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diff --git a/content/selfhosting.md b/content/selfhosting.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0aa00b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/selfhosting.md @@ -0,0 +1,202 @@ +--- +title: "Self hosting" +date: 2020-08-19 +tags: ['server'] +--- +## Introduction + +When you have a(n old) computer lying around, and you have cheap +electricity and a good internet connection, self hosting might be a good +option for you. + +### Why would you choose selfhosting? + +- You have control over the hardware, and you can upgrade your server + in the future. For example: if you host a file server and your hard + drive goes full, you can simply add another hard drive or upgrade + it. +- No bandwith limits, storage limits, etc. (some VPSes have this) +- It **can** be cheaper than using a VPS. This only is the case if you + got the server for really cheap and your electricity is cheap. +- You can have a media server to consoom your content (for example + with `Jellyfin`). You can technically do this on a VPS, but that + will be more expensive than self hosting. If you have a media + server, you can stream media from your server to more devices. (I + recommend just downloading it on your device, but if you have + multiple devices, this could be a good solution) + +### Downsides + +Some possible downsides of choosing to host at home could be: + +- Your ISP not approving of what you\'re doing. Some ISP\'s do not + condone you hosting at home. Usually when this is the case, it could + be harder if you want to forward ports, or it could be impossible to + get a static IP address. Check your ISP\'s terms of service. + Sometimes, it will say that hosting a webserver, email server, and + more, is not allowed. +- This can also include blocked ports. ISPs can block certain ports to + the world. Sometimes ISPs only block 445/139 (which is for the + better as Samba, using these ports isn\'t really secure and it\'s + outdated). But some ISPs (sadly) block crucial ports like 80 + and/or 443. You need to check this before trying anything. If this + is the case, a way to get around it is to get another ISP or use an + alternative port. A great website to check this is: + [canyouseeme.org](https://canyouseeme.org/). You can also check if + you did the port forwaring correctly here. +- Security. Opening your network to the public could bring security + risks. For example, never open a Samba server to the public, because + it\'s a pretty old protocol, and it has some security + vulnerabilities. Be sure you are forwarding the right port, and + don\'t just forward random ports to the internet. Also, if you are + getting DDoSed, your ISP will temporarily shut down your whole + internet connection. +- When setting up an email server, it can be way harder to not have + your email show up as spam in other\'s people email. If you use a + VPS, this is way easier. +- Space, power consumption and noise. Of course, this differs per + server. + +Your mileage may vary, go and check each of these points, and see if +selfhosting is the right choice for you. Try and calculate your power +consumption and see if your electricity cost is not too expensive. + +For me, the upsides outweighed the downsides, which is why I chose to +host at home. But, this differs with each person and scenario. Go and +research what your exact situation is, before trying anything. Otherwise +you\'ll have to face some bad surprises. + +## Hardware + +### What kind of hardware should you choose? + +If you pay your own electricity bill, power consumption is a big factor. +Most old laptop computers are ideal in the sense that they don\'t use a +lot of power, and if the battery still works, you have a built-in UPS! +The bad thing is, most old laptop computers aren\'t that powerful, and +they lack in upgradability. (you shouldn\'t really be using anything +older than 2006, and I recommend at least a performance equivalant of a +Core 2 CPU) + +If you can find an energy efficient desktop (under 100W), that is a +great option. They are pretty upgradable and they don\'t use a lot of +power. They can also be pretty cheap, but old laptops are usually +cheaper. If you can afford new hardware, and are willing to build a PC, +you can find really power effecient CPU/motherboard combos, and they can +be cheap, for example the Celeron J3060. I recommend a low wattage power +supply or an effecient one for these kinds of builds. Pico PSUs are +pretty tiny and efficient solutions in these builds. + +Of course, if you don\'t pay your electricity bill or cost is not a +problem for you, you can use just about any old