I have a Pixel 8… a PC with Linux Mint. How do I learn to “self host”. Mainly for photo storage backup. Where do I start? I know nothing, absolutely nothing
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So I successfully set it up, but I don’t understand why I have to be hooked onto the same internet in order for it to work. What kind of crap server is that? How on earth do I connect to it or set up a connection so I can access it from anywhere?
How do I learn
…you say in your OP. Yet instead of learning, you complain “what kind of crap server is that”. You don’t learn by thinking anything is the softwares fault.
It is perfectly normal, that you can reach the server IN your home network only when you are connected TO your home network. That is a security feature by your router and thus by design. But in order to learn how to open it up, you would need to be willing to learn. About security, about networking, about how to find servers, i.e. the internet and more.
But for the beginning: how is that even bad or crap? Like, it saves your photos when you come home and connect to wifi. Awesome, congrats!
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Your right about the last part but then it begs to ask… Why set up this service or server when I can just use a Good Old USB cable? 😒
I also knew nothing about self hosting, but wanted to move away from Google photos, and that eventually led me towards self-hosting and immich.
Most people recommend using something like Tailscale so you can access your server from anywhere. That wouldn’t necessarily work for me, because I wanted to be able to share links to pics and videos with friends/family who wouldnt be a part of my Tailscale network.
I ended up purchasing a cheap domain, and using cloudflare to allow me to share links broadly. (Because my family deserves better quality videos of my adorable children than the compressed crap that comes through in a group message between iOS and android. I have tried SO hard to convince them to move our group chat do a different platform but I have failed.). It’s probably ill-advised for somebody who knows as little as I do to go this route, but I’m filled with the un-earned confidence of a middle-aged white man.
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@net00 @Toasted_Breakfast Now you need to start getting some knowledge around routing and networking. Have a look at #Wireguard or #Tailscale to securely access your network remotely. Remember its a journey … you are going to learn things bit by bit.
How his looks like exactly what I needed! Thanks. Is this “self hosting”?
Think of self-hosting as - instead of depending on cloud services from other entities (google/apple/whoever), you host those services yourself by running them on your own pc or maybe your secondary pc running 24/7 (usually locally, in your own home).
Some common services might be automatic photo backup and storage (like immich), or running an adblocker for your home network, or streaming movie/music from your hard drive to your phone/TV (like jellyfin).
I started self-hosting on my desktop first with Plex and the *arr stack, before buying a mini-PC and spinning up these apps on Proxmox.
I’m surprised I had to go this far to find immich. I 100% recommend it, and yes it’s selfhosting if you run it yourself. Still selfhosted even if you use a VPS as long as you control and administer it.
For hardware, I actually recommend against raspberry pis these days. You can get a cheap mini PC that’s much more performant and better supported for the same price as a pi plus the accessories (SD card, case, power supply, etc). Use Debian or Ubuntu as host and follow the guide on the github for installation.
I set up the server following the introduction instructions, but what I don’t get is I have to be connected to the same Wi-Fi or Internet I mean in order to connect to it. What is the point of that? How do I make it so things just upload from my phone to the server?
You need to open a port on your router for it to be accessible from the outside world (example your phone on LTE or a different wifi) , this is not a limitation of the software but a security feature of your router
@LordKitsuna @Toasted_Breakfast I wouldn’t recommend this as a starting point. Rather I would go down the route of starting to learn about VPNs and DMZs - Open ports on networks can end badly.
Not even looking into VPNs in general. He can start by looking into tailscale specifically. But I agree opening ports should be a NO GO, especially for beginners.
DMZs on consumer hardware aren’t a good idea either. Recently checked my DSL router out of curiosity after reading a post about it . Seems what consumer hardware often does in a DMZ is dropping the firewall to the outside completely for the affected devices while not isolating the rest of the network from them.
To be fair until very recently immich would have been a horrible recommendation for someone that is completely new to self hosting because almost every other update was a breaking change that required you to carefully read before updating.
And even if you tried if your installation was old enough eventually your compose file would Drift Away from what main line was and you basically had to seek the help of the developers to fix it up.
It only just recently released what is supposed to be the stable line that should hopefully no longer need these large breaking changes
@Toasted_Breakfast How aboit starting with something like #yunohost
I can confirm that Yunhost is one of the best ways to start learning self-hosting. The only “bad thing” I can say is that sometimes it’s so easy that you actually don’t learn any thing.
The only “bad thing” I can say is that sometimes it’s so easy that you actually don’t learn any thing.
I learned a lot. Definitely a whole lot less than if I had done it “from scratch”. But also, I never would have done that. I tried and failed several times.
+1 for Yunohost. Easy to deploy, and their app catalog is substantial.
Another +1 for YUNOhost. I went from zero experience self-hosting to having my own email, fediverse instance, file server and several websites on a VPS. I would never have had the patience to figure this out without it.
So, for all you ^5’ing Yunohost, I have a question that’s bothered me for years. Like I said, their app catalog beats anything else in it’s category, but they also list apps that don’t work…separately of course and labeled as such. I’ve always wondered why. Is it in hopes that someone will fix them? …or what?
Get yourself the cheapest n150 box you can, the 4 port versions are good im case you decise to upgade and convert it to a fw later. Get a 4tb 2.5 ssd if you afford it and a chewp dual or more jbod external for safe backups.
