I’m considering getting back to self-hosting again, but I remember a problem I never quite figured out.
My first services were a gemini server and lighttpd server and these were easy to set up, very satisfying and continue to work well for years. I also have FreshRSS and Calibre-web running well here.
But as I try to add more, sometimes instructions would include apache settings that clashed with the apache settings for something else. The instructions assume I don’t already have apache installed and can just apply any settings I want.
Another issue, the new service might take over the domain, becoming the default service for the domain. I’m assuming that this is a port issue but I don’t know.
Then there were docker containers. Some used docker compose while some did not.
One that I just couldn’t get working was Nextcloud, which I wanted to host surveys from. They won’t answer my support questions on their community hub unless I set up SSL though (which I don’t plan on doing).
Does anyone have general advice on these issues? If it’s just part of the difficulty of self-hosting, then maybe it’s not for me. Too much time and energy was getting spent on it.
Thanks!
On the conflicting configuration side of things that you mentioned, you need to run your services isolated from each other. Docker is one way to do it, if everything you need runs in Docker containers. I personally use LXD to run lightweight system containers and isolate my services. I use one container, for example, to run Docker.
With that being said, there’s usually a lot of studying involved in learning each technology which helps your server setup. You are the one to decide if it’s worth it.
