installation and maintenance on 3.5-inch HDDs without additional tools.

Its comes with its own operating system : DSM

It covers all the mobile operating systems such as Android, IOS and also Major Linux Distros . It holds low powered Intel Celeron which consumes less power.

Hardware Used with It :

HDD : Seagate IronWolf 2TB To 12TB

Expansion RAM :

Synology RAM DDR3L-1866 SO-DIMM 4GB (D3NS1866L-4G), OR
HyperX 4GB 1866MHz DDR3L CL11 1.35V SODIMM HyperX Impact Laptop Memory HX318LS11IB/4

Setup Synology NAS DS218+ From Scratch

First of all, made all the connection and Install the hard drives and RAM.

Desktop Of NAS

To Find Synology NAS

After Successfully connecting the server to the home router and open the browser. there are two ways to find synology on your network :

Find.synology.com
Diskstation:5000

Setup Synology

Fill up your preferred username and password & setup quick-connect.

Settings Page In Synology

Some Quick Settings:

1. First of all check for DSM Updates

2. Right Top corner ➢ Personal Settings

Enable 2FA Settings for Account.
Customize Login Page as per your Need.

3. Control Panel Settings

+ Shared Folder — {{ Create Encrypted Folder or other Folders according to your Need }}

+ External Access — {{ Advanced ➢ Write your custom Domain ( Diskstation.example.com). we have discussed the whole setup of the custom domain in the next section and also write down your custom Ports for both (HTTP/HTTPS ) For instance, in my setup, I used 5009 for HTTP and 5010 for HTTPS. }}

+ Network — {{ DSM Settings ➢ Write down the ports that we have set in above settings and check on boxes of “Automatically Redirect HTTP connections to HTTPS” & Enable HTTPS v2 }}

+ Security— {{ Setup Firewall ➢ Edit the basic Rules and click on the checkboxes of service that you want in your NAS device Protection ➢ Enable DOS Protection Account ➢ Enable Auto-Block Advanced ➢ Enable HTTPS compression and set SSL Profile level to Modern Compatibility }}

+ Other Settings — {{ Set Themes and other user privileges settings according to your necessity }}

4. Package Center Settings

Package Center ➢ Settings ➢ Click on checkBox of “Synology Inc and Trusted Publishers”

Name : SynoCommunity

Location : https://packages.SynoCommunity.com/

This will add Some Extra Packages to the Package Manager.

5. Some Must Packages (For Home Users)

Package Manager ➢ All Packages

Audio Station
Cloud Station Server
DNS Server
Document Viewer
Download Station
Hyper Backup
Mail Plus Server
Mail Plus
Photo Station
Video Station
USB Copy
Web Station
Plex
WordPress

Package Center

6. How To Reset Synology NAS

Method 1 : (In this method, you won’t lose your data in NAS)

Push the pin in the reset button for 5-Sec then release pin after Bip. again insert the pin and push down for 5-Secs and release the pin after 3 Bips .

This will Restart the NAS and will show the Red Light on Status LED then connect your synology again with find.synology.com and reinstall DSM.

Method 2 : (In this method, the data will be wiped out Completely)

Open Control Panel ➢ Update Section ➢ Reset

How to Setup Your Server to Your Personal Domain Name

Purchase a domain name.

For my server, I’ve purchased a domain from NameCheap.com and have also setup personal email trial service. It will require in adding SSL to your domain.

DNS Settings to Connect Your Domain To Your Server

Add your records to your domain. As in my setup my sub-domain is Synologyds, you can set your sub domain as you want.

Add SSL To Your Domain Name

You can add any free SSL Certificate to your domain name but if you want a paid and trusted SSL like the one I’ve using for my domain. you can purchase it from best ssl service like Comodo DV SSL

Go to WoTrus Certificate Store ➢ Purchase Comodo DV SSL ➢

Now go to Tool Section : 1. Fill Domain Name.

Download CSR TOOL.
Create Files {{ Server.Key & Server.Csr }} using CSR Tool.
Copy and Paste CSR to Website {{ Tool Section }}.
To Create certificate {{ Type admin@example.com for mail}}.
Use Web Mail to login your custom domain mail account.
Write the authentication code that you received in mail.
It will take 5 minutes to generate the certificate and then download it {{ example.cert }}.
Go to Synology server ➢ Security ➢ Certificates Then fill the details and select your certificate from your computer.

