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Start Self Hosting

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Re: Start Self Hosting

#311

Post by pkulak »

erulabs wrote: post #113
pkulak wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used to host our own software. It was called an application and it ran on your personal computer. We just need that, but running on some appliance instead, like a NAS. Package the service up in something like docker-compose, have a way to sell it, install it, update it and support it. Synology is pretty close with their Docker support, but still pretty far.

Not to advertise, but I'm building exactly that at https://pibox.io - also solving other problems people have identified in this thread like automatic valid certificates, DNS, remote access, etc :)

Wow, love it! I host a matrix server on my current NAS, but I can’t put the database there cus spinning drives are just so slow. I’ve got the DB on a random Mac right now, but this is my new upgrade path.

Re: Start Self Hosting

#312

Post by rashkov »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #161
mrmattyboy wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see a blog post that says, this is how to setup X (I dunno.. mediawiki, owncloud, whatever).. and then go fully in-depth into _everything_ surrounding it.. security, backups, logging, alerting, monitoring, backup testing/restoration etc.. a blog post that really covers everything for a well-protected 21st century hosted application that won't leave the owner in tears after a year! There's honestly so many…

It should start with how to make your system upgradeable too. I've server that started on Ubuntu 16 and made a helluva mess upgrading to 18. Due to php changes i've had to use ondrej's packages for later php... but that will break on a (very overdue) upgrade to 20... All these script kiddie tutorials are terrible at showing how to maintain a server for years .

This is where docker really shines. Unless you’re a php developer or have a lot of experience with it, gluing it all together is best left to some clever person maintaining an upstream docker image.

Re: Start Self Hosting

#313

Post by macinjosh »

aimor wrote: post #146
macinjosh wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear a lot of stories like this. I've been self-hosting for a few years out of my home. I have a symmetrical gigabit fiber connection. My IP changes very frequently (DDNS and a low TTL solves that problem for my use cases). _anyway_ I haven't been hacked.. yet. /me knocks on wood The precautions I take are basic: - Use unique and secure credentials on each service I expose. - I only expose ports 80 and 443 to the p…

I'm interested in how you set up your home and hosting networks without any shared hardware. I've been running my own websites from home for awhile on their own machines, but never considered they could be on a completely separate network all the way up to the modem.

My ISP provides me with PPPoE into my house. I have that Ethernet going into a small switch which both networks connect to via a firewall. Each network establishes its own PPPoE session and receives its own (dynamic) IP address.

Re: Start Self Hosting

#314

Post by IggleSniggle »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #295
blenderdt wrote: post #35

Self hosting is hard. You need to take care of security, backups, software updates, software installation and so on. Even on something like a QNAP (which can be compared to managed hosting) this can be hard. Flip the wrong switch and you expose something to the world. Missed a security update: your device is now vulnerable. While I host a lot of things myself I can understand self hosting is not for everyone.

Self hosting is hard. You need to take care of security, backups, software updates, software installation and so on. I'm pretty sure we all used to that and it was mostly fine. I get that the mainstream computer user has been lost to techno-infantilism. But why should we?

For me the issue is that I now have (let me count) 15 different devices in my household with unique configuration needs that it’s up to me manage. I could handle it when it was 1, 2, 3. Now it’s just too much.

I recognize that this embarrassment of riches is in part my own fault. But this is my answer to your “why”

Re: Start Self Hosting

#315

Post by rashkov »

hosteur wrote: post #275
rsync wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Flip the wrong switch and you expose something to the world." One strategy for dealing with accidental misconfigurations is to employ a "network slug"[1]: "A Network Slug, or "Slug", is a transparent layer 2 firewall running on a device with only two interfaces. ... The purpose of a Slug is to reinforce a security policy or to block uninentional leaks of information." [1] https://john.kozubik.com/pub/NetworkSlug/tip…

I have never head this idea described in text before. However, I have made firewalls this way for decades. They were typically for stuff that ran in a datacenter so it would be a 1U server with three NICs. I would really like to make such devices for home or office use. What would be a good device to use for this? Unfortunately, RaspberryPIs do not come with 2 or 3 NICs. Any recommended alternatives?

I would have a look at the openwrt project’s database of supported devices. You can filter for devices with 3 nics (though not sure it supports filtering for “3 or more”).

https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128

Re: Start Self Hosting

#316

Post by mceachen »

v-yadli wrote: post #251
mceachen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm writing PhotoStructure, which you might be interested in. It's self-hosted, but also runs on Windows and macOS without docker, libraries are portable, and photo and video deduplication is robust. Photoprism had a couple features I haven't built out yet, but I'm getting there. More details are here: https://photostructure.com/faq/why-photostructure/ Also, if nextcloud gives you attitude (I had scaling issues with…

Very interesting project, and nice landing page! Will definitely check it out. I'm a long time ownCloud/NextCloud user and I'm aware of the alternatives. With multiple android phones come and go in the past 8 years or so, the background upload seems to stand its ground. The real problem here is iOS and its lack of proper background tasks. See: https://github.com/nextcloud/ios/issues/215 -- they tried every possible w…

> I recommend a "real" TF or PyTorch installation

Yeah, PhotoStructure's feature of "runs everywhere" turns out to be a huge albatross around your neck (for me) when it comes to ML.

