I'm Linux savvy but fairly new to serverside, so please don't go in dry. 
I have a VPS with Debian Wheezy x86 which runs VestaCP for LAMP, nginx, vsftp, exim4 and so on. It was originally CentOS but I switched to Debian as my background was mostly deb based at the time I bought it, and so I found it easier to troubleshoot. These days I prefer CentOS but the server refuses to die (typical Debian) and it's been left to run.
Basically I use it to run our personal domain mail for IMAP access over SSL and that's about it these days. I used to run a couple of busy sites, a forum and FTP on there but they all got binned along the way. VestaCP makes configuring everything a case of a few GUI clicks and done, with automatic fail2ban, iptables setup etc. That obviously made it instantly appealing especially considering it's free of charge and OSS.
I'm pretty privacy conscious and run a mixture of BSD, CentOS and Fedora at home mostly. We also run VPNs on all devices, so it seems foolhardy to continue using Google-everything (calendar, secondary mail accounts, contacts sync, photo backup, drive) on top.
I've discovered opencloud and it seems ideal for what we want; basic storage and sync capabilities, file and media browsing and streaming, *nix, iOS and Android sync clients, and all that good stuff. We'd be able to sync our contacts, run calendars and backup personal documents and photos etc from our machines and phones without paying third parties and having Google snoop and profile our data.
The only thing I'm struggling with ATM is whether you can run opencloud alongside VestaCP. I'm guessing probably not, since opencloud obviously runs on LAMP but Vesta installs these itself. That alone might not necessarily induce conflict - Vesta installs LAMP, sets itself up with GUI access over port 8083 (so not conflicting with opencloud on 80) and would take care of the email and domain side of things while opencloud ran sync and storage. Maybe.
I've googled around for a couple of days but can't find any answers. I see it's possible to run roundcube as a plugin on opencloud for an existing mail server running locally (it's worded like it's aimed at postfix or exim running as a standalone service, user set), but I don't know whether I can just install Vesta then throw owncloud on top in a domain I've set up through VestaCP beforehand.
Does anyone have any experience of this type of thing? I could always rent a second cheap OVH VPS to keep them separate (our needs are minimal there's only my wife and me), but with the 50GB+ storage we'd need it starts to go over £10 a month which is a bit steep when Drive is £2.
I specced up a Kabini based microATX box with multiple TB of storage and everything a little home server would need and it was only £150 (basically 15 months of paying for a VPS we'll never own or have real control over). Since we have reliable 160/12 at home that would be ample for us to run a little personal server off and it'd soon pay for itself versus VPS costs. I'm just hoping someone can please chime in with some practical experience on running owncloud + VestaCP (ideally) or owncloud + a self configured mail server at worst?
Thanks in advance for any input or ideas.
EDIT: Sorry to add to the wall of text, but I'm researching as well as just asking on here. I think maybe FreeNAS would be a huge step forward over the above? It supports OwnCloud so effectively I could grab a microserver or build a Kabini box, then pile on FreeNAS + owncloud plugin and run data backup, calendar, a mail server, and have qBittorrent or Transmission running to stream to the network rather than each machine needing to download separately. It would also be possible to directly link the machine to AirVPN over OpenVPN with RDNS linking it to rainmakersowncloud.airdns.org so it can serve from behind the VPN for double security. Four birds one stone. Win?
I have a VPS with Debian Wheezy x86 which runs VestaCP for LAMP, nginx, vsftp, exim4 and so on. It was originally CentOS but I switched to Debian as my background was mostly deb based at the time I bought it, and so I found it easier to troubleshoot. These days I prefer CentOS but the server refuses to die (typical Debian) and it's been left to run.
Basically I use it to run our personal domain mail for IMAP access over SSL and that's about it these days. I used to run a couple of busy sites, a forum and FTP on there but they all got binned along the way. VestaCP makes configuring everything a case of a few GUI clicks and done, with automatic fail2ban, iptables setup etc. That obviously made it instantly appealing especially considering it's free of charge and OSS.
I'm pretty privacy conscious and run a mixture of BSD, CentOS and Fedora at home mostly. We also run VPNs on all devices, so it seems foolhardy to continue using Google-everything (calendar, secondary mail accounts, contacts sync, photo backup, drive) on top.
I've discovered opencloud and it seems ideal for what we want; basic storage and sync capabilities, file and media browsing and streaming, *nix, iOS and Android sync clients, and all that good stuff. We'd be able to sync our contacts, run calendars and backup personal documents and photos etc from our machines and phones without paying third parties and having Google snoop and profile our data.
The only thing I'm struggling with ATM is whether you can run opencloud alongside VestaCP. I'm guessing probably not, since opencloud obviously runs on LAMP but Vesta installs these itself. That alone might not necessarily induce conflict - Vesta installs LAMP, sets itself up with GUI access over port 8083 (so not conflicting with opencloud on 80) and would take care of the email and domain side of things while opencloud ran sync and storage. Maybe.
I've googled around for a couple of days but can't find any answers. I see it's possible to run roundcube as a plugin on opencloud for an existing mail server running locally (it's worded like it's aimed at postfix or exim running as a standalone service, user set), but I don't know whether I can just install Vesta then throw owncloud on top in a domain I've set up through VestaCP beforehand.
Does anyone have any experience of this type of thing? I could always rent a second cheap OVH VPS to keep them separate (our needs are minimal there's only my wife and me), but with the 50GB+ storage we'd need it starts to go over £10 a month which is a bit steep when Drive is £2.
I specced up a Kabini based microATX box with multiple TB of storage and everything a little home server would need and it was only £150 (basically 15 months of paying for a VPS we'll never own or have real control over). Since we have reliable 160/12 at home that would be ample for us to run a little personal server off and it'd soon pay for itself versus VPS costs. I'm just hoping someone can please chime in with some practical experience on running owncloud + VestaCP (ideally) or owncloud + a self configured mail server at worst?
Thanks in advance for any input or ideas.
EDIT: Sorry to add to the wall of text, but I'm researching as well as just asking on here. I think maybe FreeNAS would be a huge step forward over the above? It supports OwnCloud so effectively I could grab a microserver or build a Kabini box, then pile on FreeNAS + owncloud plugin and run data backup, calendar, a mail server, and have qBittorrent or Transmission running to stream to the network rather than each machine needing to download separately. It would also be possible to directly link the machine to AirVPN over OpenVPN with RDNS linking it to rainmakersowncloud.airdns.org so it can serve from behind the VPN for double security. Four birds one stone. Win?
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