Recommendations for building a simple "home Docker cloud"?

Hi,

I’ve been using Docker for quite a while for local development, as well as multi host cloud deployments.

I’d like to extend my usage also to my home computing environment. Looking for recommendations for a reasonable and efficient hardware and host OS setup for this environment.

I’m aiming for a very basic “home Docker cloud” for running “my stuff” (e.g., backup service, media center DB, pet project I’m working on, etc.), that should be “always on” (so energetically efficient), and use an external NAS for persistent volumes (something like a QNAP or a Synology).

For the host machine itself, I was thinking about several alternatives:

  1. Using an old laptop (power failure protection built-in :slight_smile: ).
  2. Using a Raspberry Pi (or two, for some extra juice and redundancy, as well as getting to play with swarm :slight_smile: ).
  3. Using the same Intel NUC HTPC I’m already using as a media PC also as a Docker host.

Anyone has experience with any of these approaches, and can specify some pros and cons?
For example, with option #3, I get to reuse hardware that’s already on most of the time (energy upside), but I’m not sure how it will affect performance of media playing, which I’d like to remain smooth, and it probably also limits my OS selection.

What host OS would you recommend for a dedicated simple Docker host? (considering CargOS, CoreOS, OpenStack, DCOS, plain Linux)
I realize this depends on the hardware…

What NAS would you recommend? (simple, cheap, with Docker volume plugins support)

Will appreciate your thoughts and input!
Thanks!