ZOTAC ZBOX CI620 NANO i3 – New Home Server with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Intro

This will be my new “HomeServer” running https://44-2.de/docbox/ and Openhabian..and more. Its a passive cooled mini PC with Intel i3-8130U, for my needs its equipped with 8GB RAM and a 8GB (2x4GB) Crucial DDR4-2400 CL17 SO-DI RAM and a Samsung SSD 860 EVO Series 1TB.

Installing the Hardware

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SizIpEPl378

Installing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on ZOTAC ZBOX + The Bacis

Very simple and straight forward

• Create Bootable USB Stick with Etcher
• Connect with Keyboard , HDMI Monitor and Ethernet (optional)
• PlugIn USB Stick in the front USB
• Power on the box + press F8 on the keyboard (every 1-2 seconds)
• Boot Menu: Enable UEFI – Boot (if you like) + Reboot
• Again press F8 and select USB as boot-device
• Follow the standard Ubuntu Setup (goes really fast), reboot
• Install WIFI: Install wpa tools: sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant
• Follow https://linuxconfig.org/ubuntu-20-04-connect-to-wifi-from-command-line to set-up the interface using netplan, my config file for WiFi located in //etc/netplan see below. To use the local name service (e.g. by your router, e.g. AVM Fritzbox) you need to add the section “search”.
• I got error messages in dmesg about Active Power State management, to fix follow https://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wiki/PCIe_Bus_Error_Status_00001100_beheben. This will deativate a power-status in the PCI, from short research I think its not to bad for power consumption
• Some other error messages came from multipath tool, used on server to manage LVM devices – not needed, we only have one SSD, so I removed it with
  sudo apt-get remove multipath-tools

# //etc/netplan config code for wifi interface (check the name of the interface, here its wlp3s0)
network:
   ethernets:
     enp1s0:
       dhcp4: true
   version: 2
   wifis:
       wlp3s0:
         optional: true
         access-points:
           "YOUR SSID":
               password: "YOUR PWD"
         dhcp4: no
         addresses: [YOUR IP/24]
         gateway4: 192.168.1.1
         nameservers:
           search: [fritz.box]
           addresses: [192.168.1.1]

Install openHAB Smart Home on Ubuntu 20.04 Server

There are two ways to install Openhab, one as a normal package or the other one as from the “openhabian” project. That starts with a config-tool, from here you will install Openhab. I can really recommend using this options. Instructions can be found here:https://www.openhab.org/docs/installation/openhabian.html#other-linux-systems-add-openhabian-just-like-any-other-software.

Small Tips

OpenHABian configuration tool also allows to add additional components, I went with “Log Viewer” and “MQTT Mosquitto”.

I had to migrate from an existing openHAB installation, and used this trick: https://community.openhab.org/t/how-to-transfer-configuration-from-one-openhab-to-another/92784 that basically create a backup and restore via

 

 

 

#on source: sudo openhab-cli backup --full