I need an always on, always connected solution to host a Peergos, Nextcloud, a personal site (low traffic), Ethereum full node staking, and Qort minting.
I like the idea of the portability of the Mini. But can a loaded Mini handle ^^^^? Is it designed to be always on?
What do I lose going with a loaded Mini vs server for this application?
I don’t think you’d want to use a Mini for any mining, particularly if it’s supposed to be performing other tasks at the same time.
It’s not for mining, it’s for staking.
I read “Qort minting” as “Qort mining.” I dunno if your computer can mint and do other stuff at the same time, the FAQ wasn’t clear except that you need to keep your computer from sleeping or “not processing.”
It has to be connected to the internet all the time, and serving up content like a web server…but it doesn’t carry the same load as a server would carry. Web server is a bit overkill I think. But will a mini run 24/7 without problems?
It should with no trouble, its not very power hungry. Just make sure you have some sort of plan in place for updates (and of course check it every so often. I’m positive the hardware can handle being on all the time, but software might run into issues every now and again).
… and backups.
I have a device comparable to the Librem Mini that I use as a low budget home server. It has been running 24x7 for the last 7 years or so, with many short outages for reboot after updates, regular moderate length outages for offline backups, and the occasional outage due to mains power outage (exceeding run time on the UPS, but not since I’ve had the PV system with battery, although the PV system was purchased for the general benefit of the household, and the benefit to reliability of mains power is an added bonus).
This is adequate for my needs. It’s not like I’m operating an online store and will lose a zillion dollars an hour if the server is down …
However I think one has to be realistic about getting what one is paying for. Server-class hardware may have vastly more redundancy in a range of areas whether it’s multiple CPUs, ECC memory, multiple power supplies, …
At the very least, you need to ask yourself: what is my plan if the hardware fails?
You should also think about your disk storage. I think I am right in saying that most spinning rust disks are not rated for 24x7 operation, well not consumer-level disks anyway. So if the amount of storage that you want is not vast, you would probably want SSDs and regardless you would want storage redundancy (RAID etc.).
My practical experience says that they can withstand it no problem for years. Backblaze agrees, they make their arrays out of consumer drives.
To read in more detail: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/ssd-drive-stats-mid-2022-review/
They imply that they just don’t use HDDs any more for boot drives (for any new storage hosts).
Earlier reports did compare enterprise drives with consumer drives e.g. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-q2-2018/
Regardless, you have to assume that failure of the drive (any type of drive - HDD v. SSD, enterprise v. consumer) is a possibility, and something you should plan for if 24x7 ops are required.