Since I had a spare Raspberry Pi 2 lying around, I figured I could use it as a webserver. The idea is to host a simple webpage and implement a functionality to wake and shutdown devices in the LAN from the Internet (Raspberry acts as an intermediary). Besides, the Raspberry shall also monitor the state of some devices in the network (e.g. my Synology NAS).
Due to the lack of computational power and fast memory, the Raspberry is certainly not suitable for services that require highspeed I/O capabilities such as large databases, but for personal use it will do just fine!
What makes the Raspberry Pi particularly interesting to be used as a server – apart from its affordable price tag – is the low power dissipation of just 2W. So even if you keep it always on, it won’t be heavy on your pocket. Besides, it is fanless and thus inaudible during operation.
Here is what you are going to need for the following tutorial:
- a Raspberry Pi (obviously), I recommend the version 2 or 3
- a micro USB power supply with at least 700mA
- a micro SD card with at least 2GB
- an Ethernet cable
You can get all of this for less than 50 bucks. Besides, you will need a monitor with HDMI and a keyboard for the initial setup.
Now let’s get started!