Anyone else just sick of trying to follow guides that cover 95% of the process, or maybe slightly miss a step and then spend hours troubleshooting setups just to get it to work?
I think I just have too much going in my “lab” the point that when something breaks (and my wife and/or kids complain) it’s more of a hassle to try and remember how to fix or troubleshoot stuff. I lightly document myself cuz I feel like I can remember well enough. But then it’s a style to find the time to fix, or stuff is tested and 80%completed but never fully used because life is busy and I don’t have loads of free time to pour into this stuff anymore. I hate giving all that data to big tech, but I also hate trying to manage 15 different containers or VMs, or other services. Some stuff is fine/easy or requires little effort, but others just don’t seem worth it.
I miss GUIs with stuff where I could fumble through settings to fix it as is easier for me to look through all that vs read a bunch of commands.
Idk, do you get lab burnout? Maybe cuz I do IT for work too it just feels like it’s never ending…
What is your setup? I have TrueNAS and there I use the apps that are easy to install (and the catalog is not small) and maintain. Basically from time to time I just come and update (one button click). I have networking separate and I had issues with Tailscale for some time, but there I had only 4 services in total, all docker containers and all except the Tailscale straight forward and easy to update. Now I even moved those. One as a custom app to TrueNAS and the rest to proxmox LXC - and that solved my tailscale issue as well. And I am having a good time. But my rule of thumb - before I install anything I ask myself if I REALLY need this, because otherwise I would end up with like a jillion services that are cool, but not really that useful or practical.
I think what I would recommend to you, find platform like TrueNAS, where lots of things is prepared for you and don’t bother too much with the custom stuff if you don’t enjoy. Also I can recommend having a test rig or VM so that you can always try first, if its easy to install and stable to use. There were occasions when I was trying stuff and it was just bothersome, I had to hack stuff and I was glad in the end I didn’t “pollute” my main server with it.
It’s a mess. I’m even moving to a different field in it due to this.
You’re not alone.
The industry itself has become pointlessly layered like some origami hell. As a former OS security guy I can say it’s not in a good state with all the supply-chain risks.
At the same time, many ‘help’ articles are karma-farming ‘splogs’ of low quality and/or just slop that they’re not really useful. When something’s missing, it feels to our imposter syndrome like it’s a skills issue.
Simplify your life. Ditch and avoid anything with containers or bizarre architectures that feels too ontricate. Decide what you need and run those on really reliable options. Auto patching is your friend (but choose a distro and package format where it’s atomic and rolls back easily).
You don’t need to come home only to work. This is supposed to be FUN for some of us. Don’t chase the Joneses, but just do what you want.
Once you’ve simplified, get in the habit of going outside. You’ll feel a lot better about it.
I manage all my services with systems. Simple services like kanidm, that are just a single native executable run baremetal with a different user. More complex Setups like immich or anything that requires a pzthon venv runs from a docker compose file that gets managed by systemd. Each service has its own user and it’s own directory.
Sounds like you haven’t taken the time to properly design your environment.
Lots of home gamers just throw stuff together and just “hack things till they work”.
You need to step back and organize your shit. Develop a pattern, automate things, use source control, etc. Don’t just file follow the weirdly -opinionated setup instructions. Make it fit your standard.
Also on top of that, find time to keep it up to date. If leave it rot things will get harder to maintain.
I sit down once a week and go over all the updates needed, both the docker hosts and all the images they run.
I deliberately have not used docker at home to avoid complications. Almost every program is in a debian/apt repo, and I only install frontends that run on LAMP. I think I only have 2 or 3 apps that require manual maintenance (apart from running “apt upgrade”). NextCloud is 90% of the butthurt.
I’m starting to turn off services on IPv4 to reduce the network maintenance overhead.
If a project doesn’t make it dead simple to manage via docker compose and environment variables, just don’t use it.
I run close to 100 services all using docker compose and it’s an incredibly simple, repeatable, self documenting process. Spinning up some new things is effortless and takes minutes to have it set up, accessible from the internet, and connected to my SSO.
Sometimes you see a program and it starts with “Clone this repo” and it has a docker compose file, six env files, some extra fig files, and consists of a front end container, back end container. Database container, message queueing container, etc… just close that web page and don’t bother with that project lol.
That being said, I think there’s a bigger issue at play here. If you “work in IT” and are burnt out from “15 containers and a lack of a gui” I’m afraid to say you’re in the wrong field of work and you’re trying to jam a square peg in a round hole
I agree with that 3rd paragraph lol. That’s probably some of my issue at times. As far IT goes, does it not get overwhelming of you had a 9 hour workday just to hear someone at home complain this other thing you run doesn’t work and you have to troubleshoot that now too?
Without going into too much detail, I’m a solo operation guy for about 200 end users. We’re a Win11 and Office shop like most, and I’ve upgraded pretty much every system since my time starting. I’ve utilized some self-host options too, to help in the day to day which is nice as it offloads some work.
