I have a Pixel 8… a PC with Linux Mint. How do I learn to “self host”. Mainly for photo storage backup. Where do I start? I know nothing, absolutely nothing
Zeroth, consider GrapheneOS on that Pixel.
First, Syncthing on the PC and Syncthing-Fork. Now you can sync (and anything else) your photo files from phone to PC and vice versa. Congrats, you have photo storage backup.
Second, either a vpn to your home network so you can backup on the road, or Immich (as elsewhere suggested) for your own google photos experience.
Third, whichever of second you didn’t choose.
Fourth, get ye an offsite backup (search 3-2-1 backup). rclone is your friend, but encrypt first locally with Cryptomator, then you don’t have to trust your storage provider.
Take this anyway you want but one good thing about ai is they’ve hoovered up all the guides, instruction manuals, and troubleshooting forums. They can give you advice, help you install, and troubleshoot when it breaks.
Documentation, take notes on what you setup, ports opened, accounts created. This will be very valuable when you envitally get services setup and forget about them.
I’m curious if you have recommendations on how to structure or keep the notes. I find that I struggle reading technical documentation or how to structure notes so they’re easy to refer to. Have any tips or guides you can share?
I keep a small sized notebook with the first page or so an index of sort, and then a page for each service or server. Doesn’t have to be a lot, but be sure to give your future self all the info that will be needed. For instance not just a password, but also the username. Any problems you have had and how you resolved it. Depending on the sophistication of your network, vlans, firewall info, is it wired to your router or switch, what port. What slot of your multi button power bar it is plugged into, so if you need to cut power or restart you dont have e to randomly push switch accidently turning something else off. Basic server specs, what type/size of raid or HDs, do you have room for more HDs later, RAM slots and what’s in them currently.
I might get some flack from writing down passwords, but a password manager can remedy that. I still keep some of mine on paper tbh, I have had pw managers break or go offline and I am not terribly worried about normal theifs knowing how to ssh into my linux boxes.
Documentation, take notes on what you setup, ports opened, accounts created. This will be very valuable when you envitally get services setup and forget about them.
@[email protected] OP this is advice you can take and apply throughout your selfhosting journey. This advice is worth it’s weight in gold right here. I lean heavily on my notes and they are prolific. My memory is shit for a lot of reasons including medical, and my notes have saved my ass many times.
Awesome advice!
@Toasted_Breakfast How aboit starting with something like #yunohost
I can confirm that Yunhost is one of the best ways to start learning self-hosting. The only “bad thing” I can say is that sometimes it’s so easy that you actually don’t learn any thing.
The only “bad thing” I can say is that sometimes it’s so easy that you actually don’t learn any thing.
I learned a lot. Definitely a whole lot less than if I had done it “from scratch”. But also, I never would have done that. I tried and failed several times.
+1 for Yunohost. Easy to deploy, and their app catalog is substantial.
Another +1 for YUNOhost. I went from zero experience self-hosting to having my own email, fediverse instance, file server and several websites on a VPS. I would never have had the patience to figure this out without it.
So, for all you ^5’ing Yunohost, I have a question that’s bothered me for years. Like I said, their app catalog beats anything else in it’s category, but they also list apps that don’t work…separately of course and labeled as such. I’ve always wondered why. Is it in hopes that someone will fix them? …or what?
Judging from your comments, you seem to be lacking some basic knowledge and skills to get started.
None of the comments here are useful without getting those up to speed.
You definitely might want to start of looking into networking: how do computers connect to each other and the internet.
Since you’re using Linux Mint, I do assume you have some basic knowledge of using the terminal and basic commands.
Next you might want to learn Docker, which is useful when learning self-hosting, as most solutions will have an option to use that.
Do you have any favorite starting points for Docker? I’m still learning myself.
@Hawk @Toasted_Breakfast I get where the thought is coming from - Playing around with a cheap #OpenWRT router can be a way of getting an idea of routing and networking. - They have a gui and config files you can edit directly. You can figure out things like a #firewall #portforwarding - That kind of thing.
Ooof, yeah reading their comments, I agree.
OP, if you’re reading this, start even smaller. Not everything has to be right in your house.
I been deploying web apps since 2010, and I jumped right into self hosting during the pandemic and it was a massive headache or challenges I wasn’t prepared to face or maintain.
I gave up (for now) and just used open-source apps and AWS, because I needed availability. And every few months, I do a bit more to one day move everything to pure self hosting.
i started in january of this year because i upgraded my wife’s computer. that gave me an old computer to tinker with.
i recommend getting an old computer, installing an OS (look up thinks like truenas, proxmox, unraid… there are more and they are different; try them all out if you want to see what you like)
then go onto youtube and search for things like “<OS> beginner” and you will get a bunch of tips/tricks/tutorials/etc. for starting out with your favorite.
This was just posted https://itsfoss.com/self-hosting-starting-projects/
@portnull @Toasted_Breakfast I don’t think these self hosting articles are that useful and much more than a list of applications. They send people off in the wrong direction.
