Submitted 4 days ago by Yesbutnotreally@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world
Hey selfhosters.
I have a question about starting self hosting; I have run Jellyfin on an old MacBook for a bit and wanna dip more than a toe into the self host pool. Are there any guides out there you’d recommend for actual, complete beginners who knows nothing but wants to learn?
I’ve searched a lot but it feels like they’re pretty advanced for beginners. Is it just a really sharp learning curve to this, or am I not finding the good ones?
irmadlad@lemmy.world 4 days ago I’ve always recommended the Linux Upskill Challenge. It takes you step by step from the cli to scripting, incrementally. It’s also a good bookmark to reference in the future.
sixty@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago For me it’s been about slowly learning, building, and re-building what I have, as I have gotten more knowledgable.
I started with a Windows laptop running 24/7. Learned about Docker Desktop and ran Jellyfin and the *arr stack on it.
I had Linux running on my PC, so as I got more comfortable with CLI, I decided to migrate the server and everything on it to Ubuntu Server. Learned to navigate on SSH better and expand the server with more services like Nginx Revers Proxy Manager and exposing services online.
Then I upgraded my hardware and installed Proxmox on the new machine, to better manage that and the old laptop. Slowly getting better at backing up at different levels, heightening security and so on.
Guides are good, but I find experience and steady knowledge building is a better way to grow and not get overwhelmed or burned out.
An ultimate guide could be a few tomes long not because you need to know that much, but because there are so many options and solutions. I’d recommend learning basics: core utils (i.e. command line tools), docker, network security basics (vpn, firewall).
Then as you start adding more services, you can identify gaps in your knowledge and close them (e.g. what is a database, how to manage it, how to back it up and then restore if it fails).
There isn’t one. Build incrementally, and adapt and modify as it grows. Starting out, you have no idea where you will eventually end up. It’s a journey and a learning experience bespoke to you. Start with a basic dedicated device as a server that’s cheap. Add a service and get it safe and secure. Once you are happy with it and it is reliable and solid, add another service… Rinse and repeat.
I’d start with learning some networking basics.
Subnets, default gateways, DNS, routes, VLANs.
Then get another computer to install proxmox on.
Learn VMs, SSH, firewalls, basically Linux. Probably VPNs as well.
Then set up a VM and play with docker & docker-compose.
And that’s most of the tooling to be able to self host anything. A VM with docker, set up the docker compose of what you want, boom: done.
Some projects are more of a “full of” kinda thing (like home assistant), which would be its own VM
kwarg@mander.xyz 3 days ago do you have any recommendation with regards to references to learn networking basics?
I’ve given this a read.
homelabstarter.com/homelab-networking-basics/
Covers the basics, explains them well & technically, and points to “further learning”.
rimu@piefed.social@piefed.social 4 days ago Self-hosting is a very individual journey - everyone wants different things and finds they own way to meet their own requirements. So there isn’t really one guide that covers everything.
Anyway, as a general road map:
Create a Virtual Machine on your PC. Install Linux inside the VM.
Play around in the VM to learn Linux basics. When you break the OS you can just wipe the VM and reinstall.
In the VM, try some docker containers until you’re comfortable-ish with docker.
Maybe try Yunohost in the VM. You might find Yunohost saves you a lot of time and hassle.
Get hardware suitable for your goals.
Install Linux, configure networking and docker containers on real hardware.
Quick question to the Linux inside the VM; I came across suggestions for a “headless” server, which, if I understood correctly, means no GUI. Is it better to get straight into that, or install a Linux with GUI and use the CLI from that?
rimu@piefed.social@piefed.social 3 days ago Good question.
A GUI will be easier to get into - you can use a gui file browser app to learn the layout of the file system, you can use a GUI text editor to change config files, that sort of thing. It’ll mean you can do a few basic things intuitively which will be less intimidating. So from a maintaining momentum and morale point of view it might be best to have a GUI initially even though you have to learn all the cli stuff eventually anyway and you’ll most likely be running a headless server on real hardware eventually.
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago If you manage to get Docker Compose installed on that Mac (I don’t know Dockers limitations with Macs) but create a docker-compose.yaml file with the contents of;
services: jellyfin: image: jellyfin/jellyfin container\_name: jellyfin # Optional - specify the uid and gid you would like Jellyfin to use instead of root user: uid:gid ports: - 8096:8096/tcp - 7359:7359/udp volumes: - /path/to/config:/config - /path/to/cache:/cache - type: bind source: /path/to/media target: /media - type: bind source: /path/to/media2 target: /media2 read\_only: true # Optional - extra fonts to be used during transcoding with subtitle burn-in - type: bind source: /path/to/fonts target: /usr/local/share/fonts/custom read\_only: true restart: 'unless-stopped' # Optional - alternative address used for autodiscovery environment: - JELLYFIN\_PublishedServerUrl=http\://example.com # Optional - may be necessary for docker healthcheck to pass if running in host network mode extra_hosts: - 'host.docker.internal:host-gateway'
Then run;
sudo docker compose up -d
In a shell while in the folder with the docker-compose.yaml file you just created.