It’s just, especially after a long day, to play IT at home can be a bit much. I don’t normally mind, but I think I just know the Windows stuff well enough through and through, so taking on new Docker or self host tools stuff is Apple’s and oranges sometimes. Maybe I’m getting spoiled with all the turn key stuff at work, too.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters Git Popular version control system, primarily for code LAMP Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP stack for webhosting LXC Linux Containers RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC SBC Single-Board Computer SSO Single Sign-On
[Thread #40 for this comm, first seen 29th Jan 2026, 05:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
honestly, i 100% do not miss GUIs that hopefully do what you want them to do or have options grayed out or don’t include all the available options etc etc
i do get burnout, and i suffer many of the same symptoms. but i have a solution that works for me: NixOS
ok it does sound like i gave you more homework, but hear me out:
- with NixOS and flakes you have a commit history for your lab services, all centralized in one place.
- this can include as much documentation as you want: inline comments, commit messages, living documents in your repository, whatever
- even services that only provide a Docker based solution can be encapsulated and run by Nix, including using an alternate runtime like podman or containerd
- (this one will hammer me with downvotes but i genuinely do think that:) you can use an LLM agent like GitHub Copilot to get you started, learn the Nix language and ecosystem, and create Nix modules for things that need to be wrapped. i’ve been a software engineer for 15 years; i’ve got nothing to prove when it comes to making a working system. what i want is a working system.
Selfhoster on NixOS here too.
Nix (and operating services on a NixOS machine) is a learning curve, and even though tho project is over 10 years old now the semantic differences between the conventional approach to distro design/software development/ops is still a source of friction. But the project has come a long way and lots of popular software is packaged and hostable and just works (when you are aware of said semantic differences)
But when it works, and it often it does, it’s phenomenal and a very well integrated experience.
The problem in my exparience with using LLMs to assist is that the declarative nature of Nix makes them prone to hallucination: “Certainly, just go
services.fooService.enable = true;in yourconfiguraton.nixand you’re off to the races”. OTOH, because nix builds are hermetic and functional they’re pretty safe to include as a verification tool that something like Claude code can use to iterate on a solution.There are some pretty good examples of selfhosting system configurations one can use as inspiration. I just discovered github.com/firecat53/nixos that is an excellent example of a modular system configuration that manages multiple machines, secrets, and self hosted services.
I will check that out even though, yes is homework lol.
And +1 for the contribution to help a stranger out!
Lost me at LLMs. My Nix config is over 20k lines long at this point, neatly split into more than a hundred modules and managing 8 physical machines and 30+ VMs. I love it.
But every time I’ve tried to use an LLM for nix, it has failed spectacularly.
Not trying to start any measuring contest, but what I’ve learned is that there are always people out there that does things 100x more than I do. So yes, 1500 Docker composes are a thing, and I’ve witnessed some composes with over 10k lines.
That doesn’t sound the least bit fun lol
I’m sick of everything moving to a docker image myself. I understand on a standard setup the isolation is nice, but I use Proxmox and would love to be able to actually use its isolation capabilities. The environment is already suited for the program. Just give me a standard installer for the love of tech.
NixOS for the win! Define your system and services, run a single command, get a reproducible, Proxmox-compatible VM out of it. Nixpkgs has basically every service you’d ever want to selfhost.
You can still use VMs and do containers in there. That’s what I do, makes separating different services very easy.
I thought that was the point of supporting OCI in the latest version so you can pull docker images and run them like an lxc container
Use portainer for managing docker containers. I prefer a GUI as well and portainer makes the whole process much more comfortable for me.
+1 for Portainer. There are other such options, maybe even better, but I can drive the Portainer bus.
Why did I never think of that?! That would make sense lol. Thank you!
No problem. I have been using it for a while and I really like it. There’s nothing stopping you from doing it the old fashioned way if you find you don’t like portainer but once you familiarize yourself with it I think you’ll be hooked on the concept.
I wouldn’t say im stick of it, but it can be a lot of work. It can be frustrating at times, but also rewarding. Sometimes I have to stop working on it for a while when I get stuck.
In any case, I like it a lot better than being Google’s bitch.
Good point. I think I’ve got so caught up between projects at home and work I need a break from both.
I have to stop working on it for a while when I get stuck.
I feel you there bro. Sometimes, when I’m creating a piece of music, I get to a point where, I’m just not making any progress, I’ll step of for a piece, let it simmer for a bit. Same with servers in general for me. It’s the reason I have a test server and have, in the past, leaned a bit heavily on a few backups. LOL! I can screw something up quick when I’m frustrated. The reward for me is learning something new. It’s a rewarding and useful hobby for me. among others.
I just have yunohost do like 90% of the work nowadays. My day job is docker/cli so the last thing i want to do is more of it.
Never heard of that, definitely checking it out!
Just 15 containers? lol
do you get lab burnout
Not really. I have everything set the way I want it and it’s stable. On occasion, I’ll see a container that catches my fancy, so I’ll spin it up on a test server, dick around with it, and monitor it before I ever decide to put it on my production server. On occasion I’ll have to fix, or adjust something. Most of the time I’m just enjoying it. I wouldn’t say I was running anything super complex tho.
As far as time, I’ve got you beat there most likely. Used to be lickity-split, but then you get old, things slow down. LOL Also, there is only one user…me. I realize you have family, but my hard and fast rule is: Multiple users cause issues, so I don’t share. I’d say, go spend your time with the family. That’s the most important.
I’m with you on the incomplete guides. There always seem to be that one ‘secret’ ingredient’ that just didn’t get documented. And to the devs of the opensource software, me love you long time, but please include a screenshot.
