I’ve been around selfhosting most of my life and have seen a variety of different setups and reasons for selfhosting. For myself, I don’t really self host as mant services for myself as I do infrastructure. I like to build out the things that are usually invisible to people. I host some stuff that’s relatively visible, but most of my time is spent building an over engineered backbone for all the services I could theoretically host. For instance, full domain authentication and oversight with kerberized network storage, and both internal and public DNS.
The actual services I host? Mail and vaultwarden, with a few (i.e. < 3) more to come.
I absolutely do not need the level of infrastructure I need, but I honestly prefer that to the majority of possible things I could host. That’s the fun stuff to me; the meat and potatoes. But I know some people do focus more on the actual useful services they can host, or on achieving specific things with their self hosting. What types of things do you host and why?
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I’ve seen a few mentions of PiHole and AdguardHome, I started on PiHole, then moved to AdguardHome for adblocking. Then I heard about and have been using TechnitiumDNS server which is sort of overkill for our needs, but with the right ad-lists, it is fantastic at blocking advertisements on my home network. Super fast install too, even on a Raspberry Pi 2 :) I run that along with Proxmox-VE (Protected behind OIDC Login) and several other containers on my cranky old Dell Desktop server.
Mostly Vaultwarden, and a few other services for home private use such as PairDrop for inter system sharing and a self destructing file sharing server for when we need to send documents to our Attorney’s (rarely but sometimes we need to) office via Pingvin.
I also run:
- Home Assistant
- Transmission Dockerized so I can help contribute to the Linux community and share the ISO’s.
- For some of my externalized sites, I run Authentik It acts sort of like a Reverse Proxy if you configure it to do so. I love that I can simply identify myself with my WebAuthn device skipping any passwords. :)
With Authentik setup, I can login to things like my Fresh Tomato Router TechnitiumDNS (Both use HTTP Auth headers) and Memos which uses OIDC/SSO. It’s meant to replace our Google Keep notes.
- Tailscale is installed and I connect to it from my phone when away from home to always stay on my network. Sometimes, hotspots block it so I generally avoid those as much as possible.
- Wallos to help keep track of our re-occuring subscriptions.
- Grafana and Promethus - both are staged and ready for configuration and one of those I will get around to eventually.
- InfluxDB - I plan on moving Home Assistsant logging soon to that which should tie nicely into Grafana later.
- Ben Phelps’ Homepage - it’s my main server dashboard my wife and I use to access our server. Quite simply one of the best dashboards IMHO.
- Wyze Cam Bridge - One of the better services in which you can log into your Wyze cams and convert their streams to RTSP, RTMP or HLS streams easily. I have that feed to my Home Assistant Security Dashboard.
- Baserow It’s a good Airtable alternative and I use it to keep track of my Static IP assignments, Sleep tracker (I suffer from insomnia), and other data points. It’s pretty amazing. I even created a pain logging for for my wife so she just accesses it and answers basic questions about her pain levels and it pushes it to the database for later retrieval.
- Joplin Server - Sorry, I don’t have the link, but it’s installed via compose. I use Joplin Notes on my phone and computer for keeping my code snippets. I’ve tried Obsidian and it didn’t really meet my needs and Also Anytype, but that’s not self-hosted. Joplin server is for me and that’s become handy a time or two when on the road.
- Bookstack - my grand plan for that is to build a Wiki for my family to use in the event something should happen to me, they can know how to manage the server with nice screenshots and instructional steps. I have that protected behind Authentik’s OIDC logins.
- IT-Tools - hands down one of the coolest self hosted tool sets you can use.
- Webcheck - All-in-one OSINT tool for analyzing any website https://web-check.xyz/ is their demo site. :)
- Stirling PDF - Kind of like a Swiss-army knife for PDF’s. :)
- Dozzle - For those times with you really need to see what your Docker logs and too lazy do run a
docker logs -followcommand.
