Anyone else have it ? The more work I do setting things up like dockers, reverse proxies, single sign on, etc. the more I want to do it. But I’m running out of ideas of things to host that would actually benefit me. But I have that itch where I want more lol.
So far I have the following: (EDIT: added descriptions for those who aren’t familar with all of it. )
- Caddy - use this primarily as a reverse proxy to access my applications via my domain and outside the house
- Nextcloud - mainly using it for cloud storage but also some of their other apps likes decks and tasks as well as contacts and calendar.
- Memos - simple note taking app similar to twitter but personal.
- Miniflux - rss
- Authentik - sso
- Portainer - web view of dockers and status / health
- KitchenOwl - groceries / recipe management
- Actual - zero budgeting (like YNAB)
- Firefly iii - finances management
- Immich - images / iCloud replacement
- Organizr (barely using it. Trying to think of more use cases) - dashboard of all my services
- Speedtest - runs daily speed tests and monitors.
- Plex - host my media library
- Plex_Debrid / rclone - sync real Debrid with plex.
- rsync to backup data to one onsite and one off site location. Automated backups
- Watchtower automated docker updates
- Home Assistant - home automation
- Home bridge - Apple home automation
- Zigbee2mqtt - manage zigbee smart home devices
- Unifi controller - manage my network
I think that’s everything!
Edit: Thanks for the overwhelming responses! I really appreciate everyone with their opinions. First things first I did get borg setup for both my server and my desktop so thats awesome! I am waiting for response from my backup server admin if they can install rdiff-backup for me so I can utilize that as well for my cloud backups.
Going to take a look at a few other of the many suggestions here! More than a few I like!
I would love to self host more but I feel like I don’t have the proper hardware to back it up and I feel like it would take a lot of my free time to manage it properly.
If docker isn’t your thing, you can run multiple virtual machines under KVM and make each service its own separate machine. It really doesn’t take much hardware to get started. If you meant doing system backups, you could always start with building a simple NAS from an old desktop machine, then run a cron job with rdiff-backup to make daily incremental copies of your other servers.
The point is, don’t let old hardware hold you back. I just moved my web servers off of some 20-year-old rack servers earlier this year, it really doesn’t take a lot. Just grab any machine you have laying around and get started. The practice will teach you a lot, and you can then figure out if you need a better system.
My stuff is hosted on an Intel NUC celeron, an rpi4 and an rpi zero. You don’t need beefy hardware.
I use my old gaming computer, before that I used a raspberry pi. The Pi is sufficient for a lot of things.
Managing the dockers doesn’t take that much effort. Setting things up did take a lot of time, in many small chunks. I never use the :latest tag, and do manual updates. This way things rarely breaks
I also use my old gaming computer! Makes a perfect home server.
Agreed! It has been solid. Though sometimes I want something smaller 🫣 But with room for disks😅