Settings for your Synology Server

Go to Control Panel ➢

External Access ➢ Advanced

HostName : Synologyds.example.com

HTTP : 5009 ( Add Port Number You want to use your NAS over with )

HTTP/S : 5010
Network

DSM PORTS :

HTTP : 5009

HTTP/S : 5010

Click on check Box “ HTTP Redirect To HTTP/S ” & “ ENABLE HTTP/S V2 ”
Security

Certificate : We above discussed how to add a certificate ( Synlogyds.example.com )

TLS/SSL Profile Level : Modern Compatibility
Web-Station

Install a package “Web_Station” from Package Center

Virtual Host : Synologyds.example.com

Port : 80/443

Protocol : HTTP / HTTPS

Backend Server : Nginx
DNS Server

Install this also from Package Center

ZONE ID : synologyds.example.com

Domain Name : Synologyds.example.com

Type : Master
Setup EZ_INTERNET

This will automatically detect your router and will also auto-forward the ports to your server.

EZ_INTERNET

Router Settings (M-Important) Log-in to your router admin panel and add a Secondary DNS Server to your router settings. This secondary DNS is the Internal IP of your server (10.0.0.150) Because without adding the secondary DNS to your router settings you won’t be able to access your server over your domain name.

Secure Synology

Enable HTTP/S
Change Default Ports To Custom Ports
Enable and Configure Firewall
Get SSL Certificate for Domain
Enable 2FA
Keep DSM Up To Date

How To Backup Your Data In Synology NAS

Phone Backup

Synology have vast variety of apps for Both Android & IOS Devices

Download :

DS FILE & DS PHOTO APP

DS Photo : This app is for large no of files like 2K to 3K Photos or videos and it will automatically backup your data from your phone. This app will show all your photos and videos just like your phone’s gallery

DS File : This app is like your file manager, even in IOS devices. you can manually upload the files to a particular folder or anywhere you want on your server.

Laptop & PC Backup

Windows : You can take backup of your important folders automatically to this server

Go to Settings ➢ Update and Security ➢ Backup

Select a drive for backup

In this step you will face a problem in selecting a drive for which you have to Download Synology Assistant App for windows then create a folder in server you want to save your backup then map this folder as a drive and then select folders you want to take backup regularly.

You can also setup a shared folder via the Synology Cloud Station App. You can create a folder in any drive of pc then to put anything in it which will be automatically synced to your other computers which have this cloud station installed.

For Large Files :

In Windows : You can Map a Folder as a drive , so you can easily copy your data in high speed.

In Linux : There is some problem with some Linux distros to map a drive for which you can use FTP service. But there’s also one problem If you use Secure FTP (SFTP) which will cut your copying speed and that’s why you can use Unsecure FTP service for faster data speed and you must turn it off when not using it as Unsecure ftps are not secure to use.

If you want to make a backup of a particular folder of your server then you will need to install Hyper backup. This hyper backup package will let you backup your selected folder in server regularly and also allows you to backup from google drive and other different cloud vendors.

Hyper Backup

You can do a vast variety of things with this small box. you can host a custom email server, a word-press website, backup module for your small business, media server, plex server, also host a custom git server and etc, etc. you can also manage your server through the mobile browser or a DS Finder App.

DS Mobile

DS Mobile Homepage

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Setting Up Manjaro Linux From Scratch!!

Akash Rajavnshi — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 12:40:07 +0000

Desktop of My Manjaro

STEP 1 : Download an Image File

Download an Image file from their official_website and install this image file through any booting software like Rufus.

NOTE : Select write in DD mode . (this option is particular for manjaro KDE version) and for other manjaro version choose “ISO image mode”

Recommended : Manjaro KDE (if your pc/laptop have i5).

Problem : Sometimes when you write your ISO in DD mode then your USB drive shows less space. like if USB is 8gb then its shows only 4mb size of whole pen drive.
To Solve this Problem : Insert USB stick in Linux ( only Linux and MacOS can solve this Problem ).

Open KDE Partition Manager ( in Manjaro ) and delete all the partitions that are present in current USB stick, and assign new partitions (this will solve your problem).

Now install the system via USB stick.

STEP 2 : Partitions

For Example : — If You have 250GB SSD like me

otherwise partition the drive according to your need.

