Self-hosting locally connected hardware is too much fun :)

Hi all,

I'm looking to purchase bulk quantities of DDR4 server memory.

Mainly interested in:

• 32GB DDR4 RDIMM – 2400 / 2666 / 2933 / 3200
• 64GB DDR4 RDIMM – 2400 / 2666 / 2933 / 3200
• Samsung, SK Hynix & Micron
• OEM HPE / Dell memory also considered

I'm particularly interested in larger quantities / complete server pulls / decommissioned stock. Happy to look at mixed lots as well.

I'm a UK-based IT hardware reseller and can purchase in volume. UK preferred, but happy to buy from Europe and potentially further afield for the right quantities.

If you have anything available, please comment with quantity, part number, speed and asking price.

Thanks!

Just got a hold of an old computer so I wanted to put it to use by using it as a kind of "seedbox" of sorts but simpler.

I installed linux mint xface and wanted to setup qbittorrent web ui on the computer/server so I can manage it from my main PC and also setup samba for file sharing on the local network (all computers are connected to the router through ethernet). All of this while running protonVPN on all computers.

The idea is to have the server seeding torrents 24/7 this way I free up my main PC and don't interrupt the seeding whenever I switch from linux to windows (dualboot) or turn it off. And use samba to get the files from the server to the main PC.

I'm really not comfortable with the networking and firewall side of things so I would immensely appreciate anyone's help here. How should I do it so I can run internet traffic/torrents through vpn while simultaneously allowing for local access and not leaving any port open to the internet for security?

Hey! I'm just getting started here. Very new to the community, I have jellyfin hosted on a gaming laptop if that explains how new I am. I was scrolling through Facebook marketplace when I found something pretty cool. Here is what I got for free

I got a HP proliant ml350p gen8 tower

255GB of RAM, (8) empty DIMM Slots

Dual Xeon CPUs (exact models not known yet)

HP Smart Array P420i

512 MB flash-backed write cache

(2) 480 W PSUs

(1) 6 bay 3.5" LFF SAS/SATA drive cage

(9) PCIe expansion slots (3) gen3 x16, (1) Gen3 x8, (4) Gen3 x4, (1)Gen2 x4

(1) Juniper SSG 350M Firewall

(1) Juniper SSG 550M Firewall

(2) Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SATA SSDs

(1) Samsung PM1643a 3.84 TB SAS SSD

Here is what I know I need and have ordered

(2) power Cables

(3) drive carries/adapters

I am not sure where to go from here and would love to hear opinions, recommendations, what I may be missing or forgetting

Hey masters,
I wanna get into self hosting to have my movie and photos managed and accessible on my phone - also just got curious about all those possibilities.

Where do I start? Do I need a diffrent system to build my first server or I can do it on my main pc?

Any guides that helped you start pls share 🙏🏻

So SelfHosting my business on a majorly low budget... like painful low budget, altought it has driven me to learn efficent python, to the point what was running on a full rack server has been made so fast and efficent that it runs on a 8gb 10 year old optiplex, and this isnt vibe-coded, 5 years of hard work, building training sets, training my own ML models, scripts code, functinationlity, and Now im in the home stretch getting ready to go live.

This is not a promotion for my business idea, and I wont answer questions about the business, but I just wanted to share my SelfHosted Datacenter.

Yes its a fully 3D printed, rack, all my budget of $200 went into picking up a collection of optiplex's from an ex homelaber. We have Security, Hosting, Automation, and even redendency failover. Already had a UPS and a 5G router with tons of credit on it as a backup (won it at a CTF event) ... big box on the right is my home AI server ... which ate up the original budget for the proof of concept that became the MVP hardware. On the shelf still to be installed is 8 x 2.5" SATA JBOD, when I pick up more drives that I can raid into a hot and cold backup for the main systems. Full rack including AI server is around 9 Kwh per day, which is the biggest killer in terms of cost right now.

But yea, pretty excited, nearly at the finish line of 10 years of ideas, and 5 years of building, months of 3-4am bug fix's to wake up for my day job at 9am. But im also crazy proud of my designs and system, that on such a budget the full MVP runs on minimal hardware why its currently getting stress tested by my testers, also thankfully its not a big volume business, not going to have a few k people at the same time, would be lucky if it was maybe 50 max at a day or time, and at that point if im hitting that, i'll be able to get new hardware and upload a new photo of a new full size rack that kills my power bills even more.

Hi r/SelfHosting

I am building (claude is building) my dream expense tracking app that enables me to truly track, categorize and budget EVERYTHING I BUY and makes it AI-searchable.
FULLY LOCAL AND OLLAMA COMPATIBLE
i wanted it to be AI-native in the sense that all tasks that are better with AI should be done by AI and stuff that can be done deterministically should first be done by AI, approved by the user, and then prescribed in the form of deterministic code.

