this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Selfhosted

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Do you have any advice or suggestions about it?

  • Hardware (what should be enough for a local PC, or VPS...)
  • Software (OS [Debian, Yunohost, other...], "containerization" (Docker, virtual machines?), dashboard, management, backups, VPN tunneling...)
  • "Utilities" to host (Lemmy, Peertube, Matrix, Mastodon, Actual Budget, Jellyfin, Forgejo, Invidious/Piped, local Pi-Hole, email, dedicated videogame servers like for Minecraft, SearXNG, personal file storage like Drive, AI [in the future, when I can afford a rig that can run a local model decently]...)

I'm aware it's a lot of stuff to take on, so, do you have any advice on where to start? (how to find a cheap PC to experiment with, if not get a VPS, what to test on it, what "utilities" to try self-hosting first...)

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[–] dieTasse@feddit.org 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)
  1. What do you need? Ask yourself what do you need first that will help you decide
  2. Hardware - buy second hand 2017 - 2018 (office) pc - dell, fujitsu, hp for ~ 80 eur - clean it! Re-paste processor and buy ssd.
  3. Either instal clean debian, prxmox, or some nas software. If you go with e.g. trueNAS you need to decide if you want to invest into proper nas hard drives. They cost a lot but last for ages.
  4. Setup your fist apps - treat the beginning as a test. Its a test machine and environment, feel free to try stuff, break stuff and document it, especially what you like and want to keep.
  5. After a while, when you feel like you are not experimenting as much and you know what you like about what you have, backup what you want to keep, and start clean - now use your documentation. This step is optional - depends on how much you were messing around but can be pivotal in order to get stable environment.
  6. Next steps will write themselves. In fact you will have so much you would want to try that you won't know where to start.
  7. You are welcome