They only answer that ‘what do I want/could I do’ but they don’t answer the ‘what device do I want to do it on’ and ‘where do I want to be able to do it’ questions - They also don’t answer the ‘what do I need to learn to do it’ - what do I need to protect my data?
And frankly I think they take the wrong approach when there are now more comprehensive solutions that could put selfhosters in a better position and get them thinking about questions like 'What happens when the cheap laptop I’m running this on dies/house catches fire/ How can I stop someone get into my application - How do I not forget all these passwords? - Sure they are great to play around with but would you really recommend anyone start ouy by spinning up Nextcloud and then putting stuff on it they really don’t want to lose?
Sorry that might sound grumpy… I don’t mean it to be. Its great that people are being encouraged to try - but they should also be really early on talking about things like ‘doing things with a friend or a group of similarly interested people’ (I know that sound weird - but you need offsite backup people … and someone to be able to step in of something happens to you … or things go wrong. (It takes a village to raise a baby)
Nah not grumpy just good additional advice. Thanks for taking the time to add to the conversation
Initial self hosting should be non critical for yourself only for the reasons you mention. After you have worked out kinks and learned more about it all you can start using software for more critical tasks. I still don’t use my self hosting for anything apart from myself (except jellyfin for family) because I don’t need the pressure of availability :)
One option you could explore since you didn’t list any other equipment, is a cheap VPS. You can pick one up at LowEndBox for cheap. I have a couple VPS test servers that run about $25 a year. That would help you get your feet wet a bit. You could learn how to deploy Linux server along with the standard defense systems in place like Fail2Ban, UFW, etc.
Or even a small NUC or RPi.
Agreed. For actual backup, I’d put it in the cloud.
Really, I’d run immich locally, and then back that up to the cloud, but that depends on how valuable the data really is to you.
Really, I’d run immich locally,
There ya go. Encrypted of course. That way OP can still learn to stand up a proper server and defenses before it almost instantaneously attracts the attention of literally any or all of the 1.5 billion known, active, automated bot accounts at this moment +/- show up at your port 22 doorstep and helping themselves to your resources.
The very first linux server I stood up on a vps, was taken over quite quickly. So, that spurred me on to read tutorials, scour chans and forums, just looking for guidance and knowledge. Now, I understand a lot more that I did way back when so it’s gotten easier. Not that I house a vast trove of wisdom or knowledge…pffffttt…that does not exist. I learn something new all the time. That’s one of the aspects I really love about self hosting.
Of course. Personally I wouldn’t expose anything to the Internet but a VPN service.
Start by searching for how to selfhost a photo storage backup. There are multiple ways to do it and the decision depends on your circumstances and preferences, which only you know.
I would buy a Nas with raid and keep a copy both on your PC and on the NAS
Get yourself the cheapest n150 box you can, the 4 port versions are good im case you decise to upgade and convert it to a fw later. Get a 4tb 2.5 ssd if you afford it and a chewp dual or more jbod external for safe backups.
Every year upgrade and stick to proxmox and opnsnese untill/unless you have reason otherwise.
why sdd for storage? 4 tb hd costs less than half of an ssd. even for the system it’s enough, if you can stomach a 20 sec boot instead of 5
I keep seeing similar pricing for both, 110-130€. Could you please share where i might find cheaper?
oh okay if you can get a 4tb ssd for 130€ that’s a good deal, if it’s not a scam
This is kind of an info dump and I havent fully gone through to verify everything but this is a guide from a trusted ytber explaining step by step how he setup and managed his self hosting environment.
For a more bite sized entry into self hosting just join the community (like you are now) and learn about the different services people are hosting and when one sounds good then look into how to set it up and ask questions along the way.
@Fizz @Toasted_Breakfast I had a look at a few guides. They all come with a few assumptions and get into details but I was thinking that any guide needs to cover:
options:
Infrastructure - e.g. VPS/bare metal at home ,
Applications - nextcloud, media server, home automation etc.
Middleware - identity/authentication/ reverse proxy, backup, email, Patching/updates , xdav and other support tools for mobile,
Networking - home network, subnets, vpn/tailscale, firewall, port forwarding, static ips., ipv6
Buy used enterprise hardware for cheap, install Unraid, dip your toes in… Then if you enjoy tinkering, evolve from there.
Unraid does everything I want so I’ve kinda plateaued for the moment.
Agreed to buy used hardware but be aware of power draw (and noise sometimes)
Buy a PC, install debian, install tailscale, install immich. Done.
I would personally recommend starting with a Pi-hole. It’s easy to set up and provides an immediate improvement to your whole internet experience.
Try to follow the official guide or use a Docker container.
But pihole is not a photo backup
But a great start to get into selfhosting. What’s an IP? What is a DNS? How do I connect to via ssh? What’s the job of DHCP? Pretty basic stuff, your learning in the process.
Yup. You got to start with the tedious and the boring before you get to the glamorous where your friends ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ about your set up.
