Post Your Roon Server Solution For Others

[QqQ]

Curious to see the server solutions people have set up for roonserver. I will go first as I have two, driven by two very different distro philosophies in the Linux community.

Both have: 1. Tailscale for network security (I turn off local network openssh access) and for external security (to allow Arc access) as I do not have to open external router ports and can leave UPnP off. 2. backup approach is based on 3-2-1: a) weekly local backup to my SSD; b) rclone to Backblaze B2 for the free 10GB tier on a weekly automated nightly schedule drawn from my local backup; c) daily backup to usb stick for 9 days, to cover two weekends (the daily is overkill). 3. Snapper for linux system rollbacks, which comes in handy. I use zsh with plugins for terminal from my laptop and Termius on iOS or quick access to both systems remotely with a quick reboot so they can be quickly managed from anywhere in the world without security concerns.

Primary Server: Debian Stable (headless - no desktop). I use Docker and the official roonserver docker container. There is a nightly Watchtower scan to query if there is a new roonserver update (in app auto updates disabled). It’s a very light 3GB system (excluding the Roon and Snapper backups). Rock solid stable, fast, secure, with minimal updates required (Debian security team limits updates to security updates) and long term support (3 years support for Debian Stable + 2 more years security updates if you don’t upgrade to their new Stable version). It’s your ‘set it and forget’ put it in a closet without a monitor Roon server solution and come back in 2030.

Backup Server: Arch with Gnome. Roonserver was initially installed from AUR to manage dependencies and then placed on the ignore package update list so I can do automated in app Roon updates. Arch is a rolling release, which I love, so it is constantly getting updates and is as up to date as you can get in the Linux community. It’s also a lean system but Gnome still adds enough packages to ensure there are regular manual updates required. Arch is not a ‘set and forget’ server solution. You need to maintain it, which I like. It would not be my go to recommendation for someone looking to configure a minimal interaction server as that’s not what Arch is designed for.

Both systems have been rock solid and fast. You can obviously buy a much pricier Roon appliance to plug and play. My PC is completely overpowered for a Roon server but I like the additional benefits of tailscale, rclone, and snapper.

I once had a huge local library of Flac and Ogg files but I now only use Qobuz to connect to an Arcam SA45, Nest Hubs (Windows liked to dropped those nightly so… partitions delete), and SONOS is my kid’s room.

Interested in other people’s set ups to see what further I can learn.

[Mike_O_Neill]

I think you will see any number of ones like mine

KISS principal Roon Recommended

ISP Modem > TP_Link Archer C9

Intel NUC 10 i7 > 256 Gb M.2 SSD system > ROCK > 32 Gb RAM > 4Tb SATA SSD music

All connections Ethernet

[Torben (- A Dane living in Hamburg, Germany - Roon Lifer)]

I switched to DietPi about two years ago. Now running Debian “Trixie” (DietPi) on:

Works just fine

Torben

[Progisus]

Main system - Antipodes K50 with 10gb of ssd

Backup - Mac Mini M4 and Synology DS920+ with 10gb hd

[mjw (See you in the major leagues, Jack.)]

My server / homelab / gaming machine is an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X based PC running Ubuntu Server 24.04. Roon runs in a Podman container (as do other applications.) KVM is used for virtual machines, but I no longer run Windows 10 for Steam.

I use Veeam Agent for Linux for bare bones backup, and Borg / Borgmatic / 5 TB Hetzner Storage Box (€11.90 PCM) for local and remote data backups.

There’s lots of fast SSD and HDD on LVM. I recommend using mirrors over RAID.

I manage the box via SSH from my StarBook, although I also run Cockpit since this is useful for monitoring disk and containers.

Edit: Server has an APC BackUPS ES attached.