The true plug-and-play user friendly way is to buy a NAS device and install all apps there.
i think this space will actually get bigger because of everything going on. these nas devices will ve the way to go for your average user.
i have everything running on proxmox. mostly as lxcs. there are proxmox helper scripts so it installs nice. i use proxmox for a lot of services so ut all wotks. also, for hardware rendering , intel cpus work better because of intel qsv.
i bought a ugreen nas device. bought an nvme. installed truenas on the nvme, because i like it and its open source. tge ugreen device has a built in boot drive with ugreen os which you can not download so i did not want to overwrite it.
now i have 27 years professionally as a software dev, so i had a foundation to learn this stuff. i want to give a heads up if you use an llm for learning. always ask it to explain and question things. look up any new terms. because of my experience, i understood most of the answers it gave and questioned when i didnt. i remember one time it said to do one thing (i dont remember) and i asked for more info. when i understood i knew it was missing something. i said “but i have x, y, and z” which in alm fairness i never mentioned and it did change the answer. my long-windwd point? dont run anything, unless you fully understand why. this advice goes for anyone not just using ai. people will be wrong too. know what you are doing
irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 days ago this advice goes for anyone not just using ai. people will be wrong too
Truth. A lot of times I will even pose the same questions to multiple AI. It doesn’t guarantee that all three of them aren’t smoking crack, but you get a better 360 view. It’s akin to back when I worked for the man. I created an excel spreadsheet that helped us when estimating jobs. Say you had 50’ of 10"x20" duct, then a 90, a drop for a grill, necked down to 30’ of 12"x12" duct. At the bottom of the spreadsheet it would spit out numbers and prices. Now, that didn’t necessarily mean that the numbers and the prices were accurate in every way to this specific job. There are a lot of variables to consider. You have to understand the output and whether that is truly applicable to the situation at hand.
So, in a scenario where I’d wanna run a Jellyfin server and potentially an Immich in the future, they could all go on NAS?
Would this be command line exclusively too?
the nas just has a button like ibterface. its like installing a game from steam
You’ll need networking basics for anything you’ll do (there are lots of courses on youtube).
After that, you can just follow wherever you curiosity carries you :)
Underrated comment.
A “howto” that just gives you scripts and commands to run is pointless. You need to understand the technology, and networking in particular.
Linux commands and networking, two things I definitely haven’t done a lot of. Didn’t actually consider networking as I’m “just doing it locally”, but as u/atzanteol@sh.itjust.works said, I don’t just wanna run scripts or commands to get it to work and then have no idea what to do when it breaks.
well what do you want to do?
i found that using alpine linux made things a lot clearer. i’m not a newbie but i gut ovurwhelmed by comylicated setups, and alpine is as simple as can be. just scripts that start and stop services, and configuration in /etc/<service-name>. where it started getting complex was with exposing services to the internet.
I’m not looking to expose anything to the internet yet at least. From the little I researched, there seems to be a million things that can go wrong and very few that can go right.
What I’d ideally want is to be able to run a couple of simultaneous Jellyfin streams, backup photos (Immich/ente/etc) and possibly a “local cloud” like Nextcloud just to try it out without having to worry about any kind of hacking. If there are any good self hosted apps for like groceries and stuff, that would be pretty sweet too. They don’t have to sync immediately, just when someone is on the home network.
What will hell you in that journey: basic understanding of Linux cli (Debian is good choice), docker and docker compose (make sure you understand the concepts of images, containers, networks and volumes) and of one kind of web server (I’d recommend Caddy because it’s rather simple). After that you basically use the often officially provided docker compose files to setup common self hostable services.
right, and what’s tripping you up? you’ve set up jellyfin, but other services are not cooperating?
Mr Frankenstein’s blog helped me put. I also found a write up that dovetailed into it using dockerproxy & swag instead of traefik or caddy. Unfortunately, I don’t have those links handy. Should be able to search for the first one pretty easily, though.
irmadlad@lemmy.world 3 days ago Yep. iOS spellcheck really is shit.
Thank you! That will go in the bookmarks folder too!
That was a lot of engagement to wake up to, I appreciate you all! Thank you very much!
For anyone in the same position as me that may find this in the future, clearly the first step is to get acquainted with Linux and learn Linux commands. I feel I may have more to learn than I initially thought, but hey, that’s what free time is for right?
I started by running Jellyfin on my PC with so-so success. Next move was to get a raspberry pi to screw around with. That went kind of poorly (hosted a website that was quickly ransomwared, lessons learned). Ditched the pi and got some used PC parts on FBM to spin up an Unraid server. I’ve been using that for years now, with some upgrades here and there to hardware and storage. There are a couple YT channels with spectacular Unraid content for self hosting. Trash guides for the arr stack. Years later and I now handle multiple servers using either Unraid or Portainer.
As others have said, it’s a very personal journey. Best of luck, happy to try and answer questions you may have.
Honestly, start small - buy some cheap hardware that supports NVMe - an old desktop, a raspberry pi 5, a latte panda… Then set it up as a server with your favorite Linux distro. If you’ve never done it before, stick with one of the big ones; Raspian, Ubuntu, etc. Get that up and running. Then install Jellyfin on it and test it out so you learn the stack.
Do you have eyes on something you would like to do past Jellyfin?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| DNS | Domain Name Service/System |
| SSH | Secure Shell for remote terminal access |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
[Thread #49 for this comm, first seen 9th Jul 2026, 21:50] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
slazer2au@lemmy.world 4 days ago
For an absolute beginner I would recommend Linux tutorials first so you can navigate the Linux cli.
After that watch some docker tutorials as a significant chunk of self hosting is done with docker or a kube variant but you won’t need to lean about kube yet.
Yesbutnotreally@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Linux clearly is the way to go, I’ve seen. I’ve been in the Mac environment for the past 20 years so I think the very first thing to do is to install Linux on a VM. Question to that; I’ve seen Debian being mentioned a lot, is this “the best” to start with?
slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Debian is good to start with as one of its key tenants is stability. Which is what you want in any environment.
A lot of popular distros like Ubuntu and Mint are based on it.