I want to get into self-hosting. I’ve done a bit of self-hosting before using a Raspberry Pi (pi-hole and Discord bots) but I really want to start self-hosting almost everything I can like I’ve seen many people here doing.
However, I’m not sure what kind of machine I should build which would be suitable for these purposes. I’ve never even built a PC before though my fiancee has and he will be able to help me…
Here are some services I’m thinking of self-hosting to start with:
- AdGuard
- OpenMediaVault
- Bitwarden
- Mastodon
- Matrix
Eventually I would also like to host PeerTube, Kbin, Plex, and many other things…
What are the most important things I’ll need to consider with a self-hosting machine, and what I will need to upgrade over time as I self-host more services? Ideally I’d like a machine which is as energy efficient as possible too.
Also, is it a good idea to host so many services, both publically-accessible websites as well as services only available on my home network, from the same machine? What are the security considerations when self-hosting?
Any links/articles for me to read would be appreciated too!
Agreed with everyone saying to use what you have.
If you need to put together a new machine, I’d get a Bee-link SER5 (~260), 64 GB RAM (~140), and a 2TB SSD (~125) for ~525-550 all in. Install Proxmox and that would support several VMs running docker to do whatever you wanted for a while, and you could scale horizontally in the future if you outgrow it.
Use docker, I’m running 25 docker containers on my Nas, 6 of them which are internet accessible with 8gb RAM. You don’t need a massive server/machine that costs 300$ a year to run. Somw co tainera are Adguard, Emby, Guacamole, firefly, etc Learn docker and have fun!
Yes, it’s a great idea. And I also do it myself. In fact, I’m not only self host all my services. I also host them at my home.
https://server.melroy.org including all the sub domains are all hosted on the same server.
You can just use a good ryzen computer with enough ram (start with 32 gb or something). With enough storage. Redundancy via raid. I personally use Proxmox with an Ubuntu 22.04 VM. However bare metal may be also fine.
Have fun!
What application did you use for the server page?
While https://melroy.org is using Jekyll https://gitlab.melroy.org/melroy/melroy-site. And my blog https://blog.melroy.org is using Hugo https://gitlab.melroy.org/melroy/melroy-blog
I’ll look at those, do you suggest selfhosting webpages over something like GitHub?
I do. I love to self host everything I can. I like to have control over my own data. I host my own GitLab instance. I host my own Nextcloud instance. Running Mastodon, Kbin, Matrix, you name it… All my DNS records point to my server IP.
ps. I’m also a contributor to kbin.
How do you feel about Cloudflare Zero Trust?
I don’t like that the whole world need Cloudflare to be honest. My vision of a free and open WWW should not include a big centralized corporation like Cloudflare. Instead of fixing the Internet and DDoS attacks, we just move all to Cloudflare?
Whether it’s zero trust or WAN, CDN or firewall solutions. I want everyone to be able to participate in the internet, to run their own infrastructure ideally without Cloudflare or cloud services in general. In fact, that is why I also try to create https://libreweb.org. The world needs a better internet, whatever that may look like.
I do want to move closer and closer to completely selfhosted for anything possible, but the knowledge required seems to never end, so I settle for things like Cloudflare Zero Trust to fill in the gaps.
One think you need to check before is your upload speed. Without a good one, it will essentially be useless outside of your home.
As for the computer, definitely buy something that can do virtualization, I’ve heard that some motherboard can’t (never seen one, maybe it’s an old thing).
And last, even an old computer can be good for self-hosting, except the plex / jellyfin video, almost everything is static webpages with databases. You can upgrade later just by changing the components, add more storage… You can even copy your entire system to a new computer if you change entirely.Is it a good idea to host so many services, both publically-accessible websites as well as services only available on my home network, from the same machine?
You can use Caddy’s reverse proxy to have easy https + not opening ports from your router and have something like plex.mydomain.com / mastodon.mydomain.com. And you’ll have no trouble hosting differents services from the same machines. I believe it is not a problem to have multiples services on the same computer.
What are the security considerations when self-hosting?
I’m not an expert, but never use the default password when installing a service. And keep your stuffs up to date. https is important too, but is often automatic when using a reverse proxy.
If you have more question no problems :)
Wait, that’s awesome. I moved and my net network is CG/NAT so I have no port forwarding without a VPN. Will caddy allow me to get around that and actually use Plex remote?
I’m not sure about Plex, it is not really 100% self hosting, because authentication come from their server. You should try and see if it works. But their is no reason it should not. It’s just an addition in your caddyfile :
plex.mydomain.com { reverse_proxy 192.168.0.123:32400 (your address:port) }However, i can assure you it works with Jellyfin.
Thank you kindly! I’ll have to look into it and see but it sounds like it may be exactly what I’ve been looking for.
