In late 2020, I rebuilt my server from the ground up. New hardware, new OS, new setup.
Infrastructure Map (Early 2024)
My server boots off a pair of SSDs, tied together in a ZFS mirror. Proxmox supports ZFS boot (thanks to its Ubuntu kernel), and lets you configure it through the installer. When I installed my server, this is what I wanted, as it meant the OS and data disks for…
I spend a lot of time at my desk, whether it's actually doing my job, sitting in meetings or doing something else interesting. As a result, I want fast internet. Additionally, my server is also sat on my desk, so faster internet benefits me and anyone else who uses the…
For a few years now, I've tried as hard as I can to run everything on servers I control, ideally servers I physically control. Partly in an attempt to regain my privacy, party because it's much more fun this way. Over the last year, things have stayed fairly stable hardware-wise…
Power bills in the UK are starting to skyrocket, and the costs of self-hosting are going up as a result. The average persons bills are going up pretty fast, and I suspect they don't have a server in their cupboard on 24/7. For a while now, I've wanted to swap…
For the last 7 years or so, I’ve had some form of server sitting in my house. Its size and utility have changed massively in this time, but I couldn’t imagine life without it. Both prefer to and enjoy running a number of applications for myself, in a (possibly futile)…
The cloud is just someone else’s computer. In my case, the cloud is usually just my computer. As an avid self-hoster, I like to run a lot of things myself, for learning, privacy, and of course fun. And it’s hard to host anything without servers. I have quite a few…
Docker containers (like onions) have layers. In your Dockerfile, each new RUN, COPY or ADD line creates a new layer (so do the others, but not ones which affect the filesystem). Each layer contains only the files which changed from the previous layer, which allows layers to be shared between…
Docker is a great containerization technology for running applications. It keeps multiple applications completely isolated from each other, only allowing connections exactly when you tell them to. But what if you’re on a hypervisor? You want your host OS to be as lean as possible (else it defeats the point),…
I have a bunch of VMs and LXCs on my proxmox server. Whilst I like to keep as little data in each of them as possible, and instead mount in my storage (in the form of a ZFS and snapraid pool), I still use proxmox’s built-in backup feature to back…
Backups are critical to any systems longevity and reliability. If you’re not backing up your data, stop reading this now, go do it, then come back… Assuming none of you suddenly panicked and left, let’s keep going. You can keep telling yourself otherwise, but eventually, every system will experience some…
Back in December, I fully rebuilt my home server from the ground up based on Proxmox. Being a hypervisor OS, it makes sense to run everything in VMs or LXC containers, not on the host. Therefore, there’s a huge amount of scope for opinions, lessons and customizations. I’ve had quite…
GPU Passthrough has become a great way to run a Linux host, but still run games under Windows. By having 2 GPUs, 1 for the Linux host and the other for a Windows VM, you give Windows its own full GPU for games, but without having to run Windows as…
NFS is a great protocol for sharing files quickly and simply over the network. Whilst it’s not designed for end user use, it’s great for mounting directories from remote machines, and having them be performant. NFS’ lack of authentication is in a way a feature, honest. Not only does it…
Black Friday, the only day which seems to last over a month, is a great time to buy tech. Whilst most people will be buying early christmas presents, new gadgets for themselves, or just impulse buying stuff they don’t need (something I totally never do…), I ordered the parts for…