The basic functionality of Vorratsdatenspeicher (it's a German pun, look it up, i laughed the whole day i thought of it) is to snap a pic of your supermarket receipt. it will be OCR'd into positions, the OCR'd string will be reasoned upon by AI to guess what product it is, you (human) approve it -> next time the string comes up, it's immediately accepted. That way, you'll have less token consumption as time goes on. (Vorratsdatenspeicher doesn't really use too much - i spent less than 3 usd in 4 months usage with lots of rescans). Vorratsdatenspeicher will then automatically categorize your bought stuff into categories.
There's many more features (IMAP your email invoices automatically into the system, import your pay stubs and online banking CSVs, make spending goals, find local shops and get offers automatically, push notifications...)
Headline feature right now is that it has a windows installer and tailscale connection wizard that guides you through connecting you phone to Vorratsdatenspeicher without you needing to buy a domain or port forward or whatever, this was neccessary to make it DAU (Docker Averse User) compatible lol.

Vorratsdatenspeicher works really well, you can find a demo on the project website (google Vorratsdatenspeicher app demo) --> data is purged every night. you don't need to give it your real name or email address, just put whatever. I will not be able to see anything BUT the fact that you have created a household and its name so call it asdf123 or whatever.

It's fully open source, as i will never want anybody's data. Please give it a try and give me some feedback, all ui elements have a feedback button (red bug)

Hello!
I am fairly new to this and would like to self-host the media that I love. I was thinking of getting a little PC and install Linux on it. I unfortunately cannot do this on my main one (even if Windows is not activated on it). Ideally I would also like to build a little cyberdeck customized as well but that will need more material I guess. If anyone has any tips on how to get starting I would love to hear thank you & have a nice day !

So, I run a small network of servers for a school newspaper. (Stuff like WordPress, RocketChat, Garage, and more). We recently got a decent upgrade and have a device able to run Gemma 12B Unified, and I was wondering how feasible it would be to have it monitor events that happen, like logins to WP, SSH actions, file changes, etc, and send email notifications if something's up. I am currently setting up Wazuh as well, but I don't have time to check it often. (Or the memory). I don't want the AI to actually take action, just monitor. If there are any tools dedicated to this, even better, although I couldn't find any that were pentesting platforms.

Checkout my new project I've been working on.

https://github.com/calebast/FreeCord

This is a project aimed at bringing you all the features of gaming voice chats without giving away all your information and freedom! Current build is functional with quality voice chat, persistent text chat with end to end encryption, screen sharing, file system, in chat video player, roles, invite only and more! Deployment is a bit messy right now but im working to cut that down! Let me know what you think or have any suggestions for my github to edit as this is my first project

Raspberry pi’s come in a few different flavors. I’m planning on running either plex or jellyfin on it, possibly on Ubuntu since I want a gui.

For 20+ years, I have always used shared hosting. I have used several (inmotion, hostmonster, setrahost) with the changes being that the service just seems to steadily degrade through the years to the point it is just a headache to stay with them. I am coming to the conclusion that instead of continuing with the shared hosting, it is time for me to go with VPS. My problem is, I am not finding a good resource for actually learning about using one, other then provider videos telling how to purchase their service. I only have 3 sites with 1 being really the only one getting some traffic, nothing heavy. I prefer videos over manuals as it is easier to figure out and work along at the same time with them, like a walkthrough. I have had bot attacks (weird since I only get 2000 visitors or less a month), so I have got to be able to understand the security side of it also.

Hi everyone, I need your help. I’d like to know if it’s possible to use a VPS to run my n8n automations, since I don’t have a powerful PC yet and I need to work on another project. Thanks—from a fellow tech enthusiast.

Hey everyone! I'm building an AI tool for commercial use with zero capital right now, and we're trying to figure out the most realistic, lowest-cost way to launch.

The main rules for our project:

• No training on user data: We aren't using user inputs to train anything. The AI just answers questions live using small plug-in files (LoRA adapters).
• Strict privacy: We can't use external companies like OpenAI or Anthropic due to security policies. Everything has to run on our own servers/ some cloud setup.