I still use Portainer-CE and am happy there, I may try Dockage or the others, but it’s fine for what I need it for (It’s also protected by OIDC)
I’m sure I may have missed a few, but this post has gone on long enough. :)
A bunch of people recommend dozzle in this thread… I’ve been using Dockge. I wonder how they compare. I’ll have to check that out later.
Dozzle is just log viewing plain and simple. Dockge shows more that’s all I know. I tested Dockge earlier on in development and haven’t been back since, I know it’s grown a lot more since.
IT-Tools - hands down one of the coolest self hosted tool sets you can use.
Looks similar to Cyberchef. Any reason to use that one over Cyberchef?
Cyberchef, I’ve looked at but honestly for me, IT Tools works best for my needs so it’s all good on my end.
All of the services that I host are for private use:
- Nextcloud
- FreshRSS
- Immich
- Jellyfin
- RSSBridge
And they are all behind Caddy, which reverse proxies and handles HTTPS. I’m not sure if it really counts as self-hosting, but I also use my server as a host for my backups with Borg. I also use it as a sort of central syncing point for Syncthing.
I did have a Pi-Hole at one point, but I kept running into issues with it — I may look into it again in the future.
At some point I’d like to try implementing some ideas that I’ve had for Homeassistant (a camera server with Frigate and some other automation things). Once federation has been implemented, I would like to host a Forgejo instance. I may also host a Simplex relay server, depending on how the app progresses. I’ve been considering hosting a Matrix instance, but I’m not sure yet.
(Preface: almost all of this is handled in a single Nix config, and no docker in use at all)
At home, in a two-hosts Proxmox cluster:
- blocky for adblocking
- a full *arr stack with torrents and nzbs for uuuuuuhhh Linux ISOs
- Jellyfin so friends and family can watch, I mean use the Linux ISOs
- Paperless (HIGHLY recommend)
- Wastebin (Pastebin alternative)
- Sterling-PDF (also really recommend, allowed me to get rid of Acrobat Reader for filling out and signing PDFs, plus a bunch more)
- Homeassistant
- Linux and Windows clients available for whenever you might need them (not often, but can come in handy)
- Borg client, backing up parts of my NAS to a cloud storage box
- OPNSense backup for the hardware firewall
- Forgejo
On a bare metal machine at a reputable cloud provider:
- my personal Email, Calendar, Contacts (super easy with Nix)
- another blocky instance
- another borg client
- Rustdesk server (OSS Teamviewer)
- wireguard that’s just used by my TV so crunchyroll thinks it’s in (other country), Lmao
Wishlist:
- Vaultwarden
- Immich, once added to nixpkgs
- PeerTube
- Pixelfed
If you want to keep everything inside a singular Nix configuration while still using Docker, you can check out the NixOS option
virtualisation.oci-containers- essentially, a declarative way of managing docker/podman containers (similar to docker-compose) but with Nix.I know it’s been three weeks, but thanks for telling me about this! I might actually do this, for the projects here and there which aren’t packaged into nixpkgs (yet).
Any chance you could share any of your Nix config? I’m curious how it’s being used with Proxmox (I’m using ansible and terraform right now).
I thought about adding a link, but am a bit hesitant to de-anonymize myself on here 😅
But it’s basically this:
- Proxmox is not Nix configured. There’s a project for that, but IMO t’ll take a couple of years to be ready for production.
