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Getting Started
Not sure where to start? This shelf contains quick-start guides to self-hosting and other lessons.
Services
There is a large open-source community focused on self-hosted web services and personal clouds.
Your Personal Cloud
You can host your own cloud server at home using commodity hardware and open-source software.
Hardware
We need to make sure we understand our hardware requirements and find a machine that supports them. Finally, there are some firmware configuration we should check before installing an operating system.
Software
We need to install Debian Linux onto our computer to form a foundation. We will use Docker to create secure, self-contained "virtual operating systems" that are easy to monitor and keep up-to-date. Importantly, we need to create a backup solution and setup r...
Services
We can install cloud software on our new server now that it's up and running.
World Wide Web
We need to connect our server to the outside world now that everything is ready behind-the-scenes.
Quick-Bundles
Quickly get up and running with some bundled software to host a personal cloud or media server.
Jellyfin •
Jellyfin is a community-built media streaming solution for movies, music, television, books and photos. When you import media, it is automatically identified so metadata can be pulled from open repositories. Watch your media on all your devices with client a...
Audiobookshelf •
Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted book, audiobook and podcast streaming media server. Leverage open databases to keep your media metadata up-to-date. By creating user accounts, you can share media with friends and family.
Kavita •
Book and comic server with a fully-functional web interface for enjoying your media.
Stash
Personal media server for streaming and organizing your private (and pornographic) media.
Uptime Kuma •
Ensure that all of your services are online through a unified dashboard interface.
SWAG
Verify your SWAG relay server configuration and monitor basic usage metrics.
OliveTin
Basic server maintenance tasks performed at the press of a button.
Ward
Basic dashboard to monitor your server's hardware resource usage.
Cockpit
Advanced dashboard for the management of a Linux server.
Guacamole •
Access computers on your local network remotely through your web browser.
Umami
Privacy-focused analytics platform providing insights about traffic to your websites.
Radarr •
Radarr is a free and open-source media management tool that can automatically download, organize and manage your movie collection. Organize your existing collection, add new movies from the TMDb or import lists to keep up-to-date. Always be sure that your me...
Sonarr •
Sonarr is a free and open-source media management tool that can automatically download, organize and manage your television and anime collection. Organize your existing collection, add new shows from the TVDB or import lists to keep up-to-date. Always be sur...
Lidarr •
Lidarr is a free and open-source media management tool that can automatically download, organize and manage your music collection. Organize your existing collection, add new artists from MusicBrainz or import lists to keep up-to-date. Always be sure that you...
Installing Docker
Docker is a service that allows you to quickly host containerized applications tailored for your hardware.
Web Domain Name
After purchasing a domain name, we can configure SWAG to generate a secure certificate that ensures our server's security and authenticity. Most people will only need a single domain address with sub-domains used for each of our web services. If you are tryi...
Installing an Operating System
Using the graphical installer and a few terminal commands, we can get an operating system installed and up-to-date. This process is different depending on the type of computer you are using.
Network Access
We need to make sure we have network access to our server even if we don't have a display.
Quick-Start Examples
This is an overview of some quick-start computers you can use to create a server for your self-hosted cloud services.
Firmware Configuration
Single-board computers use a file-based system store their settings while traditional computers use a low-level operating system like BIOS or UEFI. We explore some basic configuration options for an always-on server.
Understanding The Requirements
When deciding on what hardware you need for your server, you need to know what you're going to use it for.
Backup Solutions
All servers need an effective and consistent backup solution in case something goes wrong.
Configuring Debian
We need to make some adjustments to the underlying operating system.
Selecting Your Services
There are a wide range of services you can self-host for yourself. Many more are available through Docker Hub, linuxserver.io, and awesome-selfhosted. These are just the ones we've tested.
Router Configuration
We need to set up our router to make sure it's ready to send and receive traffic through the World Wide Web.
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Traditional Computer
Installing Debian on a traditional desktop computer requires us creating a USB flash drive we can boot into during computer startup. Preparing a USB Boot Disk We need to create a USB flash drive that has everything required to boot into an operating system...