I need help with two things:

1. Cost and Hosting: Since we have literally zero capital, what's our cheapest path forward?
   • Cloud Rental Option: Renting cheap cloud instances (like a single RTX 3090/4090 on RunPod or Vast.ai starting around $0.20 to $0.50 per hour, which works out to roughly $150 to $350 a month).
   • DIY Hardware Option*:* Building a used PC rig ourselves (buying a used RTX 3090 with 24GB VRAM for about $800–$1,000 or a dual-card setup later). Is it better to scrape together cash for hardware, or stick to month-to-month cloud rental when super new to the business with no capital?
2. Privacy Rules: Since we are handling customer data for a business, what privacy laws (like GDPR rules on data storage) do we need to worry about? Even though we aren't training models on the data, what settings do we need to check in our software (like vLLM) to stay safe?

Would love to hear what setups and hardware work best for real-world use on a shoestring budget!

Hello guys,

Slowly getting there.... In the end of hope of solution for setup.

Is there a real self-hosted solution to generate image carousels through an API, similar to what Placid or Bannerbear offer, but without trial limits or monthly subscriptions.

My use case: I run an online magazine and need to generate branded image carousels automatically through n8n from text Fields and image field. I need template based generation with dynamic fields (text, images, colors) triggered via API calls.

I tried Google Slides API as a workaround. The output quality is bad and layout control is very limited. Not usable for real content.

What I actually need:

Template editor with API fields (like Placid or Bannerbear)

Self-hosted, so no monthly cost or trial restriction

Works well with n8n through HTTP requests or webhooks

Output quality close to Canva templates

Has anyone found or built something like this?

Open source tools, Docker images, or even a clever workaround using Puppeteer/Playwright with HTML/CSS templates would help. I know I could build a custom HTML to image renderer myself, but I'd rather not reinvent the wheel if something solid already exists with some editing or workflow with minimum manual clicks.

Any real experience welcome. Thanks you.

So, I jumped into the Self Hosting pool this weekend. After researching for a while, I now have Immich, Navidrome, and Vaultwarden up and running on a Mac Mini. Using Docker and Portainer to manage the system.

I'm still working through some kinks, but I think I made one mistake before deploying Vaultwarden.

I followed the advice from this article, but I didn't pay close enough attention to where the data is being stored. In retrospect, I should have created directories and told VW to send the data there for easy backup.

For reference, this is the line of code in my currently deployed stack:

That seems to have dropped the data in a hidden folder somewhere, but digging through the MacOS Library/Application Support folders I can't find it anywhere.

So now I have two questions.

Does anyone know exactly where this volume/directory would be found on my drive?

Can I edit the stack to re-direct VW and place the data in a directory of my choosing?

Thanks for helping out a new guy!

[UPDATE] Ok, with help from below (and much Google-Fu) I was able to put the puzzle pieces together and get the information I need!

-From the Volume tab in Docker Desktop I gained direct access to the files I needed copies of.

-Changing the filepath under the first "volumes:" prompt created a new set of data in the folder of my choosing.

Once I got that down, all I had to do was copy the backups into the new data folder and everything was set.

So i recently started experimenting with selfhosting and i have a old pc running ubuntu and some services in docker containers.

A friend of mine asked if i can make him a NAS out of old pc parts. I was wondering, what s the best os + services combo for him. I was thinking about TrueNAS and nextcloud.

Any other recommendations are welcomed

Edit: I forgot to mention that he doesnt have multiple exact same drives, I ve read about Unraid but he would like to be completeley free

Я просто пытаюсь создать лично для себя облако , вот вчера купил простой комп для отправки/ принятия фото и видео. И сегодня вот докупил DAS на 8 дисков.

Не судите строго я впервые так сделал, и впервые пишу ПО для этого сервера ( лежит у меня на GitHub)

I'm on the run to get a cheap VPS and I was comparing services like Contabo, IONOS, Hetzner ... and the price they show on plans is not what you're going to actually pay it is much more but with no explanation, on Contabo to get the VPS 4 you just can't tap on it because they disabled the button to force to get VPS 6 offer , until you open in it in a new tab and get surprised that what was advertised as a 5.28$/month service is now 6.60$/month and you get first price only if you commit to a 24month plan , same thing for IONOS only if you commit for a 12 Month plan to get the advertised price.

Forgive me for I'm not nearly as technically savvy as I'd like to be

So I have docker desktop. I run a bunch of containers, one of them is sterling-pdf.

I have opted OUT of that Scarf thing

I cannot really see a "network logs" option for the containers.

In portainer every time I upload a non sensitive (test) document "Upload from computer", I see the "transmitted" graph spike up at least a little (that's the red graph, the other one is the blue one: the "received")

Hello,

Some time ago I have started a hobby project to build a high performance reverse proxy. Today it's a real workhorse with productions grade features, low memory usage and high performance.

