One of my favorite hobbies is self-hosting software. I view it as the "woodworking" of our era. A hobby that gives you ownership of your house with the satisfaction of working with your hands (really, fingertips). Beyond the philosophical enjoyment of a hobby where you get to build something from the ground-up, it also offers a lot of practical benefits: - **Privacy** - all the data associated with my services is mine. Not owned by a corporation. I know I can never achieve 100% ownership of my data, but every little bit is satisfying - **Customizability** - ever wish a piece of software did X? When you own the code running your software, you can make updates as you wish. Or, if it is an open source project, you can make a feature request. Your voice is much more likely to be heard. - **Cost** - the hardware is an upfront investment, but as you can turn off subscriptions you have the potential to save money over the long-term. At least I'll keep telling myself this, so I can continue to indulge in this habit. For some deeper explanations on the benefits of self-hosting, I like this post by [Chris Kirby.](https://chriskirby.net/setting-up-and-leveling-up-your-homelab-a-comprehensive-guide/) # My Self-hosting Setup Self-hosting requires bones and muscle provided by hardware. Depending on your goals, this can be fairly cheap. I cover my hardware on a separate page: [[Home Lab Hardware]]. ## Tech Stack #### Proxmox #### File System ZFS #### Mesh VPN Tailscale, open source alternative of headscale #### Services Dashboard Flame ### Authentication ### Backup Approach #### Archiving E-mails [GitHub - wesm/msgvault: Archive a lifetime of email and chat. Offline search, analytics, and AI query over your full message history. Powered by DuckDB · GitHub](https://github.com/wesm/msgvault) ### Health Checks [I created a guide to install HealthCheck.io monitoring system in a server with Debian 11 : r/selfhosted](https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/13yxtem/i_created_a_guide_to_install_healthcheckio/) ## Services [Reference of Available Services](https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted) ### Current Implementations #### Local AI Models [[My Setup for Effective, Private Local AI Models]] REPLACE ALL CLOUD STORAGE? #### Local AI Agents [[Always On AI Agents]] [[OpenClaw]] #### Syncing [[Syncthing]] #### Photos [[Immich]] [Immich](https://immich.app/) - Photo and video backup solution directly from your mobile phone. ([Demo](https://github.com/immich-app/immich#demo), [Source Code](https://github.com/immich-app/immich)) #### [[Audiobookshelf]] [Audiobookshelf](https://www.audiobookshelf.org/) - Audiobook and podcast server. It streams all audio formats, keeps and syncs progress across devices. Comes with open-source apps for Android and iOS. #### UI [[Homepage]] ### Backlog Uptimekuma, Jellyfin, Grocy, Mealie #### Spotify Replacement #### [[Bitwarden]] [Bitwarden](https://bitwarden.com/) `⚠` - Password manager with a webapp, browser extension, and mobile app. ## Reference Service Design [GitHub - mirdaki/computer-config at blog-ultimate-self-hosted-setup](https://github.com/mirdaki/computer-config/tree/blog-ultimate-self-hosted-setup) https://codecaptured.com/blog/images/ultimate-self-hosting/diagram.png Here are a few useful links to help you learn more: - [My self-hosted config](https://github.com/mirdaki/computer-config/tree/main) - [Perfect Media Server](https://perfectmediaserver.com/) - [LinuxServer.io](https://docs.linuxserver.io/general/containers-101/) - [Understanding ZFS concepts](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/zfs-101-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/) - [Choosing the Right ZFS Pool Layout](https://klarasystems.com/articles/choosing-the-right-zfs-pool-layout/) - [How Nix Works](https://nixos.org/guides/how-nix-works/) - [Configuring NixOS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a67Sv4Mbxmc) - [NixOS Security Steps](https://xeiaso.net/blog/paranoid-nixos-2021-07-18/)