mosspiglet

Stepping Up to Self-Hosting

· #askfedi, #homelab, #selfhosting

I got into Android at the beginning, with a pre-order of the T-Mobile G1, because I never liked the proprietary-everything ecosystem Apple built with the iPhone. I was geniunely excited about the potential of an open-source mobile OS, even if it was coming from a billionaire-owned tech giant. I rooted my Android phones and flashed custom ROMs to them for years. It was a blast. Then Google and Samsung started closing out that scene, and I lost the excitement that had drawn me in at the beginning. That sense of potential evaporated.

Years later, I found myself drawn back to open-source stuffs when I stumbled into the Fediverse. I love the sense of possiblity that pervades the Fediverse and FOSS projects in general. I've been hopping around for a few years now, trying different instaces running different software, and it's this Fedi project—littleFedi—that made me feel like now is the time for me to try my hand at hosting my own stuff. I know the code isn't ready for me yet, but that's okay because I need time to research self-hosting options. I'm hoping the Fedi can help with some of that.

I'm not a programmer or a techie—perhaps call me an advanced user. From my reading, I feel confident that I could manage self-hosting from a VPS. Honestly, though, I'd prefer my own hardware at home. The problem is that there are a lot of options, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I thought I'd share what I want from my hardware, at minimum, and see if some helpful Fedizens have suggestions. So here's what I want:

  • A Nextcloud instance for file storage. I have hundreds of gigabytes of music, videos, and photos, and I want a place to store all of that in the cloud.
  • A chat client. Maybe Nextcloud Talk, but I'm also thinking about a Matrix server. Just haven't read much about self-hosting Matrix yet.
  • A Fediverse client. I had been thinking of WordPress with the ActivityPub plugin because I like having the option to write long blog posts as well as short status posts; however, I'm now thinking that I'll run a littleFedi instance once the code is published.
  • Email. Because if I'm going to be hosting my own cloud storage, chat, and social media, I might as well take care of my own email as well.

I have limited physical space in my cabin out here in Bumblefuck, so I've been looking at mini PCs. I see that Nextcloud even sells some with Nextcloud preconfigured, but I'm not sure any of those are for me. I prefer Linux, but I'm comfortable with installing Linux on a machine that ships with Windows. (Done that with several of my old laptops.) I'll consider a Mac mini if y'all recommend one, but it's been a decade-plus since I've messed around with macOS.

I won't be making a quick decision here, so as long as this blog is still published without an update, I'm still looking for options and I would still appreciate tips, suggestions, and stories about your own self-hosting adventures.

Be good to yourself, and be good to others 🫶

@homelab@fedigroups.social

Replies

  1. @schmic@hessen.social ·

    @pluvialgeist @homelab I'm self-hosting for years. Home-Assistant, Vaultwarden, Pi-Hole, to just name a few services.

    I've never opened any service to the internet. There is no reason to do so. Do yourself a favor and don't do email at home, at least not by opening SMTP to the internet, your provided might not allow it anyway.

    1/2

    1. @schmic@hessen.social ·

      To start, get an old(er) laptop, throw Linux on it and fiddle with it. The most important part: backup & recovery for everything. If someone else relies on your services, think about what happens when you are not available (anymore).

      2/2

  2. @deach@hachyderm.io ·

    @pluvialgeist @homelab

    All the stuff you’re listing right now could easily fit on a single mini pc, they take very little resources (although Nextcloud is known to be a bit of a pig in that regard). Still, anything from 2015 onwards should basically be fine. 8gb ram is a good starting point I think (ideally in a single stick so you can easily upgrade to 16 when you need to).

    Linux is a good choice, again, almost anything will work or if you don’t have any yet, Debian is usually rocksolid and Fedora is also a good choice.

    I would however strongly advise against running your own mail server. It is a massive pain due to the large providers constantly blacklisting home email providers, particularly on residential ISPs. Do some research on the topic, there are people who do it but my email is so fundamental to my online life that I prefer to pay Fastmail some bucks every year to make sure it really is working well and that I don’t have to spend hours upon hours managing it.

    If you got any more specific questions, feel free to ask.

    1. @pluvialgeist ·

      @deach@hachyderm.io of the Linux distros, I was thinking Debian would probably be best for my homelab setup. Not familiar with Fedora, but I'll look into it as an option, thanks 🙏

      I'll also take your caution about email seriously. I wasn't even aware that some ISPs might block that. I'll look into Fastmail as an option, but I donate to Disroot to host some of my stuff now, including email, so maybe I'll just keep that as-is.

      Regarding Nextcloud's resource hogging: Do you have any recommendations for alternative cloud storage solutions? What I like about Nextcloud is that it has apps that do two-way syncing of folders. I use that to sync my Obsidian vaults across devices.

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