KD0YTE's Ham Radio, Linux, and other stuff.

HP Elitedesk as proxmox server
5th January 2024

So I have been reading a lot about a linux virtual machine system known as proxmox.
I had tried installing it a couple yoears back but never did much with it as the PC i put it on had issues.

Looking around Ebay a few months ago I discovered the HP elitedesk line of mini PC's
They were originally intended to be office workstations a bit beefier than a thin client.
I found the elite desk 800 for sale with a 8 gigs or ram and no hd for about $60.
I bought one. added another 16gb memory to it that i had on hand and a 2 terabite ssd to it for another $60. I installed proxmox and started adding virtual machines to it.

First I created a debian server vm to be an apache webserver and run gridtracker a ham radio program. That is the server hosting this blog.

Second I decided to try creating a container. A container is like a limited virtual machine. I picked a container with the Gallery photo server software that installed with out problems. I have some family pictures on it so my extended family can access it.
I also have a Jellyfin server for hosting a few videos on the local network.
I also created a windows 10 vm just to see if I could and that works fine too.

Conclusion. The cheap little HP elitedesk works quite fine for running multiple home servers via proxmox. Didnt cost much more than a raspberry pi but offers a lot more muscle.
Give it a try

Tags: linux, servers.