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?

Edit: To clarify what level I’m really, truly at: I run the Jellyfin server on regular macOS and have an external 5TB drive connected via usb. That’s it.

  • Rimu@piefed.socialEnglish
    8·
    1 day 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:

    1. Create a Virtual Machine on your PC. Install Linux inside the VM.

    2. Play around in the VM to learn Linux basics. When you break the OS you can just wipe the VM and reinstall.

    3. In the VM, try some docker containers until you’re comfortable-ish with docker.

    4. Maybe try Yunohost in the VM. You might find Yunohost saves you a lot of time and hassle.

    5. Get hardware suitable for your goals.

    6. Install Linux, configure networking and docker containers on real hardware.

    • Yesbutnotreally@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      21 hours ago

      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.socialEnglish
        2·
        21 hours 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.

        • Yesbutnotreally@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          20 hours ago

          Alright, thank you. This will be the first step. Debian in a VM, full GUI to learn all the basics.

          Genuinely, I really appreciate the guidance here, I really want to learn to be as independent as possible tech wise and I’m really excited to get started with this.