I got Jellyfin up and running, it’s 10/10. I love this thing, and it reinvigorated my love for watching movies. So I decided to tackle all the other services I wanted, starting with Paperless-ngx…
What a nightmare. It doesn’t have a Windows install so I made an Ubuntu VM. Don’t get me started on Ubuntu. I just spent about 12hrs trying to get Portainer to cooperate and had to give up. I tried just installing Paperless the “normal way” and had to give up on that too.
My point: if you’re getting started selfhosting you have to embrace and accept the self-inflicted punishment. Good luck everybody, I don’t know if I can keep choosing to get disappointed.
Edit: good news! Almost everything I wanted to do is covered by Jellyfin which can be done in Windows.
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I know linux isn’t for everyone, but self hosting on windows is self-inflicted punishment. It’s just not the right platform. Sure it’s doable, but it’s death by a thousand papercuts.
How so?
Windows is just not ready for this stuff. Most of this stuff is built for Linux. Linux is THE server OS. And windows is painful for developers too, so there’s less solutions for it.
You’ll be a lot better off with Linux for self hosting.
Absolutely do not do this on windows. It makes everything a nightmare. Bare metal install ubuntu server and install docker/portainer. Its 5 copy pasted commands and you never have to look at the terminal ever again if you don’t want to.
My point: if you’re getting started selfhosting you have to embrace and accept the self-inflicted punishment. Good luck everybody, I don’t know if I can keep choosing to get disappointed.
I would say that your self inflicted punishment is using windows. Switch to debian and thank me in six months
I respect your opinion, but I’ll pass
Well then maybe you should also pass on making generalizations about selfhosting?
What generalization? You mean the widely accepted pain that comes from it?
It’s a lot more painful if you don’t know what you’re doing and disregard good advice.
I will be one of many saying this: if you want to self-host you need to learn Linux. It can be done, but this is not like taking a pottery class and you don’t really get to show anyone, the only people who will understand are people who are also able to do what you do. It’s rewarding on many levels, but pleasure and sociality are not among those rewards. :>
You must imagine selfhosters happy.
I recently ditched Portainer entirely - it looks good, but when debugging anything it is really not helpful, often getting in the way. And if it runs on the first try I don’t need a web interface.
My tips:
- Run self hosted things on Linux and open their webpages on Windows if you really want or need to keep using Win.
- Prefer
docker compose“stacks” over docker directly or native installs. Personally, I just use 4 sub-commands for pretty much everything I do:up,down,pullandlogs. You (probably) don’t need Portainer. - If after 1. making sure the
docker-compose.yamlis right, 2. setting up the.envfile if present, and 3. following the instructions in their README; a container stack doesn’t run after 2 or 3 attempts: copy the error message and search their GitHub issues - chances are someone else also faced that problem. If you can’t find anything similar, open a new issue.
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It’s essentially a GUI for Docker. It has its own quirks that, in my opinion, don’t match Docker’s UX and can make it more complicated to customize deployment. But Portainer can make multiple environments or dozens of containers easier to manage. e.g. I do most of the actual work using compose yamls but use Portainer as a reference to organize subnets, ports, and volumes. Or if I’m unsure what the problem is and just want to see all the details of each container faster.
Motivation is a luxury
Maybe it’s hard at the beginning but as you keep doing it becomes easier. If you feel overwhelmed take a break for a few days and try again later. I think we all have been there and hit a wall. Self host, open source and Linux communities are friendly you can ask for help and find someone willing to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask for help (as I was before). Just take small steps.
Don’t give up. Have fun.
It was a pain for me and it still is sometimes, but I like it. I found myself enjoying thinkering more than actual services I host hehe. I think its rewarding, but yeah it can be frustrating. I personaly know exactly 0 people that heard about docker, so dont feel bad about being lost and failing that attempt. If you dont want to manage a server you dont have to give up on linux completely. I started using POPOS! few months ago and its more friendly than windows IMO, it just works! Good luck mate
Been there, done that. Start with something frendlier. I personally love CasaOS (its just 1 command you need to copy-paste on a fresh ubuntu server install)
if it helps, here is my setup from bare metal to 30+ services. https://github.com/simone-viozzi/my-server
including off-site encrypted backups
of course, i wrote this for me, so most stuffs are written like garbage, but fell free to open an issue, and i will fix them
Proxmox with alpine containers or Unraid are both painless
I get where you’re coming from, really. I’ve been disappointed by Linux for years with the learning curve and random errors that no one can help with. I’d take a long break from anything server related and then once you think your ready to come back, go watch some videos that give you inspiration like Techno Tim. Try to make a game plan and stick to it. Use standard stuff like Debian and Proxmox for software and to get a head start try this. Wish you all the best mate.
You nailed it, the problem is the problem with having to troubleshoot by yourself as a newbie. Once might not be an issue, but every step feels like a new instance of a repeat problem. Thanks for the encouragement
People can help you, but there is a way to ask, and learning how to ask is part of learning the OS. We are fascinated by problems actually.
The problem is that people come and say things like “I tried to setup a fleegbat server and it doesn’t work!” and so for the helper it becomes a process of pulling the information out of the asker in a long and painful process of interaction and we just move on. Users who say things like “here is the error message I’m getting when I try to start up my fleegbo server, anyone understand this?” get way better help.
Those who really want to learn it come to understand these things, those who just want to do something neat and not work their ass off will complain that it’s too hard.
Those who do the work are rewarded in many ways. I drove a dump truck ten years ago, now I make twice what I used to, working with people who aren’t racist sacks of shit. They were my motivator to learn, I was tired of being among pigs every day.
Doing anything new will require work/pain the first few times. It is just part of the learning process. If that sudden jolt of happiness when you get it working can outweigh the depression caused by hours of trudging through the setup/failures, you’ll constantly be improving. Like all things, give it a fair shot and if it brings you more pain than pleasure, stop doing it.
There are now a lot of people who are making a living from providing self-hosted services to others for small fees. Even if you decide to not self-host, there are multiple ways to get the lion’s share of benefits. Its not a binary choice between Google and self-hosting.
I just fucked up my docker. Now I get to set everything up again for the 5th or 6th time.
