Self-hosting is cool!

Hey y’all long time no blog

Introduction

This is once again, a mult-faceted blog post.

It’s also the first time I’ve written a blog post in a while.

I didn’t really feel the need until now, but I do like leaving these here incase someone out there actually finds them! Cool stuff right? A piece of the internet I’m hoping sticks around and gets archived honestly. Maybe it won’t, maybe this post dies with me at some point, but despite everything it’s nice to be an optimist.

So let’s kick this post off with a few small misc updates on my existence! Then I’ll yap about the joys of self-hosting, and some obstacles. It’s been fun so far!

Small updates

I moved, the internet is in fact, better. My life has gotten a little more stressful and the new job being so far away means I’ll probably move again (oh yeah new job, hopefully!) but that’s fine.

I have a new dog now, or rather my parents do, did I ever mention the last few dogs? When I move out they won’t be much of my concern despite my parents best efforts to make it that way, but it is a factor that makes moving out more of a headache for sure.

I also attended my second con ever, ConFuzzled, my first being Scotiacon. I think I’ll probably write up a post about Why You Should Visit Conventions If You Are A Furry in the future. Maybe even style it like a BuzzFeed article for fun.

And then I’ve started running some Carved from Brindlewood systems, Public Access right now, but atleast one of my groups will be subjected to a second CfB game afterwards if I have something to say about it!

So about that self-hosting I owe ya…

I want to start this section by saying, self-hosting is awesome. I’m about to mention something really annoying but I promise, despite my pain and suffering. It’s great. “So what is your pain and suffering?” I’m glad you asked. The first major pain point was the constant restarts. Oh boy the constant restarts. I never really pinned them down in the end. I think I have a solid idea what they could be caused by (sftp interacting with the network card, thanks realtek?) but it could also be related to the motherboard + cpu combo on the linux kernel. Really, I have no idea why they stopped, but I’m glad they did. If they come back I will be probably seeing how my machine functions without the file manager I’m using for my friend.

Now that the painpoint out of the way, did you know it’s so fucking cool to have your own Navidrome and Jellyfin servers? I have 0 reliance on any subscription service for content, and music I own I can play on my devices wherever I want! It RULES, like really, if you have the opportunity try it. I may as well go into a list of things I’m selfhosting on my homelab right now.

Things running on my little homelab:

• Jellyfin
• Various things I won’t name for the Jellyfin server for getting content (that I legally own!)
• 3 FoundryVTT instances for different groups (1 is for a friend)
• A Minecraft Server (Cobbleverse)
• Pelican Panel for managing the game server and any future I may wish to install (it rules)
• Navidrome
• Owncast for streaming more low-key than centralized Twitch
• A cool pdf reader called Inkheart that’s been powering my rulebooks for TTRPGs
• And more!

“Why put and more?” You scream, fear not I have an answer-

Migrating some Things

If you know anything about me, you may know I play FFXIV. How is this relevant you ask? Well it’s not actually that relevant, but within XIV there is modding tools clientside, and a plugin that lets you sync these visuals over a server. I am currently hosting this on a VPS, but I’m actually not migrating that?

How come?

My sync server isn’t really used that much so I’ll sunset it… But you see, this is actually a bait and switch because I have migrated something else I used the same expensive VPS for - Matrix.

The Matrix protocol is a mess, that I can’t deny, but despite my low usage of it. I like having it around and still have Spaces I chat in, so I like having my server. Thus, I moved it to my homelab where it sits comfortably. With the services on that expensive VPS only being the sync server, and the Matrix server. I am now free to stop paying around 18 Euros a month. This is a net gain for me. I, of course, still have one VPS…

Why still have a VPS?

For email. Mail is a nightmare, if your IP isn’t trusted it’s game over. So having a VPS with a trsuted enough IP to run my mailserver on is imperative. This then means I can also route all over traffic through this VPS instead of exposing my full network to the internet.

Just exposing the parts of my homelab that should be public feels a lot less nervewracking. I’m sure someday my homelab will get hacked, or explode or something bad will happen. But you know? It’ll be fine, cause my website writings are all on my cheap VPS anyway. Which is a great benefit, really all I’d lose is my Matrix server, but I will be making backups of that so that I can restore it if I ever have a situation! And honestly, this cheap VPS can hold a bunch of static sites for me (like this one!), which is just as good a reason.

I do have one last thing to migrate somewhere though… which is my git deployment. I’ll be doing that sometime in the next week, but it’s so insignifcant and I honestly might be starting over in Forgejo. We’ll see where it goes.

Final Word

If you get the reference you get it.

All in all, I’ve been having a good time tinkering recently, it really has taken a lot of effort, but it’s brought me lots of joy. I’ve learned a few extra skills I didn’t have before, and I’m now hosting a majority of things that are reproducible on my own hardware in my own home!

Neat!

It really has been a journey, especially with the crashes, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. When I do move again I’ll always have the ability to take my haphazard homelab with me, and I’ll cherish it’s existence. When it breaks? No problem, hopefully the RAM persists. God RAM prices suck.

See y’all next time!

(I will try and write here more I promise if for some reason you read this shit.)