# @thespenceryan on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdPTMFtxqO6
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70336008-thespenceryan-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/0bb8a60b97.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-13T19:22:05.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Spencer Ryan (@thespenceryan) — https://gondola.cc/thespenceryan

## Caption

built a home server to ditch the cloud ☁️ 

And honestly,  it may NEVER pay for itself based on these storage prices. But I now own the data, in full control, and never get pressed to upgrade to the next tier.

I did this using the Beelink ME Mini since it has 6 NVMe slots and installed UmbrelOS on it. Honestly not for the faint of heart but...

Here’s how I did it (VERY technical):

1. Install UmbrelOS - Flash umbrelOS USB installer with Balena Etcher → boot mini PC → install to internal NVMe → http://umbrel.local setup done

2. RAID 5 NVMe Array - Install 4x 4TB NVMe SSDs → SSH umbrel@umbrel.local → mdadm RAID5 LVM → ext4 format → mount /mnt/lvm-storage (11TB) → /etc/fstab persistence

3. Immich Photos - App Store → Immich → edit docker-compose.yml volumes to /mnt/lvm-storage/immich folders using Symlink.

6. Samba Network Share - SSH → sudo apt install samba (App Store version broken)→ add [Umbrel-Storage] share to /etc/samba/smb.conf pointing to /mnt/lvm-storage → sudo smbpasswd umbrel → cron reboot sleep 60 && systemctl restart smbd (fixes Umbrel killing it) → \\\\umbrel.local\\Umbrel-Storage from Windows

Not going to lie, this was extremely complicated to setup and made me doubt if umbrelOS was even worth it but it’s working.

If you still need some help, post this in any Claude or ChatGPT instance and tell it to use these instructions to set it up for yourself.

## Stats

- **Views:** 4,189
- **Likes:** 149
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 2

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Spencer Ryan | @thespenceryan | https://gondola.cc/thespenceryan | Influencer |

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