Can you run multiple servers on one machine (e.g. Raspberry Pi)?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I’m thinking about buying a Raspberry Pi to start my self-hosted journey. I have three usecases in mind: Navidrome server, Jellyfin server and a Pi-hole network ad-blocking. Can a single machine (like a Raspberry Pi) run these operations simultaneously? Thanks in advance!

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DScratch@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I have a Pi 4 that is running a bunch of stuff, including AdGuard(PiHole alternative), JellyFin, Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr, Readarr, qBitorrent and some others.

I used DietPi as the OS. Would recommend as it has an AppStore like experience, with pre-configured versions of things ready to install.

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- Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  DietPi is such a game changer.
  
  Currently running it in a VM just for PiHole, and the ease of installing anything is nice.
  
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habitualTartare@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
As other commenters have said yes you can run these depending on the Pi. Do note however if you need transcoding, A Pi is not recommended by jellyfin:

jellyfin.org/docs/general/…/hardware-selection#po…

Most Single Board Computers (SBC): Most SBCs (including the Raspberry Pi, especially the Raspberry Pi 5) are too slow to provide an acceptable Jellyfin experience as they often lack proper support for hardware acceleration. If you really want to run Jellyfin on an SBC, you may wish to consider models based on the following platforms: Rockchip RK3588 / RK3588S, Intel Core, Intel 12th gen N series

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- Squizzy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  What is good enough fr transcoding? I have plex for travel, I want to move to jellyfin and get an arr stack all on one system. Looking at a 9th gen i5 thinkcentre with 16gb ram
  
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  - habitualTartare@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Official Recommendations for low power: Intel 12th gen or above N series platforms Apple M Series Mac mini Rockchip RK3588 / RK3588S SBC (Advanced Users Only)
    
    Note 10th gen and older integrated graphics are losing support in Linux due to Intel dropping SDK support or something. Don’t buy a nuc or small PC with Intel 10 or older but if you have one it’s fine for now.
    
    Another option would be an old laptop with dedicated graphics (e.g. e waste/recyclers). then you can get away with older than 10gen Intel since you’d be using the external graphics. Just research how to limit battery charging in the bios since it’s always going to be plugged in.
    
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BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Depends on the Pi in terms of how much you can do, but yes.

I have a Pi 5, and I’m running Pi Hole, Nginx porxy manager, Jellyfin, Syncthing, Paperless NGX, and a full servarr stack (including Qbittorrent and a VPN). No issues; 4.6 gb out of 7.9gb ram in use, and no appreciable bottlenecks.

I would just caution that things like Jellyfin are a moveable feast - I am 1 user streaming content on my own to 1 device without issues at 4k. But more simultaneous users and if you start depending on transcoding your mileage may vary. So yes Jellyfin and other services will run fine, but any server can be put under pressure if it’s not adequate for the actual usage.

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amateurcrastinator@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Do not buy a RPI for self hosting. Get a mini PC second hand. It is much much better. And to answer you question, yes you can host multiple services on a single server. Read about virtualization and start learning the ways of proxmox, also say goodbye to your loved ones :)))

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alphakenny1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yes yes you csn.

The old may was we would run these direct like an app on the pi.

People then came up with containers and isolated things a bit made them easy to share and configure. - dockers

Have a look for people with blogs about all the software they are running on their pi plenty of info on how.

Pi isnt the best at jellyfin server as it isnt the best at transcoding files but for direct playing without having to convert the format its enough.

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undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Define “server”:

If you mean any process that serves on the network well then of course you can.

If you mean multiple containerized stacks acting as a service then yes, you can do that too.

If you mean multiple operating systems, I’m not so sure but I can’t imagine that it’s impossible.

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- Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Depending on how you define multiple operating systems, you can use proxmox
  
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- KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Install a hypervisor and you can install as many operating systems as your hardware can support.
  
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- schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  multiple operating systems, I’m not so sure but I can’t imagine that it’s impossible
  
  The keyword is virtualization.
  
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AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
A lot of people saying ditch the Pi, but it’s fairly viable depending on what exactly you want from it, so long as you get one of the newer models with plenty of RAM. Simply streaming media is relatively manageable for a Pi. It will most likely run Navidrome okay, and Jellyfin will be okay if and only if media doesn’t need to be transcoded, and you MIGHT have issues with 4K, not sure. If you stream to something like a smart TV or Fire Stick, those can typically only handle certain video formats, so if your media isn’t that type, either the server transcodes it, which the probably Pi can’t do fast enough, or playback fails. Music typically doesn’t require transcoding, so that’s why I think Navidrome should be okay. Pi-Hole is manageable and is, after all, expressly designed to be run on a Pi. It can also be run on standard hardware, so while you can do it on a Pi, you don’t need one to use Pi-Hole.

