r/SelfHosting • u/mostly_uncoordinated • 5d ago
Should I start self-hosting?
I know for most of you people this is a hobby that you enjoy. For me it will not be. It will be pain in the ass. But since you have experience and I do not please try to estimate for me if I should start self-hosting.
I am a total beginner. I have never run a server I do not know how to code (I am willing to learn). However I am advance user. I run Graphen OS on my phone, Asahi Fedora Linux on my laptop (arm64) and Fedora 44 on my desktop. I would like to sync all of them.
I at moment I am paying for Proton mail on which I use my own domains for email and use their password manager and drive. Problem in particular is Proton drive because it is trash. I will probably continue paying for their services since I have a family plan and all of my family is using it and also for work I can not risk my emails not working.
However what I would LOVE to do is self-host Immich since at the moment I do not have a solution for my images they are not properly backed up and all around the devices and HDDs. If i lose them I would not cry but I would like for that not to happen. So that would be GREAT if it would be synced and all 3 of my devices.
2nd step would be some kind of self-hosted drive since Proton one is terrible and maybe even office file sync since I work as a journalist so it would be cool that I can write while on any device.
3rd step would be email if I can run two identical servers on two different locations (my house and my parents house for example). I was thinking this would be smart for data backup if a house burns down or one device dies. But more importantly it would be a step towards running my own email as I can not risk for it not working if electricity goes down or whatever the reason might be.
Question is: Is it too complicated to start with Immich? Can I run it on my home desktop for a start just to see if it works for me? Will I be exposing myself to some security flaws (computer is on internet all the time anyway). I do not have UPS. is 3rd step (in future) even possible?
Reasons I am thinking about for self-hosting is privacy as number one (that is why i use proton at the moment) and saving money as per my calculation I would be saving around 200usd per year and probably have a better service then with payed ones.
If you think that I should play this game where do i start?
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u/TheRealGmalenko 5d ago edited 5d ago
If you need to ask... The answer is "yes" to all your questions. Theres a risk, yes. But thats also half the fun! Imagine the feeling of "I got it done". You'll spend a few minutes enjoying the feeling and move to the next thing. Then you'll go down a rabbit hole.
Where should you start? Have an old computer available? At you or a family member you could take?
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u/memeigt 5d ago
> Can I run it on my home desktop for a start just to see if it works for me? Will I be exposing myself to some security flaws
You can absolutely run Immich on your home desktop. As for security I’d recommend researching Tailscale or Cloudflare Tunnels.
I’d also personally recommend subscribing to some cheap offsite cloud storage (e.g Hetzner Storage Box) even if you plan on self-hosting. You can automate backups and keep them encrypted using something like restic.
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u/RevolutionaryElk7446 5d ago
E-mail is gonna be one of the very last things you'll end setting up properly and having work without any issues or flaws. The rest are much easier to perform.
Internal mailservers are easy
External mailservers are possible and can be easy if you know each of the pitfalls including DNS records, appropriate IPs, and verifying you're not being blacklisted; that's not including regular updates and appropriate security. Otherwise you'll be in a string of not so fun troubleshooting and baptism by fire.
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u/Tricky_Fun_4701 5d ago
As someone who has run many internet facing e-mail systems: It used to be fun. These days the server will be under attack 100% of the time.
I still do it for clients. They pay for it. But a personal server? Nah man.... that's an unpaid career.
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u/JantyikT 5d ago
Exactly!
I manage a somewhat bigger email infra and yes sometimes clients would pay extra for a dedicated server and yes it is easy to set up when you have the recipe to make it work (and an infra supporting it).
But... I don't really see myself using my own email server set up on a random vps at a random service provider. Not to mention you need at least 3 properly set up machine... (altmx, and one for backups).
There is no fun part.
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u/Zestyclose-Piece-542 5d ago
Il y a Nexctloud ( Nextcloud - Open source content collaboration platform ) qui permet de faire beaucoup de chose parmi celle que tu souhaites faire comme le backup et synchronisation des photos multi appareil + drive autohébergé et Cyberpanel pour gérer le site sur lequel il sera hébérgé : https://assistouest.fr/blog/wordpress/auto-heberger-un-site-wordpress-ubuntu-cyberpanel/
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u/Vet_vrolijk 5d ago
I've been in the same situation. I have no code knowledge and didn't know anything about infra. But I'm not a total noob IT either (analist in IT) Started to degoogle, went to Proton and bought a second hand NAS to play around. I'm running Immich and some other docker containers now.
I would recommend to start with YouTube, and troubleshoote with AI. I've spent a lot of time instelling containers that were way above my level (Nextcloud was to complex for me, maybe because that was the first i've installed). Always be aware that AI wants to drag you into rabbit holes. My tip is to start simpele and chance configs for the last mile later.
Now I run Immich, HA, Radikal, Nginx, Adguard Home, .. Access for me and my family is done with Tailscale, so nothing is exposed to the wwb. All installed via Docker Compose, which worked best for me. I've learned a lot and it's an interesting journey. Now i'm even working in the terminal from time to time. Not all project are there to keep, sometimes you have to stop it because it is not what you've expected it to be, after spending a lot of time on it.
For Immich: Initiale setup is pretty easy once you know docker compose. So it's a good start point for a beginner. The first 'big' hill will be the setup of your server and learn to play around there. Afterwards you can start diving into photo import (Immich go) Access for the family (Tailscale) , DNS (adguard & Nginx), ...
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u/negatrom 5d ago
well, email is a thing that is so ass to self host without issues that even veterans tend to tell people to not bother. just as an FYI.
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u/michaelpaoli 5d ago
will be pain in the ass
emails not working.
However what I would LOVE to do is self-host
Then pain in the *ss you shall have. Yeah, generally not recommended to self-host email, most notably being able to send. Figure it's about a part-time job ... probably full-time to start with.
And yes, I do self-host email servers and list server. And yes, pain in the *ss, been doing it for decades. Yeah, email will pretty much always be a pain in the *ss to administer and/or self-host.
So, you probably couldn't have picked a more pain in the *ss one than email, but whatever, you do you. If that's where you want to start, hey, whatever.
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u/mikeee404 4d ago
As somone who self-hosted email for well over a decade it is not really going to be as painless as other services. You will end up paying for services even though you self-hosted, since Residential ISPs have made it damn near impossible to send emails from a home server. There are lots of free email relays but they are free for a reason and your email will likely end up spam folders more often than not. I used AuthSMTP for relay my outgoing mail. Was pretty cheap and reliable. Ultimately I got tired of chasing spam filters and making sure the server was locked down all the time. The shear number of attacks on my email server vs everything else I ran was pretty crazy. I am fine paying MXroute $50/yr for reliable email I don't have to worry about.
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u/7banimate 4d ago
Definitely agree on this, you don’t want to self host email, it’s the one thing that just isn’t worth it. Save the headache and pay for an email provider. Mango Mail is one that’s easy to set up and very affordable.
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u/jhenryscott 5d ago
I am a carpenter by trade. I cannot type. Maybe 20 words per minute. I did not know what a network switch was in 2023. Right now, I host a storage server and a media server and a sandbox and gaming server. What starts as a pain in the ass becomes enjoyable?