this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Programming is great.
On that note, kinda similar: Selfhost your services. There is a lot of cool software that you can run on your old computer, or on a more dedicated machine. A file storage, a media server, your very own AI server, the lost is endless.
I'd like to learn more about how to do this. I've got a home theater PC I've been using as a NAS via simple windows & samba file sharing, but I'd like to expand that to tools like Jellyfin and potentially something like writefreely or a podcasting platform for others to enjoy. I've looked it up cursorily but would appreciate if you could share additional resources my way in developing my own server here as well. (All good if you don't have any to share, I can just google as well I suppose)
Sure I can talk a little. First things first: If you're hosting on windows, you should probably use a different OS.
If you're looking for something easily manageable, there is a couple of specifically made systems made for easy administration, True as comes to mind, but that's not what I use.
If you're more proficient, or ready to learn, you should really have a Linux distro on your server. I recommend Debian 12, but there is many valid choices.
When setting this kind of system up, the essential service that you want to run all the time is SSH, as that's how you will configure and use the server. On Debian 12, you can just check a box in the installer and it will set up ssh for you.
After that, you don't need a screen or keyboard on your server anymore, just go to any of your work stations and go
ssh user@(your server IP)and boom you get a shell on your server.Okay, so now what? Think about what you want to host. Then just look up the documentation of your stuff. Learn Docker, as it will make hosting way easier. If you're a friend of the visual click click interface, you'd probably want portainer.
With docker, you can host a ton of service without actually having to do a lot of configuring with them. Want to host a database? Marinade Want to host a media server? Plex
Okay, now you probably think that sounds way too complicated and are about to get demotivated. Now you see, the most important thing is to start. If you set it up yourself, your first server will be a mess, and that's okay. You will scream at docker because it does weird things, you will scream because your Webserver finally connects with the database and you can play your music and you will break things to the point where you will just reinstall. It's a great learning experience.
Some time later, you will just go "hey that service sounds cool", copy some compose file, tweak it a bit, and boom you hosted a new service in a couple minutes.
About ressources: I mostly use just what's provided by the stuff I want to use. A lot of my information that goes directly to the act of hosting comes from Readme files in git repositories or descriptions on docker hub. Besides that, search for things you encounter.
In general, I've found the first party documentation of the things I use in tech to be the most reliable, but that seems not for everyone.
There isn't a magic central Ressource, besides your head when you remember doing something before. Selfhosting/Homelab communities on Reddit or now Lemmy can help with ideas.