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CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

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Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#491

Post by johnisgood »

johnisgood wrote: post #453
oarsinsync wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your unpatched Wordpress install is someone else’s botnet host, forming part of the “distributed” in DDoS, which harms others. It’s why Cloudflare exists, which in itself is another form of harm, in centralising a decentralised network.

The argument is self-defeating: 1. "Unpatched servers become botnet hosts" - true, but Tailscale does not prevent this. A compromised machine on your tailnet is still compromised. The botnet argument applies regardless of how you access your server. 2. Following this logic, you would need to license all internet-connected devices: phones, smart TVs, IoT. They get pwned and join botnets constantly. Are we licensing gr…

I meant: does not increase security.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#492

Post by johnisgood »

sejje wrote: post #488
b112 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of massive fines, and in some cases jailtime for driving without a license is control. If someone breaks regs, you want to be able to levy fines or jail. If they do it a lot, you want an inability to drive at all. It's about regulating poor drivers. And yes, initially vetting a driver too.

I don't really know any adults who don't drive, and nobody ever told me they weren't capable. I don't think it's about driving ability, besides the initial vetting.

I am ~30 years old and I do not drive. In fact, I cannot drive.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#493

Post by iLoveOncall »

jordanf wrote: post #459
tbyehl wrote: post #434

My favorite genre of post in r/homelab and r/selfhosted this past year has been "I used AI to set all this stuff up and something broke so I asked AI to fix it and now all my data is gone." There are so many NAS + Curated App Catalog distros out there that make self-hosting trivial without needing to Vibe SysAdmin.

I keep hearing this, and asking for examples, and there aren't really any.

I've broken my internet many times by asking ChatGPt for help setting up PiHole as a DHCP server. I'll post conversation excerpts later if I remember.

It was just giving commands to run that were plain wrong and extremely destructive, and unless you already knew what they were doing you were screwed.

Here: https://chatgpt.com/share/696539b6-65f0-8010-9324-5e35da42ee...

I have 4-5 more conversations like this. It's honestly almost a piece of art, the LLM keeps spouting out shit like "Ah got it, your issue is clear now", and digging deeper into the wrong direction.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#494

Post by ibizaman »

chaz6 wrote: post #42

I would really like some kind of agnostic backup protocol, so I can simply configure my backup endpoint using an environment variable (e.g. `-e BACKUP_ENDPOINT= https://backup.example.com/backup -e BACKUP_IDENTIFIER=xxxxx`), then the application can push a backup on a regular schedule. If I need to restore a backup, I log onto the backup app, select a backup file and generate a one time code which I can enter into th…

I’m working on introducing this kind of protocol in NixOS. I called it contracts. https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/pull/189

The idea is a contract is defined saying which options exist and what they mean. For backups, you’d get the Unix user doing the backup, what folders to backup and what patterns to exclude. But also what script can be run to create a backup and restore from a backup.

Then you’d get a contract consumer, the application to be backup, which declares what folders to backup either which users.

On the other side you have a contract provider, like Restic or Borgbackup which understand this contract and know thanks to it how to backup the application.

As the user, your role is just to plug-in a contract provider with a consumer. To choose which application backs up which application.

This can be applied to LDAP, SSO, secrets and more!

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#495

Post by ibizaman »

legojoey17 wrote: post #219

I just got around to a fresh NixOS install and I couldn't be happier as I've been able to do practically everything via Codex while keeping things concise and documented (given it's nix, not a bunch of commands of the past). I recently had a bunch of breakages and needed to port a setup - I had a complicated k3s container in proxmox setup but needed it in a VM to fix various disk mounts (I hacked on ZFS mounts, and w…

You might be interested in checking out my project SelfHostBlocks which allows you to declaratively setup quite a few services with declarative LDAP and SSO integration with LLDAP and Authelia. Even if you don’t end up using it, it might inspire you. Also, all integrations are tested with NixOS VM tests using playwright to ensure no breakage.