[Eddy_Schouten]

In the rack;

• Roon Rock on Asus NUC13i3 Pro
  • 16 Gb ram
  • 512 Gb ssd for os & db
  • 4 Tb ssd for 60k songs music
• Ubuntu 26.04 LTS on Intel NUC10i5
  • 32 Gb ram
  • 512 Gb ssd for os
  • 512 Tb ssd for Plex & Virtualbox
  • 4 Tb ssd for backup (rsync) music from Roon Rock server
• RoPieee for music in the office (Argon Audio Fenris A4 active speakers)
  • Raspberry Pi 4
  • 2 Gb ram
  • 16 Gb microSD
  • Internal Hires Dac
• Wireguard vpn on Raspberry Pi 4
  • 4 Gb ram
  • 16 Gb microSD
• Homeassistant on Rasbperry Pi 5
  • 8 Gb ram
  • 128 Gb usb ssd

Not in the rack;

• 2 x PiHole ‘Network-wide Ad Blocking’ failover on Raspberry Pi Zero 2w
• RoPieee for music in de Gym (Argon Audio Fenris A4 active speakers)
  • Raspberry Pi 4
  • 4 GB ram
  • 16 Gb micro sd
  • Internal Hires Dac
  • Display 2
• KEF LS60 Wireless in the living room (Roon ready)
  • Poll: What's your favorite streaming speaker to use with Roon? - #169 by Eddy_Schouten
  • Showing (off) your Roon setup - description and photos [2025] - #596 by Eddy_Schouten

All wired up to Netgear 1gb network switches

[Jazzfan_NJ (Listening to JAZZ since 1972!)]

unRaid server with a 6 disk array (4 disks plus 2 parity disks) and 2 nvme cache drives (1TB and 2TB)

Intel® Core™ i9-9900X CPU @ 3.50GHz

Roon Server running in a Docker container

For the most part very stable but due to the terrible interface between Roon and Qobuz/Tidal/nugs (the main cause of slow preformance issues) I tend to restart Roon about once a week, usually on Saturday morning after all the weekly updates with Qobuz/Tidal/nugs have been completed at the main Roon servers.

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

Library with 3900 albums, 50k tracks, 13k tracks local, rest mostly Qobuz, a few Tidal. Typical artist/album/tracks folder structure for local files. Just 100 or so unidentified albums. No crazy 100-disk box sets. Mostly pop/rock.

10th gen i5 NUC in a fanless Cirrus7 Nimbini case, internal SSD for music (backed up to NAS). 16 GB RAM. ROCK.

NAS and NUC on same unmanaged Netgear GS305 switch. This switch wired to another GS305 to which the streamer (Roon Ready Naim) and router are wired.

Current Fritzbox router.
MacBook/iPad/iPhone remotes.

No dropout/stalling/etc. problems ever, nor serious interactive performance problems (though there was the occasional slowdown during editing, probably due to the well-documented memory issues, but they seem to be gone now AFAICT). Only reboots are for Roon updates.

[ExUnoPlura (Mark)]

I just shut off my Nucleus One and migrated to an M4 Macbook Air since we have three properties and I shuffle around between them. Initial hiccups involved extensions needing re-authorization when arriving at a property (TuneShine, Apple TV:Remote). Clearly extension authorizations do not migrate with backups.

Other than that, all works swimmingly over WiFi with only occasional hiccups! I turned off sleep when plugged in, obviously. I added a keyboard shortcut to lock screen with Command-L that blanks display and that keeps Roon Server active. I almost always plug in to an external monitor at destination.

[Wade_Oram]

I’m still using the NUC11TNHi7 that I originally bought to run Roon when I had finished my evaluation.

Initially I put the NUC together with 16GByte of DRAM (2x8GByte), a 256GByte NVME SSD and a 1TB SATA SSD to build a dedicated Roon Server running RoonOS. However, after some 6 or 7 months, I decided that the machine was underused (Roon does not stress it at all under normal circumstances - I don’t use DSD so the MUSE DSP that I do is lightweight) so I removed the two SSDs (so that I could easily go back to RoonOS if I wanted to) replacing them with a 2TB NVME SSD (that I had spare after a desktop computer upgrade) and installed DietPi and used that to host Roon Server and Plex (as well as a couple of other lightweight services). Additionally, I moved the NUC motherboard into an Akasa Plato case for truly silent operation. In both configurations I have always had all my music media files stored directly on the Roon Server (although I have backups on a NAS) in order to minimise network traffic when using Roon. I have always stored my music media files (FLAC) directly on the Roon Server.