Now, that said, two main concerns about a Pi. The first is that you’ll probably eventually want to host and do more, and you may run out of resources and wish you’d just gotten a cheap mini PC instead. The second is that you really should get an external HDD or something to store as much as you can on, preferably including the OS. An SD card just is not meant to handle the constant I/O that comes with being the main drive for a full computer. It’ll eventually fail, taking all the data on it with it. I think the best way to run off an external HDD has changed since I used a Pi, so some research recommended, but what I did before was flash the EXACT SAME image to the SD card and HDD, then delete the boot partition on the HDD, expand the data partition to fill the HDD, and delete the data partition off the SD card. If you use the exact same image for both, it at least used to be that the partitions keep the same UUID, so it boots from the SD card as normal, and when told to find the other partition by UUID, it finds it on the other drive and works just fine.

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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
DNS	Domain Name Service/System
LXC	Linux Containers
NAS	Network-Attached Storage
NUC	Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
PiHole	Network-wide ad-blocker (DNS sinkhole)
RAID	Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage
RPi	Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
SBC	Single-Board Computer
VPN	Virtual Private Network

[Thread #114 for this comm, first seen 27th Sep 2026, 15:10] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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Lyricism6055@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
So yourself a favor and skip the pi and look for an old server on marketplace (loud and electricity is expensive, but lots of cores) or a NUC if u want a couple servers (or multiple docker containers)

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AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you can run multiple applications, you can run multiple servers—a server is just an application with a network interface.

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ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I used to have over 20 services running on a Pi4, I wouldn’t suggest running that much, but it’ll work

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libewa@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If the machine has enough power (which for a Pi is heavily varying between generations), yes, you absolutely can! Look into something like Docker Compose (or even running NixOS).

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daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I have like 30 different services running on the same machine.

That’s why you want to use some container solution, I use docker for simplicity.

Also raspberry pi is not great for self hosting. Any cheap x64 machine will be much more powerful for the same price, and have less compatibility issues.

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curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Up until the point the resources available (CPU/ram/storage) become a problem.

That said, managing those apps as installations can be troublesome, which is why people like podman/docker. Updates are more contained, system updates don’t break services, and vice-versa.

A more comprehensive option is to use Proxmox or similar to manage services as a combination of Virtual Machines, LXC’S (Linux containers), and maybe podman/docker on a VM. Note that Proxmox techincally supports importing a docker container as an LXC, but this is a one-time action. Not recommended.

Navidrome and pihole are the easy ones on that list also. Jellyfin itself is easy, but you aren’t going to be transcoding video on the fly, so make sure its in a format that is friendly to all of your devices, transcoding in advance if needed.

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lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
One big reason why not to buy a Rqspberry Pi for Self Hosting is the price. If you want to run more heavy services (like jellyfin can be), you need the Pis with 8GB of RAM. Though those where already expensive before the sharp rise is RAM pricing. When you include a fitting power supply and a small cooler with fan (so that you don’t run into thermal throttle fast) you are probably already at like 110€ at least. For that money you can also get a used mini PC (those that companies use for their employees), that already has more power and offers better upgradebility (RAM, storage). Also for some services you might run into the problem, there is no version build for ARM devices (though that happens very rarely nowadays).

Though with the RAM pricing problem every computing device gets more expensive. Just include such mini PCs into your comparison to make a good decision.

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crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Just get an oldish SFF or USFF office computer cheap somewhere. It’s generally much cheaper and allows for upgrades if ram/ssd prices ever come down. Also somewhat new Intel CPUs are quite good for transcoding.

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moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yes but you should buy 3 and cluster them

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BartyDeCanter@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Easily! My Pi runs PiHole and a print server and I’ll could probably run almost my entire stack in it if I wanted. Jellyfin would be the hardest due to transcoding CPU usage, but it’s probably ok for one stream at a time.

The other issue for me would be storage. Since I have a 28TB NAS I run everything that requires large storage on it, but a USB RAID attached to a Pi would probably work just fine.

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altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Don’t waste your time and money on a pi for this. He a cheap mini PC. Like the types that go in the back of the secretary monitor at your dentist office. That pike of junk I’d usually much better than a pi. It even has a box and room for a hard drive.

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xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I would skip Jellyfin on the pi. Other than that, it’s all good.

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- Yes_Man@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I always see people saying the Pi is poor for Jellyfin, but I’m running it on a 5 4GB (alongside a fair few other Docker images) and haven’t encountered any really issues. I’m only streaming 1080p and never see any stuttering or bad transcoding.
  
  That said, I do intend to go with a SFF PC in the future as I’ve pretty quickly hit the point where it’d be better, so OP I would skip the Pi as well.
  
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  - xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Let me be a bit more specific. If you are doing a couple of light services + jellyfin, maybe you can pull it off. But if you have some critical latency sensitive applications + jellyfin, it can cause issues at random times.
    
    Also, if you are ONLY hosting Jellyfin with no *arr stack, you should be fine. I made that mistake and my Pi went down to a crawl.
    
    Test your services together, and based on that decide on the subset of services.
    
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