Every year upgrade and stick to proxmox and opnsnese untill/unless you have reason otherwise.
why sdd for storage? 4 tb hd costs less than half of an ssd. even for the system it’s enough, if you can stomach a 20 sec boot instead of 5
I keep seeing similar pricing for both, 110-130€. Could you please share where i might find cheaper?
oh okay if you can get a 4tb ssd for 130€ that’s a good deal, if it’s not a scam
If you really want to self host but you aren’t interested in a lot of dirty work then you can get a Synology and use Synology photos, right next to Synology drive ( Google Drive substitute) and everything else substitute.
It “just works” and it handles all of the updates/security for me. Even includes secure enough access via quickconnect so I can connect over the Internet.
That said it costs more than diy, and I have hardware limits. I can’t just get 2 more drives and hook them up. I have a 2 bay Synology so I would need a whole new unit to get 2 more bays. It’s better for me to just buy bigger drives.
Software wise - if it isn’t in the Anyone App Store then you can just use docker so it covers everything.
But as someone who is already busy enough with a full time tech job and 2 kids. This solution works for me
KDE connect and/or Synching/Syncthing-fork.
I don’t think you’re ready for self-hosting, but getting these installed and sorted out will help you move along that path, plus it will meet your needs in the mean time.
Bit, as others have suggested, get familiar with networking a bit.
You might want to get a raspberry pi or cheap SBC with a good amount of memory and disk space, and fuck around for a bit, trying some things.
Agreed. Syncthing is the first thing everybody should have. Takes care of some many things already that half the (self-)hosting is not even necessary anymore.
Buy a PC, install debian, install tailscale, install immich. Done.
i started in january of this year because i upgraded my wife’s computer. that gave me an old computer to tinker with.
i recommend getting an old computer, installing an OS (look up thinks like truenas, proxmox, unraid… there are more and they are different; try them all out if you want to see what you like)
then go onto youtube and search for things like “<OS> beginner” and you will get a bunch of tips/tricks/tutorials/etc. for starting out with your favorite.
Immich is a fantastic photo backup service that is a replacement for Google Photos both in form and function.
There’s a demo at demo.immich.app to see what it looks like and what you can do with it. As far as self hosting stuff goes it’s relatively easy to setup. Work through the setup guide and see if you can understand that to get it running.
What it will do is make it available on any devices on your local (WiFi or wired) network. You will need to open a port on the Linux box’s firewall, but that step is easy and I can show you how to do that on Mint. Then you’ll be able to connect to it from your phone or any other devices (or right from a browser right on the server).
If you have any questions feel free to ask. I have a few things running on a Mint server I have.
If you are interested in the photo storage then start… With the storage.
So pick up a nas or something similar, pay a bit more for the super intuitive fancy gui product and the start from there.
Learn what is nas and how to connect to a pc Thne learn how to do the same with your smartphone Then learn a bit about networking Then… Continuous for the hardest itch and try to Scratch it
And if you need support, come back here, check videos and web pages or even chatgpt, for the basic stuff is quite acceptable
KDE Connect works for both
I would personally recommend starting with a Pi-hole. It’s easy to set up and provides an immediate improvement to your whole internet experience.
Try to follow the official guide or use a Docker container.
But pihole is not a photo backup
But a great start to get into selfhosting. What’s an IP? What is a DNS? How do I connect to via ssh? What’s the job of DHCP? Pretty basic stuff, your learning in the process.
Yup. You got to start with the tedious and the boring before you get to the glamorous where your friends ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ about your set up.
One option you could explore since you didn’t list any other equipment, is a cheap VPS. You can pick one up at LowEndBox for cheap. I have a couple VPS test servers that run about $25 a year. That would help you get your feet wet a bit. You could learn how to deploy Linux server along with the standard defense systems in place like Fail2Ban, UFW, etc.
Or even a small NUC or RPi.
Agreed. For actual backup, I’d put it in the cloud.
Really, I’d run immich locally, and then back that up to the cloud, but that depends on how valuable the data really is to you.
Really, I’d run immich locally,
There ya go. Encrypted of course. That way OP can still learn to stand up a proper server and defenses before it almost instantaneously attracts the attention of literally any or all of the 1.5 billion known, active, automated bot accounts at this moment +/- show up at your port 22 doorstep and helping themselves to your resources.
The very first linux server I stood up on a vps, was taken over quite quickly. So, that spurred me on to read tutorials, scour chans and forums, just looking for guidance and knowledge. Now, I understand a lot more that I did way back when so it’s gotten easier. Not that I house a vast trove of wisdom or knowledge…pffffttt…that does not exist. I learn something new all the time. That’s one of the aspects I really love about self hosting.
Of course. Personally I wouldn’t expose anything to the Internet but a VPN service.
Start by searching for how to selfhost a photo storage backup. There are multiple ways to do it and the decision depends on your circumstances and preferences, which only you know.
Buy used enterprise hardware for cheap, install Unraid, dip your toes in… Then if you enjoy tinkering, evolve from there.
Unraid does everything I want so I’ve kinda plateaued for the moment.
Agreed to buy used hardware but be aware of power draw (and noise sometimes)
Well for starters if you want something more out-of-the box, just buy a NAS. But what woult be better is to buy a Raspberry Pi 5 and add a micro sd with good amount of storage or maybe some additional external storage and install CasaOS(this is basically a easy UI that allows you to self-host mostly without commands) and install Immich within its App Store, and link it up with your phone(on the Immich app).(If you need any more help DM)
@SharkStudios @Toasted_Breakfast If you are going RaspberryPI - Isn’t an SSD a better starting point for storage? - But the best is to work with what you have - the PC
CasaOS
I tried CasaOS. Pretty slick piece of software.
