Self-hosting is managing your own applications and data instead of relying on external services. It offers greater control, privacy, and customization but comes with a steep learning curve. Before diving in, itâs crucial to understand that self-hosting requires technical knowledge and can be time-consuming.
recommendations
- start with a purpose: Identify what you want to achieve through self-hosting (e.g., privacy, control) to stay motivated.
- start small and gradually scale: Donât overwhelm yourself by trying to host everything at once. Donât get a public server first, start on a local virtual machine, or use a Raspberry Pi/Old computer/âŠ
- take your time: nobody can understand new application in a short time. be prepared to spend days and weeks learning how it works
- Join the Communities: Resources like this forum, subreddits r/selfhosted and r/nextcloud offer support and guidance
- Security: Prioritize securing your server
- Backups: frequently back up your data to prevent loss
- read 101: backup what and why (not how)
- Ultimate test: restore everything just from your backup!
additional notes
If you are scared of this lengthy list of technologies to learn or simply donât want to care about all this stuff - use âmanagedâ instances.. depending on your needs you it scales from single user shared instance account to a full-blown installation for a family, club or small company: https://nextcloud.com/providers/
There are many great projects simplifying installation and operation of such complex piece of software as Nextcloud take a look before you start from scratch:
- All-in-One aio
- Docker community image + docker-compose-setup-with-notify-push-2024 docker-compose
- NCP ncp
- Hansson VM vm
- Native/baremetal install baremetal
- Nextcloud snap wiki and support snap
If you start from the beginning and donât know which solution to choose: stick to technologies you already know. Each complex application like Nextcloud has many challenges for a newbie and you donât want add a burden of learning new technology on top of new application. It is quite easy to move from one installation method to another (see server_migration) if you decide to switch later.
conclusion
Self-hosting offers many advantages, empowers you to manage your own data and applications but it comes with responsibilities. Be sure to understand the pros and cons and ensure you have the time and technical aptitude to manage your own system and enjoy taking control of your digital life.
Self-hosting on the other hand means: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN (but not left alone). Especially if it comes to problems. Make sure you are able and willing to solve these by your own experiences and/or the internet (see above)
required Technical Knowledge
Self-hosting requires technical knowledge. You donât need to become a professional but understanding concepts and tools helps. Be prepared to learn at least basics about ALL following topics:
- Linux Essentials: Familiarity with the Linux operating system is helpful (file system, processes and services, user permissions, logging)
- Command Line: command line is necessary for configuration and troubleshooting
- Backup/Restore (backup)
is the most important topic. at some time you will experience data_loss so you want to be prepared!- always have proper 3-2-1 Backup to recover from the biggest disaster you can imagine (server breakdown/malware/fire/earthquake/NSA) see 101: backup what and why (not how) for details
- understand implement and continuously perform tasks to protect your system from software, hardware and human error, including malicious actors
- Networking routing and firewall basics: Understand how devices connect and communicate on the internet.
- ip addresses + routing (ipv6 is growing)
- firewall
- port forwarding
- http + tls certificates (letsencrypt)
- know how dns works and how to troubleshoot name resolution
- DNS-rebind protection rebind_protection
- Split-Brain DNS 101: Split-Brain DNS (split-horizon)
- Server management: add/remove/configure server and applications
- resource usage (cpu/memory/disk)
- storage
- Database: Nextcloud runs on postgresql or MariaDB (Mysql) mariadb
- Webserver: Nextcloud runs on Apache or Nginx
- Clients: every device accessing your server has itâs own specifics:
- Windows/Linux/Mac desktop client desktop-client
- Android/IOS devices mobile
- different web browser (Chrome/Firefox/Safari/mobile)
- Security (security):
- choose/enforce secure passwords, MFA mfa
- constantly keep your server up to date
- monitor for unusual patterns
- understand attack vectors and choose protecting measures
- Troubleshooting
- sooner than later there will be an issue in one the above areas.. it helps if you already know the tools, log file locations (see 101: logging, which logs exist, how to access and understand) to perform effective troubleshooting