Over the course of the last 3 years, I have upgraded my network substantially. The early parts of this network upgrade are documented in the thread at:

Network Upgrade Journey

16 months ago, I started subscribing to Roon and added an ARCAM ST60 and a NUC11TNHi7 to my network in the lounge (connected to the same 8 port 1GBe switch as my TV, BluRayHDD recorder and 4Kplayer). At the time, ethernet was distributed around my house using a high performance homeplug (2400Mbps nominal). The router and all swithes (including those in the home plug devices) were limited to 1Gbps). Subsequently, I added three Raspberry Pis for additional audio endpoints. At that time, my networ…

The initial use of powerline adapters meant that it was, at that time, important that I minimized Roon network traffic over powerline and, to this end, I made sure that all my Roon local library media files were stored locally on the Roon Server. I have continued this practice although it is no longer necessary but anything that reduces network traffic is good in principle.

Subsequent to the upgrades detailed in this thread, my router has also been upgraded to a home built router running Opnsense on a mini PC connected to a Zyxel XMG1915-18EP layer 2 managed switch with a further Zyxel XMG 1915-10E layer 2 managed switch in the lounge. The XMG-108 (unmanaged) is now moved to replace the QNAP switch that I was previously using to support a headphone station in the lounge. The network now looks like this:

For Wifi, I use a single Zyxel WiFi AP which provides decent coverage over the whole house. In the context of Roon, WiFi is generally only used for control although I do still have a couple of endpoints that are Wifi connected that get used occasionally.

The wired part of my network now looks like:

Thus, all switch to switch links are running at 10Gbps and all of the switches support up to 2.5GBps device connections. The daisy chained switches in the lounge are not ideal but in practice make little difference. I still have sub 500us ping times to my router and, due to the 10GBps switch to switch links, there is no bandwidth bottleneck.

I also run 4 VLans - The main one for most devices (including all Roon associated devices), a dedicated VLAN for my VOIP phones (with high priority network packet switching), one for WiFi guest access and the last for IOT devices (both wired and Wifi).

Endpoints are:

• An ARCAM ST60 (Roon Ready) connected to the same XMG1915-10E switch as the Roon Server for my main listening station.
• A wired Ethernet Raspberry Pi (running Roon Bridge on DietPi) connected to a FIIO K9 Pro (ESS) using USB.
• Three more Raspberry Pi’s (also running Roon Bridge on DietPi) with a selection of audio HATs one of which is connected by Wifi.
• A JBL Charge5 Wifi (Roon Ready)
• Occaisionally (but rarely), one or other of my computers.

All endpoints employ RAAT.

This system has proved to be near faultless. Roon has worked exceptionally reliably (apart from a couple of occasions when I had network issues - the most recent of which was caused by an SFP+ module providing one end of a 10GBit link between switches deciding it could not cope with the 38 Celcius ambient temperatures in the house during the recent heatwave and deciding to continuously drop the link and renegotiate it

As a caveat to my experience, it should be said that, by the standards of many on this forum, my library (both local and streaming) is quite small.

[safesurfer (Michael K.)]

Here a standard Mac Mini M2 with 8GB RAM is running headless as Roon Core connected to a Netgear switch, that is connected directly to my main streamer, an Auralic Altair G2.2. Both are connected to via the switch to a Fritz.Repeater 3000 which is connecting the devices via another Fritz.Repeater 3000 AX via Mesh WiFi to my Fritz.Box in the Souterrain to my 1Gbit cable internet connection. The Mac Mini is handling my Roon library easily and is rebooted occasionally when the Roon memory leak is too high. Amphetamine keeps the Mac Mini alive 24/7, so I use ARC when I’m on the go - the configuration of my Fritz.Box works perfectly for ARC, so that I don’t need additional VPN for it.

Streaming is done via Tidal and my local all Flac 1.000 album collection on a Synology DS225+ in the Souterrain. Mostly this WiFi based setup is working stable without any glitches, except with 192/24 tracks here and there.