- I’ve created a custom nix module that essentially just sets my default values for stuff like bios type, boot order,… And allows to set CPU cores, RAM, IP,…
- all this does though is just setting the corresponding values from the nixos-generators proxmox output
- additionally, all the usual stuff is handled (user, known ssh keys, base config of the system)
- for each VM, I only have a single file containing the VM settings (ID, RAM, cpu, ip,…) and the service config for whatever the VM is for
- then lastly I have a custom script/shell that essentially just allows to do “nixvm-new <flake output name>” which generates the image, moves it to the nas, and calls on proxmox to import the image, plus some cleanup
TBH this sounds way more complicated than it is / feels to use 😄
The main things for me are: Wireguard, NextCloud and an NFS/SMB share and a torrent client (Deluge)
I host way more than I probably should, but everyone should have some stuff like immich, vaultwarden, and nextcloud. I also like to host gitea and 30+ other things (check out netboot.xyz, it isn’t something everyone needs but why wouldn’t you want to be able to boot off the network), but that’s just what some people do as a hobby I guess lol.
I just setup netboot.xyz this evening as an experiment. Is pretty cool.
Jellyfin Plex (I wanted to get rid of it but I found my son’s TV has no Jellyfin client available so I have to keep Plex up for him) Nginx Caddy Ddclient to Cloudflare for my home dynamic IP Syncthing (such an underrated app) Wireguard HomeAssistant Some other stuff that isn’t all that interesting
Public services: my social network(hubzilla), Email(mailcow), Matrix chat, Peertube.
Private: my media (jellyfin, audiobookshelf, calibre, homeassistant.
I enjoy the freedom that comes with this and its like having your own home on the internet. I have a very modest setup but its enough to host my friends and family so nothing fancy like k8s. Just a refurbished optiplex running docker :)
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, automates assignment of IPs when connecting to a network DNS Domain Name Service/System Git Popular version control system, primarily for code HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web HTTPS HTTP over SSL IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol for email IP Internet Protocol LAMP Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP stack for webhosting NAS Network-Attached Storage NFS Network File System, a Unix-based file-sharing protocol known for performance and efficiency NVR Network Video Recorder (generally for CCTV) PiHole Network-wide ad-blocker (DNS sinkhole) Plex Brand of media server package SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native SSD Solid State Drive mass storage SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption SSO Single Sign-On Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand VPN Virtual Private Network VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting) XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (‘Jabber’) for open instant messaging k8s Kubernetes container management package nginx Popular HTTP server
23 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.
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It started with Emby and pihole. I’m now up to about 30 different services from Vault, email, 3CX, home assistant, firefox, podgrab etc.
PiHole, Plex and the related “*arr” apps. I also self-host my home automation platform (Home Assistant).
Me too, except it’s Adguard for me.
Came in handy yesterday actually. I have a friend who works for a University which was recycling some Chromebooks.
He managed to grab 3 for me, one for myself and one for my kids.
Problem is that one of my kids is being supervised through Google Family Link which means for some reason the Play Store won’t work.
So he is now unsupervised in Family Link just to get the Chromebook working.
So I’ve just given both my kids static IPs and pointed their Chromebooks at Adguard, then turned on Safe Search and adult content blocking.
Now I’m fairly confident they’re protected from a lot of the bad shit on the internet.
I’ve configured my kids devices to use NextDNS, that way they are getting filtering no matter what network they use.
AdGuard does what I need internally, it’s just external is the issue. VPN’s are not a solution, my kids are old enough to know they can just disable it to work around it. They don’t know about the Private DNS option that I have configured on their devices… Yet
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Home Assistant
There’s no fucking way I’m using a cloud service to control parts of my home, that just feels so wrong to me on so many levels -
Nextcloud
There’s no way I’m saving my files on someone else’s computer (the Cloud). Even with encryption, it’s expensive. Hard drives are cheap. Put them in a server, install Nextcloud and you have your private, cheap, independent cloud service. -
Immich (currently migrating to Ente) for my photos
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Jellyfin + arr Stack
I’m not paying $100/month for 5 different streaming services to have access to all the content I like. -
Navidrome for my (pirated) music
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Audiobookshelf for audiobooks and podcasts
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Pi-Hole with Unbound set up as a recursive resolver, cause why should I trust someone else with DNS?