Root (/) — Primary ( 50–60 GB)

Home (/home) — Primary (As per Need )(In my system (150 -160 GB)

Boot (/boot) — Primary ( 2–3 GB)

Extended (/Logical) — Remaining space( Total =250 Gb — 60Gb —150Gb — 3Gb = 37GB)

Var (/var) — 17GB(Because its stores all the temps and caches)

Swap(Linux Swap) — 20GB ( Mainly 2 X RAM)

STEP 3 : Install Yaourt In Manjaro

Yaourt, stands for Yet AnOther User Repository Tool

Yaourt :-is a command line interface program which complete pacman for installing software on Archlinux.

Installation:-

1. Using Custom Repository .

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

add the following in the end of the file.

[archlinuxfr]  
SigLevel = Never  
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

save and close the file.

Now Update Repo database and install Yaourt using command.

sudo pacman -Sy yaourt

2. Using AUR

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git wget yajl

after installing necessary dependencies we have to install package — query that allows to build and run yaourt.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/package-query.git

cd package-query/

makepkg -si

cd ..

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yaourt.git

cd yaourt/

makepkg -si

cd ..

sudo rm -dR yaourt/ package-query/

Run these commands line by line .( i m not including explanation of every command in this Article. if you want to know more follow this )

This will install Yaourt in system .

Some Basics Usages of Yaourt -

Update Arch Linux

yaourt -Syu

Install a Package

yaourt -S <package-name>

To Upgrade a packages

yaourt -U <package>

Enable Yaourt In Octopi

This Skeleton Button is Yaourt

STEP 4: Applications

After Installing a system ,we will install some basic apps that we need.

Enable AUR : — Open Octopi then go to tools and enable AUR.

1. Browsers

Mozilla Firefox — by default Installed .
Google Chrome — Install Using AUR (package name — {{ google-chrome }} In AUR ).
Vivaldi — Install Using Yaourt lib (Click on Skeleton Button in Octopi Then search {{ Vivaldi }}

2. Code_Editors

Atom — By AUR
Web-storm — By Yaourt
VS Code Studio — By Yaourt (Search — {{ Visual-studio-code-bin }}

3. For_Download

uget — By AUR
Transmission(Torrent_Client) — AUR{{ Transmission-cli }}

4. For_Email

MailSpring — By Yaourt

5. Other_Apps

Telegram_desktop — By Aur
franz — By Yaourt {{ Franz-bin }}
MegaSync — By Yaourt {{ megasync }}
Stacer (CleanUp Tool) — By Yaourt {{ stacer }}
TimeShift (Backup Software)-By AUR
Sweeper (System Cleaner) — By AUR
Discover (Software Manager) — By AUR

Now we have all the basics apps we need.

STEP 5 : Get all the apps of KDE-Plasma

Follow this step only if you have high configurable Pc otherwise it will slow down your system or install its small package.

Sudo pacman -S Plasma kio-extras

All Applications

Sudo pacman -S Kde-applications

Selected Applications

Sudo pacman -S Kdebase

Some other settings are for kde SDDM(default display manager)

Sudo Systemctl enable sddm.service --force  
reboot

Update Current User

/usr/bin/cp -rf/etc/skel/.  
reboot

STEP 6 : System Configuration

Desktop Theme — Breeze dark
Look and Feel — Breeze dark
Cursor — Breeze
Splash Screen — Adapta
Color — Breath dark
Font — Noto sans 10
Icons — Breeze or La Captaine
Application Style — Breeze

Widgets

Event Calendar
Memory Status
Network Monitor
System Load Viewer
CPU Load Monitor
Resource Monitor
Hard Disk Space Usage
Hard Disk I/O Monitor

Some Important Settings :-

Goto System Settings and in Startup and Shutdown Section

Click on — Desktop Session {{ Restore Manually Saved Session }}
Click on — Default Leave Option {{ End Current Session }}
Click on — Autostart{{ Disable all applications }}

Otherwise it will slow your pc and open any time new desktop.

STEP 7 : Mount 2nd Storage Drive(To Increase Storage)

This option is only for you when you have a 2nd storage drive in your system .

Like We have two storage drives in our system 1 SSD + 1 HDD

Then We install our system in SSD and use HDD as for media and other files of the system.

