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Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

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41–50 of 242 posts

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#41
post #2

I'm in the process of standing up my own hardware (1U server/some simple compute box + FreeNAS) for doing this. There's a variable I don't understand with self-hosted cloud/storage: what guarantees do you have that they're not peeking at what you store? Why do you trust them over $CORP? Do you encrypt your data at-rest (dm-crypt, fscrypt, etc.), and do block storage providers support this? edit: fix typo

Of course you take care to set up encryption at erst and in transit, it's not that difficult. In case of virtual machines they can still peek at the memory of your system just like AWS and others, the question is why would they take the trouble.

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#42
Don't expect too much from Nextcloud – it will not be a 1:1 replacement for commercial services from Google, Microsoft, etc.

Prepare to spend much time debugging, configuring, reading tickets, etc. If you only want files and Cloud office, consider using alternatives like Seafile[1] or the new OwnCloud rewrite in Go called OCIS[2], which are MUCH more stable than Nextcloud.

[1]: https://www.seafile.com/en/home/ [2]: https://github.com/owncloud/ocis

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#43
Get a Raspberry Pi 4 and install https://umbrel.com on it. Easy to set up using Tailscale and optional TOR support if that's something you want. And it has all the "important" stuff like Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, Pi-hole, Matrix server, etc.

There's a bunch of Bitcoin related Apps as well but it's easy to just ignore those.

Full list of "apps" here: https://github.com/getumbrel/umbrel-apps

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI for anyone in the US, this means they're going to ask you for some sensitive information like a copy of your passport. Even worse, they're probably going to wait until after you've given them all your registration details, including your credit card information, to ask for it.

I’ve been a Scaleway user for years and they don’t have anything except for my CC info, where did you get the idea of sending a copy of your passport from? FWIW I’ve never had to send my ID or passport to any European service provider.

Scaleway asked me for a copy of my Dutch passport too which I refused, and then they limited the services available to the long-time active business account this was for.

Neither their docs or two separate support agents I spoke had any information on why it was necessary, where the copy would end up, how long it would be kept, etc. which seemed very fishy and is totally illegal.

This was about a year ago.

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#45
post #2

I'm in the process of standing up my own hardware (1U server/some simple compute box + FreeNAS) for doing this. There's a variable I don't understand with self-hosted cloud/storage: what guarantees do you have that they're not peeking at what you store? Why do you trust them over $CORP? Do you encrypt your data at-rest (dm-crypt, fscrypt, etc.), and do block storage providers support this? edit: fix typo

99% of people are never going to have anyone interested in anything they do, but if you're really paranoid you'd want to host everything at home and use a VPN or cloud server to redirect to it.

However, if you go with a really small cloud/server provider, you may run the risk of a bored employee poking around. The larger ones will have auditing in place to catch stuff like that.

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#46
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tailscale works great for this application.

I second this. I was using a Cloudflare Tunnel, which worked but meant I had to jump through some hoops setting up an email auth flow that then sent me a verification code Now I use Tailscale (which is free for a single-user account) and it works excellently, without the Cloudflare dependency. No login necessary through the browser like with Cloudflare Tunnel, because you're already authed with Tailscale on the devic…

I use this with Resilio Sync and custom dns names from Tailscale Magic DNS - life saver!

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#48
post #37
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The experience needs to be more like installing an app on a phone or a game on a console and with automated backups and easy restore. Self hosting will never come back if we are still expecting people to manage servers like it’s 1985. I think part of the problem is that this is exactly the kind of stuff that is not fun. It’s that boring middle layer between the OS and apps. Compounding the problem is the fact that th…

> The experience needs to be more like installing an app on a phone or a game on a console and with automated backups and easy restore. Self hosting will never come back if we are still expecting people to manage servers like it’s 1985. It exists: https://yunohost.org/#/ . Install the distro, and then it's all clickety-clicks for all your apps (which are softwares like nextcloud, cryptpad, bitwarden, bitter, etc..)

Cannot upvote this enough

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#49
post #36

Hey, So I would probably avoid Amazon just because many of their services charge for data out. It isn't out, but it's a variable for you, and you probaly want something that's flat per month. Cheapest you are going to get with somewhat reliable service is either going to be Hetzner or BuyVM. Hetzner is better for someone who doesn't want to tinker, BuyVM for those who do (BuyVM is a little less reliable, but you can…

I'd prefer to pay someone else to handle email, in the final analysis, I just don't need that headache in my life right now. It's why I'm not making any plans for a big dramatic change on that front yet, but I might dip my toe into piping it through someone else's servers, if I see something that makes sense from all angles.

Re: Ask HN: Self-hosting in 2023: Nextcloud on Linode, or...?

#50
post #18

If you're worried about costs, I run Nextcloud locally in my house, and just deal with the fact it's not externally available. Everything syncs when it is in the house, which is just about always for the laptops and pretty often for the cell phones, and when it is out and about it just doesn't. It all works out. I have a backup process running on it, but back up disk space is a lot cheaper than live disk space attach…

I run Nextcloud "locally" too. It's "local" in the sense that it sits on an laptop-turned-server by my desk [0]. Add a domain name, a simple dynamic DNS [1] and a forwarding rule on your router ; your local machine is now reachable from everywhere.

No (useless for that usecase) additional intermediary like Tailscale in the middle. It has the added benefit of allowing you to share everything that is on Nextcloud with people without requiring them to use any VPN/etc.

[0] the fact that it runs an a laptop (with its battery) rather than on a workstation provides a UPS on the cheap

[1] dynamic DNS can be achieved even using cheap providers such as OVH as long as you get your domain name there https://docs.ovh.com/ie/en/domains/hosting_dynhost/

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