I also self-host Matrix or Revolt servers as well as game servers for me and my friends, because it’s much cheaper than getting VPS or a hosted option, and I already have this server that I use for a bunch of other stuff, so I can also just use it for that.
@unrushed233 @erev why are you leaving immich?
Just want to try out self-hosting Ente. I’ve used their cloud-hosted service in the past, and I liked it. Now I discovered that it can be fully self-hosted. But Immich is great as well, I haven’t had any issues with it.
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I want to self host more, but power draw is a concern.
So I have gone the route of running to Pi 4 8gb models as my hosts of choice.
So far I am hosting:
Non-Docker:
- PiHole
- Unbound
- Wireguard (and Wireguard-UI)
Docker:
- ForgeJo
- Dozzle
- Homarr
- LinkWarden
- Traefik
- Watchtower
There are a few other services I want to get up, but I haven’t gotten around to it:
- Jellyfin
- Immich
- Nextcloud
As to why:
- ForgeJo to host my own git repositories (Docker Compose files, Chezmoi dot files, Miscellaneous configs)
- PiHole for ad blocking
- Unbound, well, having my own DNS
- Wireguard so I can connect to my home network
- Dozzle for easy log checking for my docker containers
- Linkwaren so I can backup bookmarks in a privacy friendly way
- Homarr for easy access to other web services I host
- Traefik so I can resolve IP:port to a hostname with SSL certificates even though everything I host is internal only
- Watchtower to update my Docker containers
Really just video for me, I can’t handle paying for streaming anymore.
I’ve been considering the idea of self-hosting lately, especially for my online projects. The thought of having full control over my data and applications is appealing. It seems like a step towards independence and flexibility in managing my online presence. However, I’m still exploring the best way to go about it. I’ve heard about VPS hosting as a potential option, particularly in the USA where reliability and support are crucial. If anyone has experience with buy vps usa and can share insights or recommendations, I’d greatly appreciate it!
I don’t have experience with them. I have been using linode for a few years now and love it!
The actual services I host? Mail
What do you use for that?
What types of things do you host and why?
Self-hosting as in at home, nothing to the outside world and i’m still sorting a local NAS; i have a VPS with a few websites but that’s not self-hosting category i guess.
I’d locally-host media stuff but not even that is that important to me atm. Next on my list is 3-2-1 backups so i can reorganize my setup and eventually selfhost a wiregard VPN to access some data.
I set up a mail stack on Rocky Linux with Postfix, Dovecot, and rspamd. I don’t need a database because it’s all LDAP on the backend, and I don’t have webmail setup right now because I’m lazy. It’s a bit of a hassle to get up and running well but it’s pretty solid and I’m careful about managing my domain reputation so I don’t have any issues with my mail being delivered.
You can use Roundcube for web mail
I just haven’t gotten around to setting it up is all.
What do you use for that?
Because emails can have a boatload of sensitive information (especially when collected en masse, think years and years of emails)… In the day of AI bullshit. Minimizing all that data being directly attached to an account associated with you and owned by google or some other corp seems like a sane desire. If you primary a gmail account… and they start (they probably already are) training on that dataset. Shit is going to get real testy.
If you email to people on gmail or outlook, won’t Google and Microsoft still end up with copies of most of your mail?
Yes, but at the very least they have to do queries to build that profile out across dozens or hundreds of recipients… And they only get what I explicitly sent to them/their users.
Google collects 100% of the emails you’re getting on gmail and it’s already sent directly to you… so they see it completely… including emails being sent to other sources since it originates from their server (so collecting information that would be going to an MS Exchange server as well…).
Self hosting this means that you’re collecting your own shit… And companies can only get the outgoing side to their users. And never the full picture of your systems/emails.
This matters a lot more than you think. Lots of systems for automation sends through systems like Mailchimp, PHPmailer, etc… So those emails from your doctor likely never originated from MS or Google to begin with. When it hits your inbox on Gmail or Outlook… Well now it’s on their system. Now they can analyze it.
