The first is the main library. At the moment, it stores 2 terabytes of movies and TV series and also runs the main frontend and backend components for Jellyfin. On top of this, it also runs a Sonarr, Radar and Prowlarr stack that is connected through nzbget. No reason whatsoever. Don't ask.
The second is a transcoder. As the machine running the main library has no discrete GPU or CPU capable of hardware acceleration, it is the responsibility of Machine #2 to help the main server convert incompatible profiles into compatible ones. My TV has different parts to my laptop, and my phone is the same so it's important to ensure that these all have a consistent experience - this is the purpose of Machine #2.
To top it off is a quite inelegant solution - a Frankenstein's monster of FileZilla and PuTTY and Tailscale. FileZilla allows me to manage the files on both machines via SFTP - which is helpful for moving my movies/shows into the right Jellyfin folders. PuTTY is my SSH client that lets me remotely access my machines. Finally, Tailscale is my method of unifying all of my machines into a private network.
Why write this? It's a cool show-off. Plus, I'm happy to help someone else set it up; it's good fun. I also think that it's a much better way to live besides spending an extra $4.95 to get less commercials on a subscription I already pay for. Not to sound like one of those guys. I pay for iCloud if that helps.