I have a decent 2 bay synology, but want to put all my docker images/ VMs running on a more powerful machine connected to the same LAN. Does it ever make sense to do the for media serving or will involving an extra device add too much complexity vs just serving from the NAS itself. I was hoping to have calibre/home assistant/tube type services, etc. all running off a mini PC with a Ryzen 7 and 64gb ram vs the NAS.
My Linux knowledge is intermediate; my networking knowledge is begintermediate, and I can generally follow documentation okay even if it’s a bit above my skill level.
I have an old midi-tower standing around with everything inside but drives.
Is it stupid to just set up the drives as zfs inside the case and let my docker services run on the same machine (as long as there is enough RAM etc. of course)?
Or should I get another PC as application server?
If you’re not using something like synology, it isn’t really an issue to run applications and nas on the same machine. I would generally recommend separating them so you have more options in the future if you want to run muliple servers for HA or expansion, but it should be fine either way. It is worth noting that quad core N100 computers are like $150 on aliexpress if you want a cheap application server(s).