desktop (as long as +it\'s not from the 90\'s, I recommend at least a Core 2 chip again, or +an Athlon 64 X2). + +### Usecases + +Of course, hardware choices depend on the usecase. The above +recommendations I gave you work fine for e-mail server, webserver and +fileserver types of applications, but they will struggle to transcode +video if you are going to host a media server. You\'ll need a faster +CPU, but also a faster GPU. As an example, the Athlon 200GE or 3000G are +good and efficient choices for these builds. They are decent CPUs, but +also have a built in GPU that will transcode video just fine. + +If you need a lot of storage, go for a case with a lot of mounts for +hard drives, this way you can easily mount multiple hard drives. Pros of +multiple hard drives are redundancy and speed. Cons could be that they +create more heat and noise. You can\'t use a laptop if you want multiple +drives, except if you use a hard drive caddy for the CD/DVD drive bay. +Some business laptops even support RAID 1 (redundancy) and RAID 0 (speed +and more storage, but you lose your files if one hard drive breaks) this +way. + +## Getting started + +### Installing Debian + +Once you have the machine, you can install the OS. I recommend Debian, +as all of the guides on this website are Debian specific. Debian just +werks as a server OS. + +You\'ll need to burn a Debian install image onto a USB flash drive or a +CD. You can download the image +[here](https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/), and you can also find +information on how to burn the image onto a USB flash drive or CD there. + +While installing Debian, do not install any desktop environment. But +install an SSH server when you get the chance. Also leave webserver +unchecked, even if you want to use it as a webserver. You\'ll have a +chance to install this later. + +### Port forwaring + +Every time you are going to set up a new server program, you need to +forward a port corresponding to that program. For example, HTTP is port +80, HTTPS is 443, etc. You need to set this up on your router\'s NAT +settings (sometimes just called port forwarding, this differs per +router). These steps differ for each router. Refer to your routers +manual. A simple command to see what your servers IP address is, is to +run `ifconfig` on your server. This shows a lot of network info, but it +will also show your local IP address needed for port forwarding. + +Basic ports: + +- SSH: port 22 (open this port if you want to admin your server + outside your network) +- HTTP: port 80 (open this port if you want basic webserver + functionality) +- HTTPS: port 443 (you should open this port if you are setting up a + webserver because encryption) + +### Static or dynamic IP address + +If you want to host your server at home, make sure you have a static IP +address, or you can change your dynamic IP address to a static one. +Refer to your router settings, some ISPs will have options on this here. +If you can\'t find anything on this, get in touch with your ISP. + +Once you\'ve made sure you have a static IP address, you can find out +what the IP address is with various websites. You can use a search +engine to easily find this out. Write this down as you\'ll need it +later. + +Once you\'re done, you can pretty much follow every guide on this +website, the only difference is that you\'ll need to forward the ports +you\'ll be using for the server. + +### Finding the ports you\'ll need to forward + +If you need to know what port you\'ll need to forward, there\'s a +command for that. Just type `netstat -tulpn` in your servers command +line. If you want to see the name of the programs, you need to run it as +a root user. You can do this by putting `sudo` before the command. + +```txt +Local Address State PID/Program name +0.0.0.0:25 LISTEN 887/master +0.0.0.0:1883 LISTEN 22452/mosquitto +0.0.0.0:445 LISTEN 798/smbd +0.0.0.0:993 LISTEN 381/dovecot +127.0.0.1:3306 LISTEN 560/mysqld +0.0.0.0:587 LISTEN 887/master +0.0.0.0:139 LISTEN 798/smbd +127.0.1.1:12301 LISTEN 412/opendkim +0.0.0.0:143 LISTEN 381/dovecot +0.0.0.0:465 LISTEN 887/master +0.0.0.0:22 LISTEN 472/sshd +:::25 LISTEN 887/master +:::443 LISTEN 1769/apache2 +:::1883 LISTEN 22452/mosquitto +:::445 LISTEN 798/smbd +``` + +*Example output* + +In this example, if you need to find the port number from `dovecot`, you +can look for it in the `Program name` column. Then you can see in the +local address column that the reported local address is `0.0.0.0:993`. +You need to look for the part after the semicolon. In this case it\'s +993. So you\'ll need to forward port 993. + +*Written by [hiddej](https://github.com/hidde-j)* |