I’m trying to better understand hosting a Lemmy Instance. Lurking discussions it seems like some people are hosting from the Cloud or VPS. My understanding is that it’s better to futureproof by running your own home server so that you have the data and the top most control of hardware, software etc. My understanding is that by hosting an instance via Cloud or VPS you are offloading the data / information to a 3rd party.

Are people actually running their own actual self-hosted servers from home? Do you have any recommended guides on running a Lemmy Instance?

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    1 year ago

    actually have a server at home

    I haven’t got any piece of hardware that was sold with the firstname “Server”.

    But there’s this self-built PC in my room that’s running 24/7 without having to reboot in several years…

  • capy_bara@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    I’d say there are levels to selfhosting. Hosting your stuff on the cloud is selfhosting, but hosting it on your own hardware is a more “pure” way of doing it imo. Not that it’s better, both have their advantages, but it’s certainly a more committed to the idelal

  • space@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    141·
    1 year ago

    Self hosting basically means you are running the server application yourself. It doesn’t matter if it’s at home, on a cloud service or anywhere else.

    I wouldn’t recommend hosting a social network like lemmy, because you would be legally responsible for all the content served from your servers. That means a lot of moderation work. Also, these types of applications are very demanding in terms of data storage, you end up with an ever growing dataset of posts, pictures etc.

    But self hosting is very interesting and empowering. There are a lot of applications you can self host, from media servers (Plex, Jellyfin), personal cloud (like Google Drive) with NextCloud, blocking ads with pihole, sync servers for various apps like Obsidian, password manager BitWarden etc. You can even make your own website by coding it, or using a CMS platform like WordPress.

    Check the Awesome Self-hosted list on GitHub, has a ton of great stuff.

    And in terms of hardware, any old computer or laptop can be used, just install your favorite server OS (Linux, FreeBSD/OpenBSD, even Windows Server). You can play with virtualization too if you have enough horsepower and memory with ESXI or Proxmox, so you can run multiple severs at once on the same computer.

  • MolochAlter@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    Yep, big ol’ case under my desk with some 20TB of storage space.

    Most of what I host is piracy related 👀

  • thisisawayoflife@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    Some stuff is just better hosted in a proper data center. Like mail, DNS or a search engine. Some stuff, like sensitive data, is better hosted on your own hardware in your home.

  • sparr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    1 year ago

    Most people who “self host” things are still doing it on a server somewhere outside their home. Could be a VPS, a cloud instance, colocated bare metal, …

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I pay Dreamhost for a beef pc VPS, that’s what “selfhosted” means to me. I host all kinds of shit on it.

  • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I do both. I have a custom built NAS based on a Ryzen 3600 and ZFS across 4 drives which runs about 20 self hosted applications and stores the majority of my files but its only accessible from within the home. I also rent a small VPS for personal webspace and hosting self hosted apps I want out of the house.

    In the past I have also hosted raw servers from Hetzner or bigger VPS from Amazon for the purpose of hosting a game server. Alongside those I often had community applications like website, forums, wikis and custom chat and voice comms services.

    Its all self hosting to me since I run it. The various options are all about the trade offs of security, accessibility, cost and performance. The cheaper cloud options when you add it up can be cheap compared to buying and running your own hardware when you take into account electrical costs and the likely hardware replacement needs within 5 years. The big cloud providers aren’t price competitive but Contabo/Hetzner really surprisingly are especially if you pay a lot for electricity. But then if you need a game server it can be quite hard to find good fast CPUs on the cloud and its not going to be 24/7 for communities, so the trade off flips back to having your own.

    Since I got 1 gbit/s fibre internet my need for internal NAS has definitely reduced as the internet is nearly as fast as the local network so I could now have my NAS needs remote.

  • PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.mlEnglish
    42·
    1 year ago

    Certain cloud providers are as secure, if not more secure, than a home lab. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, et al. are responding to 0-day vulnerabilities on the reg. In a home lab, that is on you.

    To me, self-hosted means you deploy, operate, and maintain your services.

    Why? Varied…the most crucial reason is 1) it is fun because 2) they work.

    • spooksboots@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I mean, as long as you patch regularly and keep backups, you should be good enough. That’s most of what responding to a zero day is, anyway, patching.

  • stown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I ran one for a few months until I woke up one morning and it wasn’t working. As I was the only person using it, I didn’t bother to troubleshoot and just signed up for an account at lemmy.world.

    If you want to run your own I recommend you check out the ansible install route. It’s really simple and straightforward once you wrap your head around ansible.