https://github.com/ibizaman/selfhostblocks

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#496

Post by ibizaman »

piqufoh wrote: post #386

I'm working on something very similar, but I've found that if I'm not doing the work - I forget what has been set up and how its running a lot faster. For example - I have ZFS running with a 5-bay HDD enclosure, and I honestly can't remember any of the rules about import-ing / export-ing to stop / start / add / remove pools etc. I have to write many clear notes, and store them in a place where future me will find the…

This is the reason I adore NixOS. The documentation is the code. Seriously.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#497

Post by epistasis »

johnisgood wrote: post #323
wiether wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First and foremost they are humans, with a limited time on Earth. Being a software engineer doesn't mean you want to spend you free time tinkering about your self-hosting setup and doing support for your users. With Tailscale, not only you don't have to care about most things since _it just works_, but also on-boarding of casual users is straightforward. Same goes for Plex. I want to watch movies/shows, I don't want…

There is a difference between "I choose not to" and "I cannot". The thread is full of people saying Tailscale "unlocked" self-hosting, implying capability, not time savings or time preference. Choosing convenience is fine. But if basic port forwarding or WireGuard is beyond someone's skill set, "software engineer" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. I am not saying they are, but if it really is the case, then yeah. As f…

Time savings and time preference are most definitely "unlocking." I have limited time, I have limited money, I have limited interest. Could I reinvent wheels instead of using existing software? Sure! But having that existing software definitely unlocks possibilities that would not be open to me if I were required to build, debug, test, and maintain everything I use day-to-day.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#498

Post by JamesSwift »

joshvm wrote: post #273
JamesSwift wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, its not a bottomless pit really. Yes you need a UPS. That’s basically it though.

My home server doesn't need to be high availability, and the BIOS is set to whatever state prior to power loss. I don't have a UPS. However, we were recently hit with a telco outage while visiting family out of town. As far as I can tell there wasn't a power outage, but it took a hard reboot of the modem to get connectivity back. Frustrating because it meant no checking home automation/security and of course no acces…

As another commenter said (but got downvoted to oblivion for some reason), its not really about uptime for the homelab, its about graceful shutdown/restart. And theres well defined protocols for it (look up network ups tools, aka NUT).

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#499

Post by oarsinsync »

johnisgood wrote: post #453
oarsinsync wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your unpatched Wordpress install is someone else’s botnet host, forming part of the “distributed” in DDoS, which harms others. It’s why Cloudflare exists, which in itself is another form of harm, in centralising a decentralised network.

The argument is self-defeating: 1. "Unpatched servers become botnet hosts" - true, but Tailscale does not prevent this. A compromised machine on your tailnet is still compromised. The botnet argument applies regardless of how you access your server. 2. Following this logic, you would need to license all internet-connected devices: phones, smart TVs, IoT. They get pwned and join botnets constantly. Are we licensing gr…

The comment I was replying to was claiming that using your computer 'poorly' does not harm others. I was simply refuting that. Having spent the last two decades null routing customer servers when they decide to join an attack, this isn't theoretical.

As an aside, I dislike tailscale, and use wireguard directly.

Back to the topic: Your connected device can harm others if used poorly. I am not proposing licensing requirements.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#500

Post by JamesSwift »

Aurornis wrote: post #251
JamesSwift wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, its not a bottomless pit really. Yes you need a UPS. That’s basically it though.

UPS batteries don't last forever. So now you need to test them regularly. And order new ones when they're not holding a charge any more. Then power down the server, unplug it, pull the UPS out, swap batteries, etc. Then even when I think I've got the UPS automatic shutdown scripts and drivers finally working just right under linux, a routine version upgrade breaks it all for some reason and I'm spending another 30 mi…

Not sure what to say then. I run nixos on ~15 different VMs / minipcs, a total of I guess 6 physical machines. Never had to deal with a UPS battery dying, and havent had to do anything to address NUT breaking. I broadcast NUT via synology NAS though, so the only direct client of the UPS status is the NAS. Ive never once had an issue in the ~5 years Ive had it setup like this.
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