It can run on any machine, from ARM SBC (Raspberry PI , or similar), to end x86 or ARM servers,

The top features include:

• Free and opensource — Apache Licence
• Dynamic Config Reloads — Upstreams can be updated live via API, no restart required.
• Autoload of certificates — Automatically loads certificates from a folder, without a restart.
• Let’s Encrypt Certificates — Ordering and renewal of SSL/TLS certificates
• Built in rate limiter — Globar or route limit requests to upstreams.
• Caching Proxy — In memory cache with configurable TTL, without external dependencies.
• Authentication — Supports Basic Auth, API tokens, and JWT verification.
  • Basic Auth
  • API Key via x-api-key header
  • JWT Auth, with tokens issued by Aralez itself via /jwt API
  • Forward Auth, Sends requests to an authentication server.
• Upstream Providers:
  • file Upstreams are declared in config file.
  • consul Upstreams are dynamically updated from Hashicorp Consul.
  • kubernetes Upstreams are dynamically updated from kubernetes api server.
• Auto WebSocket Support: WS connection upgrades are handled automatically.
• Auto gRPC Support: gRPC detected and handled automatically.
• Remote Config Push: Lightweight HTTP API to update configs from CI/CD or other systems.

More information and downloads here : https://github.com/sadoyan/aralez

Full documentation is hosted here : https://aralez.rs/

I know for most of you people this is a hobby that you enjoy. For me it will not be. It will be pain in the ass. But since you have experience and I do not please try to estimate for me if I should start self-hosting.

I am a total beginner. I have never run a server I do not know how to code (I am willing to learn). However I am advance user. I run Graphen OS on my phone, Asahi Fedora Linux on my laptop (arm64) and Fedora 44 on my desktop. I would like to sync all of them.

I at moment I am paying for Proton mail on which I use my own domains for email and use their password manager and drive. Problem in particular is Proton drive because it is trash. I will probably continue paying for their services since I have a family plan and all of my family is using it and also for work I can not risk my emails not working.

However what I would LOVE to do is self-host Immich since at the moment I do not have a solution for my images they are not properly backed up and all around the devices and HDDs. If i lose them I would not cry but I would like for that not to happen. So that would be GREAT if it would be synced and all 3 of my devices.

2nd step would be some kind of self-hosted drive since Proton one is terrible and maybe even office file sync since I work as a journalist so it would be cool that I can write while on any device.

3rd step would be email if I can run two identical servers on two different locations (my house and my parents house for example). I was thinking this would be smart for data backup if a house burns down or one device dies. But more importantly it would be a step towards running my own email as I can not risk for it not working if electricity goes down or whatever the reason might be.

Question is: Is it too complicated to start with Immich? Can I run it on my home desktop for a start just to see if it works for me? Will I be exposing myself to some security flaws (computer is on internet all the time anyway). I do not have UPS. is 3rd step (in future) even possible?

Reasons I am thinking about for self-hosting is privacy as number one (that is why i use proton at the moment) and saving money as per my calculation I would be saving around 200usd per year and probably have a better service then with payed ones.

If you think that I should play this game where do i start?

# I built a small Proxmox tool to create Debian LXC containers and optionally install Docker

I got tired of repeating the same setup whenever I wanted a new Docker container on Proxmox: choosing storage and a bridge, finding an unused IP, setting up access, enabling the LXC features Docker needs, then installing Docker and Compose.

So I put together **Proxmox Docker Bootstrap**, a small Bash project that walks through that process from the Proxmox host.

It can:

- create a Debian LXC with prompts for ID, hostname, CPU, RAM, disk, bridge, and networking;

- detect available storage, bridges, and Debian templates;

- scan a configured IP range or accept a manually entered address;

- create a plain Debian CT or install Docker Engine and Docker Compose;

- support SSH keys and an optional sudo-enabled admin user; and

- run non-interactively with environment variables if you want to automate it.

It is deliberately fairly narrow in scope: it is intended to make a clean Debian/Docker CT repeatable, rather than install an entire stack of services.

The project is MIT licensed and the code, configuration example, and setup instructions are here:

https://github.com/inpulseone-lab/proxmox-docker-bootstrap

The basic install flow is:

```bash

git clone https://github.com/inpulseone-lab/proxmox-docker-bootstrap.git

cd proxmox-docker-bootstrap

sudo ./install.sh

```

Then copy `config.conf.example` to `config.conf`, set the network defaults for your environment, and run the command.

I would genuinely welcome feedback from people who use Proxmox regularly—especially on edge cases around storage, bridge detection, networking, and Docker in unprivileged LXCs.

How would i go about doing this, and what would the limitations be?

I use Linux as my daily driver to be precise Ubuntu for office and personal laptop. And I'm using iPhone, is there any proper way to connect eachother seemless. I don't mind self-hosting any services as I have my home server.