[Mischa (Michael Ewen)]

Silent Angel Rhein Z1 Plus (Roon Server) an Silent Angel Bonn N8C Switch und Silent Angel Forester F2 Netzteil

[simon_pepper]

Store Room
For ROON

• NUC7i7DNKE (same board as a RevB Nucleus+), 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 RAM, 250GB PCI Gen3 NVMe SSD running ROCK with 100W LPS 19v PSU

For Library, a collection of basic NAS unit, just for network storage and rsync based backups

• Netgear ReadyNAS Pro 2 2GB with 2 x 10GB HDDs in RAID1 (main NAS) bonded dual GbE connections, 100W LPS 12v PSU
• Netgear ReadyNAS 2GB Ultra 2 with 2 x 8GB HDDs in RAID1 (1st backup NAS) bonded dual GbE connection
• Netgear ReadyNAS Duo with 2x2GB HDDs in RAID1 (overflow backup NAS)
• A legacy Linksys NSLU2 with 2x1GB HDDs (misc backup)
• Offline USB3 RAID0 enclosure with 2x6GB HDDs (archive backup)

All on a APC UPS with network signaling & 8-port Netgear GbE managed switch with port priority set on ROCK & primary NAS connections. IOT devices are on a separate Netgear switch.
Both switches are on 30W LPS 12v PSU.

The utility room which has the 4-way port panel has the CISCO Gateway router and WiFi AP

Looked at 2.5B networking, which would involved new Gateway router and ‘backbone’ switch to the ROCK sever & NAS units, but would it realise greater throughput, when no devices have 2.5B ports yet? The fastest transfer times are determined by HDD based read/write speeds. A 12TB SDD based NAS solution is prohibitively expensive at present.
The WiFi AP is 802.11be with 2.4, 5 & 6 GHz bands and delivers 1 Gb/s connectivity to WiFi 6E/7 devices.

[QqQ]

Seeing other’s great responses, I realized I focused on my OS and software solution and neglected to mention my hardware, which is overkill for a Roon server but certainly snappy. This PC was originally built as a hobby project with my child who has now become a teen and moved on to girls.

Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (MS-7C91)

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

• Graphics (GPU): Integrated AMD Radeon Vega Series Graphics

• Memory (RAM): 32 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro SL 2x16GB DDR4

• PSU: Corsair CX650F RGB, 650W Bronze Fully Modular

• Networking:

  • Ethernet: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller

  • Wi-Fi: MediaTek MT7921K (RZ608) Wi-Fi 6E

• Storage: Internal SSD: 500 GB WD Blue SN570 NVMe SSD

  • Removable Storage: 128 GB USB Flash Drive for daily Roon backup.

[Mike_O_Neill]

@QqQ

a teen and moved on to girls.

Far more dangerous a hobby

[oobaa (Peter)]

Mac Studio (Tahoe) with an 8Tb Thunderbolt 4 drive for music storage (backed up to NAS and remote site). I have a second Roon instance in another property, again running on a Mac with thunderbolt DAS (synced to the master file store)

I use the Mac for Media Library management & metadata - J.River mediaCenter, Plex Client and Video Conferencing

160,000 local files lossless

Core system Ethernet and “casual” listening speaker and remotes are WiFi
Tailscale for ease of RoonArc access

Endpoints: Mark Levinson 519, WiiM Ultra, Sonos wireless

Generally rock solid - maybe a reboot every 3 - 4 weeks but not caused by Roon

[Philip_Holt]

Lenovo m920q Tiny with 16GB memory, 256GB boot volume, 2TB storage volume, and Sonnet USB card, running Roon on the current version of Debian. It’s connected to local Ethernet. I use Cockpit to manage the server. It all backs up nightly to the cloud and a local NAS. It’s been 100% reliable and Roon has been faultless for me. Boring. Boring is good.

[QqQ]

Exactly. In the world of servers and investment portfolios, boring is good.

[Seth_Engstrom (Seth)]

TIDAL >> AT&T Fiber >> Deco XE75 mesh >> Mac Mini M4 >> USB-C >> Violectric V226 >> HD-800s or >>Sonos

Works well for me!

[Steve_Haney]

I run Roon on a Ubuntu 26.02 LTS VM in my Proxmox cluster. NAS share for music files. I created a handy script to email me a daily Roon performance report - some may find it useful. It can be downloaded here: Steve-Haney/roon-log-report.sh at main · Steve-Haney/Steve-Haney · GitHub

Sample report: