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Screw it, I’ll host it myself

markozivanovic.com

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Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#431

Post by MrDresden »

j1elo wrote: post #210
dr-smooth wrote: post #189

The problem I have always had when building elaborate home server setups is the "set it and forget it" nature of the systems I've installed bites me in the ass. Since it's not my full-time job to manage these systems, I'm really not familiar with them the way I might be with the systems I manage at work. These systems cruise along for years, and when something finally does go belly-up, I can't remember how I set it u…

Oh and don't forget that now maybe you make everything work, but in two years time your setup won't be reproducible, because chances are the original images are not available any more, they got deleted from Docker Hub some months after you used them. Yeah, you should update them anyway for security... but the setup itself is not reproducible, and being forced to use the latest version of something, with the new idios…

I mean, you should always have a backup of your dependencies (up to reason).

I develop mobile applications, and use SonarType's Nexus repository storage as my primary dependency resolver. Everytime I fetch a new dependency it gets cached.

A monthly script then takes care of clearing out any cached dependencies which are not listed in any tagged version of my applications.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#432

Post by lucideer »

NorwegianDude wrote: post #392
lucideer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading through it all, I think this is more a condemnation of the author's diagram (or at least their decision to put that particular one up-front), than of their process in general, nor the challenge. Breakdown of (my) issues with the diagram: - author's interaction with each device is explicitly included, adding unnecessary noise - "partial" and "full" real-time sync are shown as separate processes, whereas…

Doesn't look very simplified on mobile, that's for sure.

As much as I love the way HN's design goes against many trending "UX" conventions, I think the long-time refusal to put in very very basic simple fixes like this one is bizarre.

The messed up presentation on mobile is 100% a mobile bug, for which there is a very easy fix on the dev side, and no good workaround on the commenter side.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#433

Post by tjpnz »

I'm currently working on a MVP for a mobile app with a small Python server side component. In the past I would've spun it up on AWS or GCP but this time I've decided to challenge myself to see how cheaply I can validate my idea.

After a few hours of work I got it running on an old Raspberry Pi which I then exposed to the internet with some NAT rules and Duck DNS. Not sure how well this approach would work for something more complex but I'm very happy to have put some old hardware (previously in a box and gathering dust) to work again.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#434

Post by selfhoster11 »

coldtea wrote: post #266
papaf wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These systems cruise along for years, and when something finally does go belly-up, I can't remember how I set it up in the first place. This happened a few times to me over the years and then I was lucky enough to go on a packer/terraform course. Now everything is scripted and stored in git. A Gitlab job rebuilds the VMs from scratch every two weeks to include the latest bugfixes and updates. It was a lot of work at…

Now you have N problems... What happens when those images are not available, terraform/packer change APIs, etc?

The solution is keeping a local mirror of all images and artifacts, and version pinning for stability (along with a periodic revision of version numbers to the latest stable version).

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#435

Post by selfhoster11 »

skynet-9000 wrote: post #339
trulyme wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but when the original docker image is no longer available on docker hub, chances are there will be something better and even easier to setup. And with docker you don't care about installing / uninstalling apps and figuring out where that obscure setting was hidden - all you need is just a stock distro and a bunch of docker-compose.yml files, plus some mounted directories with the actual data.

But a lot of those unofficial docker images are of unknown quality and could easily contain trojans. It's completely different from installing a package from your distro.

On the plus side, the Dockerfile and the repo with the scripts used to build a container is usually available. If you don't trust it, read through the source and rebuild it. Or just stick to official containers, no matter how terrible they are.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#436

Post by selfhoster11 »

deckard1 wrote: post #302
mooman219 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long term platform stability seems to be moving from relying on the OS to higher up in the stack with the advent of Docker. It feels like Docker is being used more and more in cases where I would have considered something like CentOS.

Docker feels like the equivalent of the teenager that doesn't want to clean his room so he just pushes all his mess under the bed. The complexity is still under the bed. We're all going to have to dig under that bed one day. Or we're just going to end up buying new hockey sticks, football pads, etc. Which is to say, we're going to end up with Linux on top of Docker on top of Linux.

If your application doesn't rely on hardware details (such as GPU acceleration or networking) that bypasses well-defined OS APIs, it's actually a very good approach.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#437

Post by imtringued »

deckard1 wrote: post #302
mooman219 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long term platform stability seems to be moving from relying on the OS to higher up in the stack with the advent of Docker. It feels like Docker is being used more and more in cases where I would have considered something like CentOS.

Docker feels like the equivalent of the teenager that doesn't want to clean his room so he just pushes all his mess under the bed. The complexity is still under the bed. We're all going to have to dig under that bed one day. Or we're just going to end up buying new hockey sticks, football pads, etc. Which is to say, we're going to end up with Linux on top of Docker on top of Linux.

It's closer to owning a car factory making disposable cars and getting a new one when it gets dirty. At some point your supplier shuts down and you cannot make a specific part anymore, which prevents you from building another car. You are now stuck with the dirty car.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#438

Post by [deleted] »

nine_k wrote: post #364
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author focuses the entire blog post on remote third party services that are alternatives to popular third party services financed by data collection as a "business model". IMO, the single most important component of a home network is not any piece of the hardware/software outside the home that the third parties may control, it is the internet gateway in the home. Routers were the most important computers at the d…

I wonder how much a gateway router can do here. Most of the data passing it are encrypted: https, SSH. Cutting off the phone-home requests is best done on respective devices: you can run firewalls on most desktops and laptops, and even phones. Рhones often go online via GSM or LTE, without passing through the home router. While a proxy like pihole can be helpful sometimes, cutting off tracking and ads is done best by…

[deleted]

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#439

Post by MrDresden »

FunnyLookinHat wrote: post #4

The diagram alone is more than enough of an argument to dissuade me from giving this a shot right now - it's simply too complicated and too much to manage for the amount of time I can dedicate to it. BUT - I'm really thankful for people who keep posting and sharing these sorts of projects; they're the ones iterating the process for the rest of us who need something a bit more turn-key. I'm excited to see this eventua…

Like has been pointed out, this can (and probably should) be done over time.

I have migrated from using cloud provided storage to Nextcloud (been running that for over 4 years now without issues), and have my calendar and contacts in there as well.

My ongoing task is to fully migrate all my images, videos and calibre library from Dropbox to other self hosted entities.

It is a process made over a long time.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#440

Post by [deleted] »

ziml77 wrote: post #58
imwillofficial wrote: post #26

Ok, I’m SUPER into self hosting, but this article? No way. 1) Duck out isn’t a thing, just stop it. 2) Half the articles cited as examples of corporate abuse were later revealed to be mistakes by the user or easily avoidable pitfalls. 3) Self hosting still requires trust (software you’re running, DNS, domains, ISP, etc...) The line of who to trust and how far is a tough one to answer, even for the informed. How I sol…

I am perpetually confused about why people think that self-hosting on a VPS solves their privacy and security problems. While I'm sure there are controls in place at reputable VPS providers, it wouldn't be too difficult for them to grab absolutely anything they want. Even disk encryption doesn't save you. You're in a VM, they can watch the memory if they need to. Using a VPS can also make you more identifiable. Your…

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