Partition , Formatting and Mounting

Partition

Sudo fdisk-l

check the fs format of your hardisk is based on like 1TB MyHdd on /dev/sda but we can’t mount it right now , if we mount errors will come out.

we need to partition it first:

Sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Note — “ m “ for help(command list)
for checking partition table — “P”(Enter P)
To partition , enter “n”,then just choose primary by entering “p”
and then enter “1” for only one partition number.

Formatting

Format the new partitioned HDD(remember fs format of your hdd)

Sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda

Mounting

Usually drives are mounted in /mnt

Sudo mkdir /mnt/sda

Then we can mount it by :-

Sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt/sda

Whenever we reboot it will automatically mounted.

we use nano /etc/fstab

Note — To save this login terminal as a Root.

/dev/sda /mnt/sda ext4 default 0 0

1.Path for hard drive

2.destination for the mounted drive

3.format type

4–6. Kept as default 0 and 0 .

STEP 8 : Create a Backup of system Via TimeShift

when you are done installing all the apps then set all the settings. Now its time to create a backup of the system .

This backup is useful if you accidentally delete any system file or any error occurred in the middle of something.

Note -After creating Backup we will save its files in 2nd Storage drive or external hdd (because i don’t have space in my ssd to permanently saved this backup.but, if you have space in your ssd then don’t follow steps after the step 2.

Step 1. Open TimeShift

Step 2. Create Snapshot

Step 3. Now copy all the backup files in Extenal Hdd/2nd hdd.

Open Terminal As a Root

cp -a /timeShift/snapshots/{your snapshot name}/ /mnt/{Name of your 2nd storage drive}/backup

Note — Backup from this command because without this system can’t give access to us to direct copy. and create compressed version of your backup then you will be able to save in external hdd.

for Restore — Open octopi and search timeShift and then install

and copy the whole snapshot to that folder Root/TimeShift/snapshots/

next, the option of restore will appear in Timeshift.

STEP 9 : Clean Tmp Regularly

Clean /Var/tmp folder regularly, if it is not cleared regularly ,system will crash(only when var folder have no space left).

Natural Method

Open File Manager and go to Root/var folder, clean the folder according to the need and delete by the option of “Root Actions”.

We will check from terminal that how much space is occupied in Var folder.

df -h

Automated Method

Run Sweeper and Stacer Regularly.

STEP 10 : Configure oh-my-Zsh Terminal

oh-my-Zsh is The best terminal I’ve ever used.

for Zsh we have to pre install these:

1.git

2.curl

3.wget

By Curl

sudo sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

By pacman

pacman -S Zsh

Some settings for Zsh :

Switching from — zsh to bash and vice versa

exec bash (to bash)   
exec zsh (to zsh)

Change default shell

chsh -s /bin/zsh

Manual Update

upgrade-oh-my-zsh

Uninstall zsh

uninstall-oh-my-zsh

Lists of shells(installed in your system)

cat /etc/shells

Plugins (In my System)

plugins=(git
       archlinux
       brew
       command-not-found
       github
       npm
       node
       ruby
       ssh-agent
       sublime
       sudo
       terminalapp
       vscode
       web-search
       gem
       rvm
       bundler
       copyfile
       zsh-syntax-highlighting
       zsh-autosuggestions
       );

Theme (In my system)

ZSH\_THEME=agnoster

Path (Imp)

.Zshrc file in Home Directory

1. # Path to your oh-my-zsh installation.
  export ZSH="/home/{{ Pc\_UserName }}/.oh-my-zsh"

2. source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh

3. # If you come from bash you might have to change your $PATH.
# export PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH

Custom Plugins

Add Syntax highlighting

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git  
${ZSH\_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Auto Suggestion

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH\_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Run both the codes from your zsh_Terminal

Now, Activate— go to .Zshrc file in home directory .

Add:

plugins=( 
          zsh-syntax-highlighting
          zsh-autosuggestions
        );

Fonts and color scheme settings

Right click on empty zsh_terminal and click on Edit current profile then click on Appearence.

Color-Scheme & background - Maia  
font - Meslo LG S DZ for Powerline

Install- Powerline Fonts

Aticles For Zsh

1. agnoster / agnoster-zsh-theme

2. powerline/fonts

oh-my-zsh

Find something useful? Press the 💖 to support and help others find this article. Thanks for reading!!

Follow me on Instagram @hypnosisss___ & Twitter @akash_Rajvanshi

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