Running the Install Script
Docker provides a convenient script for quickly installing their software and getting it ready. You can find the official Docker installation guide on their website. Preparation First, we need to open our terminal to install a small application called c...
Creating Your First Container
We will be installing Portainer, an open-source web application that makes it easy to manage Docker from your browser. Starting Portainer We are adding port 9000 which isn't used by default. This allows Portainer to be accessed through HTTP instead of H...
Remote Desktop
We will be installing xrdp, a service that allows us to remotely access our computer over the local network. This is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol and will work with any software that supports RDP. Installing Remote D...
Connecting Your Personal Server to the Internet
We will need to set our router to forward any requests it gets through port 80 and port 443 to our server. This is how we'll connect our server to the Internet to accept request for web traffic. Web browser traffic uses port 80 for insecure HTTP requests as w...
Administrator Permissions
On Debian, our user account cannot run commands as Root through the terminal. We will be changing this for simplicity sake, allowing us to prefix commands with 'sudo' to run them as if they were run by root. Skip this step when using a Raspberry Pi. We need...
File Sharing
We will be installing Samba, a protocol that allows us to share your files over the local network. This is open-source implementation of Microsoft's SMB protocol. Installation We can install it by entering the following command: sudo apt-get install -...
Graphic Card Integration
Graphic cards handle images and videos much more efficiently than a traditional processor. While using Docker, some media services – such as Plex, Jellyfin or Stash – will run much more efficiently if they have direct access to your graphics card. This proce...
Reserving an IP Address
We've been requesting the same IP for our computer from the router, but this doesn't stop another computer on the network from requesting the same IP address and causing a conduct. It's always best for security and stability to reserve the IP address for our ...
Welcome
Anyone can make a home server and take back control of their data. Self-hosting can improve your digital privacy and security by keeping your data in your home. Host a personal website, build a private cloud, or share with an online community. What is the ...
Computer
What you're planning on doing with your server will dictate the hardware you'll need to fulfill those requirements. Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Computer When you're running one or two services, a Raspberry Pi would probably suffice, while runni...
Single-Board Computers
The Raspberry Pi computer series do not have a battery source to ensure that firmware settings are saved even if the computer loses power. This means that they do not use a conventional BIOS or EFI architecture. Instead, these systems use a configuration f...
Managing Services
Once you've decided which services you would like to have running on your server, you can use the supplied Docker Compose code to create the stack using Portainer. Installing Services Each available service has preparation instructions to ensure you ha...
Workstation Computer
These desktops offer the most versatility and can be upgraded over time. Desktop computers are reliant and extensible, making them a great option for always-on server. They can be upgraded over time, making it easy to add more storage, RAM or a more powerful ...
Getting Started
Background info Before getting started, we should know what we're building. Running your own server is an excellent avenue to explore what it means to think like a designer and a developer. By taking ownership of our own digital security and privacy, we c...
Background
As we come to rely more the Cloud, or digital services hosted on someone else's computer, we must consider how this affects our personal privacy and security. What is the Cloud? Open-source software solutions can put us back in control of our digital experi...
Single-Board Computers
The Raspberry Pi – who popularized this style of computer – currently sell three versions of their board: 3B+, 4, and 5. Other options include: similar vendors such as Banana Pi, Orange Pi and Pine Board; the completely open hardware Libre Board; the Asus Tin...
Mini PC
Small form-factor traditional computers have become popular for creating your own personal media server and set-top boxes using Plex or Jellyfin. These are sold by many notable PC manufacturers, such as Intel NUCs or Dell's OptiPlex and Precision series. The...
EFI & BIOS
Computer hardware has evolved over the years and the industry stardard have continued to shift. This has led to computer hardware that leverage different mechanisms to achieve the same end. For low-level firmware, there are two technologies widely availabl...
Router
There are open hardware router options – such as Turris Omnia and the OpenWRT One – but they can either be expensive or require construction. Many modern and legacy consumer routers work with open firmware like OpenWRT and FreshTomato. Many modern consume...