Currently, all features are available on all platforms--but having classification plugins that are only supported for specific hardware/OS combinations might be a reasonable solution.

Re: Start Self Hosting

#317

Post by macinjosh »

sgarman wrote: post #126
macinjosh wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear a lot of stories like this. I've been self-hosting for a few years out of my home. I have a symmetrical gigabit fiber connection. My IP changes very frequently (DDNS and a low TTL solves that problem for my use cases). _anyway_ I haven't been hacked.. yet. /me knocks on wood The precautions I take are basic: - Use unique and secure credentials on each service I expose. - I only expose ports 80 and 443 to the p…

IMO separate hardware for your self-hosted network puts you into a whole new class of hosting at "home."

Not necessarily. For my use case it’s one extra 4 port gigabit switch and a single pc that runs everything containerized including the NAS, firewall, and apps.

Re: Start Self Hosting

#318

Post by ncphil »

hotpotamus wrote: post #296
ndiddy wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laypeople don't know that systemd exists. They will install a webserver or something and the package manager will automatically install and enable its unit file.

You know, nothing is really ever that simple and this comment makes me realize that. You actually hit on a philosophical difference in package managers lol. Ubuntu (not sure about Debian) will install, enable, and start a package, But Red Hat only installs it, because they expect you to configure the service first.

Which 90% of the time makes sense because if you want anything more than the barebones default config (which you usually do), that's best done before everything gets spun up. But I've worked with Ubuntu (and Debian) long enough that I now take for granted that some services are going to have to be downed for reconfig almost immediately after installation. The "auto start after install" practice rarely makes much difference in the final result. After over 25 years as a sysadmin I do wonder how non-experts navigate some of this stuff, what with the often incomplete doc and horribly uninformed (or just plain reckless) forum posts they have to work with. The best place to start is still æLeen Frisch's Essential System Administration (whose 1st ed is where I learned the sysadmin craft), but there really isn't much beyond it (unless you go the BSD route and so have the FreeBSD Handbook to lean on).

Re: Start Self Hosting

#319

Post by hsn915 »

Hendrikto wrote: post #137
kodah wrote: post #98

Self-hosting is something that we should be constantly iterating on making easier; it's really the path forward for privacy centric folks. The main challenges are managing workload scheduling (SystemD is complicated for a layperson). Networking is another challenge; for instance, if you wanted all or part of these services to remain offline or on a Mesh VPN there's a lot of knowledge required. There's some projects t…

> SystemD is complicated for a layperson Is it? It has clean and logical abstractions, and consistency. Services depending in each other isn‘t complex or difficult to understand. I suspect that a nice GUI would make systemd quite usable for non-expert users. BTW: It‘s called ”systemd“: > Yes, it is written systemd, not system D or System D, or even SystemD. And it isn't system d either. [0] [0]: https://www.freedeskt…

Comments like yours are a great example of why Linux has a hard time being user friendly. You take something that's deeply technical but easy to understand for yourself, and somehow generalize it to everyone. "If it's easy for me, it is easy for everyone", without noticing that perhaps your expertise plays a big role in making it easy.

The better question is why should a layperson ever need to know about systemd in the first place.

I'm a technical person and I don't know about systemd, nor have I ever needed it.

When designing products for end users who are not technical, the overriding design goal should be easiness and reliability.

Easy: does not require special knowledge or expertise to operate.

For someone who just wants to self host, having to learn about systemd, by definition makes the product/system not easy.

Reliability: does the system implode in unexpected way based on the slight variations in the environment? If it implodes as such then it is fragile. If it does not, then it is robust and reliable.

For the end user, what matters is that the system is easy and reliable.

If the system is easy but not reliable, the user is effectively forced to become an expert in order to fix the system when it breaks. Thus, if a system is not reliable, then it doesn't matter that it's "easy".

Simple/Complicated only concerns the developers. It's important to keep systems as simple as possible under the hood, because a system that is simple is easier to make reliable than a system that is complicated. But for the end user it does not matter directly. Simplicity is about how many parts the system is composed of and how these parts interact. If there are many many parts that all have to interact with each other, then the system is complex.

Maybe once someone learns about systemd they can find it conceptually simple. But that's a moot point. The point is: they should not even have to learn about its existence.

A system where editing text files can make or break the system, is not a reliable system. It's easy to make mistakes in text files. Specially for users without expertise.

Imagine yourself a windows user. You edit a text file. Restart the machine, and now it doesn't boot, or boots in a special text-only mode. (This is not unheard of on linux based systems).

Re: Start Self Hosting

#320

Post by ketzo »

Clicked the link, only to find that the site is down (presumably from too much traffic due to HN).

The irony is... pretty heavy.

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