Ani KeatenHey friends, I self host stuff, but I barely scrape by at making it work. Every step along the way has been a huge learning curve. When it works, I don't always know why. When things go wrong, it takes hours to fix. I want to take a little course to make this easier. Is there such a thing? Self-hosting for beginners: setup, docker, security, common challenges, what else? #SelfHost #FediHelp
Leonieke@anikeaten Check out @_elena road to self hosting: https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/my-so-called-sudo-life/
Jer-Bear 😎🐻@anikeaten I am in this same position and would enjoy finding more beginner-friendly resources. I’ve bookmarked this thread
\\mellow@anikeaten when I started out with selfhosting stuff, the tutorials at DigitalOcean were a splendid source of info. https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tags/ubuntu
@anikeaten also this part "When it works, I don't always know why." is part of the learning curve I guess 😅 sometimes shit just works. 
and the "when things go wrong, it takes hours to fix"
not sure where things go wrong specifically, but
1. snapshots are awesome
2. if possible, try not to work in a destructive manner, especially when snapshots are not an option. make a copy of the file you're editing before your changes, so you can easily revert back to a before-state.
memo 📎@anikeaten here is an excellent two part beginner selfhosting guide by @ironicbadger
Part 1 - Hardware, proxmox install
https://youtu.be/zngSuqCM4d8
Part 2 - Remote access, Disks, Docker, Applications
https://youtu.be/guHoZ68N3XM
https://github.com/tailscale-dev/video-code-snippets/tree/main/2025/2025-06-self-hosting-part2
in part 1, check the pinned comments for a small change to the proxmox installation instructions
So, you want to start self-hosting? Part 1 - How to install Proxmox and pick your hardware.
@memoria @ironicbadger thank you!! Part 2 looks particularly useful for me right now
@anikeaten oh, and a tip i wish i learned earlier: document everything! setup instructions, links to helpful webpages, CLI bash commands, etc. good documentation will always take much longer to write than no documentation, but in a week, a month, or a year from now when you need to fix or redeploy something, your own documentation will become an invaluable resource that will save you days of relearning from scratch
💙🩷💜Brett🐡🍉🐧@[email protected] have a look at Linux Professional Institute certs, maybe an online study guide or book can help you. Beware many of the trype of books copy and paste the same info in 10 places to pad out the book, avoid these. No Starch Press do good books for openbsd and freebsd, idk for linux. Also when you do stuff, write step by step notes for future reference!
Safeword Press@anikeaten Replying in the hopes that I can see some of the answers too!
Bruce HeerssenI also self host, but I don't have any easy answers, unfortunately. Like you, I often struggle. There's hours of research and learning before sometimes even simple things work right. Other times, complex projects come together quickly with minimum fuss.
For me, though, that's part of the fun of self hosting. I rather enjoy the process of figuring it out, of embracing a challenge. I know that's not the answer you're looking for, but maybe it can help.
I'm currently hosting my own email, mastodon, nextcloud, and wireguard vpn. I'll probably do more in the future.
@bruce it's true, I do find the process rewarding :)
Numerfolt@anikeaten Hmmm, I dont know of any courses, but liked the guides by pi my life up:
https://pimylifeup.com/
https://pimylifeup.com/
@Numerfolt this is helpful! I'm using a NAS for some of my self hosting but I'm also using a raspberry pi for a home assistant
KF7CCC Andrew@anikeaten +1 for this! I've been struggling to find out how to do structured cabling. As far as I can tell this is just something you learn from the elders in the data center during your apprenticeship.