• Docker: You can practice on your main computer before complicating things with networking.
• How to set up a reverse proxy: DNS, certificates, etc. I recommend Caddy.
• Backups: If you use Docker Volumes, make sure you back those up too and test the backups.

To self-host, you do not need to know how to code.

I do similar with a shortcut on my phone to a NocoDB Form.

I think it’s cool you’re trying to find ways to get into this. If the goal is to learn, why not deploy the services on your laptop? They won’t be available when the computer is off of course, but you would still get the full experience. Even a low-spec laptop will be better than a cheap VPS.

Perfect application for NocoDB in my opinion. They have a relationship view like the one shown in the screenshot and a form builder for easily adding new data. Setting up the relationships is easy. I find it much easier to use than DBeaver and the GUI is more modern.

The data is accessible by programs such as DBeaver, and they have a REST API too, should you need it.

Hey! My home server is an HP T630 with a GX-420 GI as well, but only 4 GB of RAM. I upgraded from a Raspberry Pi 3 and it’s been awesome. I’m currently running 18 Docker containers on it without issue. I use Jellyfin on my primary workstation that has my media instead if this server, but I run things like Paperless, Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, Gitea, Wallabag, Pi-hole, NocoDB, and many more. It’s been great, I think thin clients are a great low-cost, low-power solution to x86 home servers.

I paid around $40 or $50 USD for mine, so $10 sounds great!

Let me know what questions you have. I can try throwing Jellyfin on it to see how it performs too.

Well put. On top of the 5 points about the target audience above, in order to make a sale they also have to:

• Have heard of the product
• Decide to buy it (many will research competitive products)
• Spend the time to actually place the order

Definitely check this summary out: https://meichthys.github.io/foss_photo_libraries/. Everyone’s use case and priorities will be a little different, but I’d vote for Immich as a Google Photos replacement that looks nice and is very easy to use. I was awestruck by the facial and object recognition, which wasn’t even a feature I particularly cared about.

I have this scanner and agree it works great, although there may be cheaper options out there that also work well.

FTP worked well out of the box. For SFTP on Arch Linux, I had to follow the troubleshooting instructions here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Very_Secure_FTP_Daemon#LIST_command_resets_connection.

Nice list. Another, similar repo, also quite opinionated: https://github.com/DoTheEvo/selfhosted-apps-docker. I’m not the author, I’ve just found it really helpful at times.

I had the same problem as OP. My solution was to port forward to my server but then block connections from all IP addresses accept from my work, which I added to an allowlist.

It’s working well so far, but I think the Cloudflare tunnel is the better option.