So what’s all this then?

If you’re interested in open-source technologies and software, self-hosted applications, and services using containerization and virtualization, and you’re seeking straightforward information and guides to help you get your applications and services up and running securely, privately, and in an educational way, then you’ve found the right place.

In my experience, I’ve noticed that many guides and explanations, even including the official documentation on self-hosted applications, are either too verbose, explaining every detail at overwhelming length, or far too brief, providing just a block of commands to copy and paste with minimal description of what they actually do. Therefore, I wanted to create a space that balances depth and clarity, one that won’t scare away n00bs but also might offer a tidbit or two for l33t h4x0rs.

My self-hosting journey

My journey into the world of self-hosting began sometime in 2018 when I started experimenting with Docker. Like many others, I found Docker’s approach to containerization eye-opening and revolutionary. This experience ignited my passion for exploring containerized applications and self-hosting them.

As a former systems administrator/technician, I was very familiar with virtualized workloads and wanted an easy and fully-featured platform to integrate into my solutions. This led me to Proxmox, which offered the added benefits of advanced management interfaces, zfs pools, backup and restore capabilities from snapshots to full backups, and a traditional hypervisor alongside modern containerization.

Wanting to further challenge myself, I took a more hands-on approach to Proxmox than Docker. Instead of using prebuilt images avilable by default in Proxmox (the Turnkey Linux images) like I was in Docker with official images or Linux Server or Hotio’s. I decided to use the supplied system images for Linux containers and then manually install and configure the applications. While time-consuming, this process was an incredible learning experience, deepening my understanding of system software in Debian and RHEL-based distributions, the self-hosted application software, and its dependencies. Additionally, playing with Proxmox and XCP-ng soon after, would also be where I would first have a crack at a bare-metal Kubernetes cluster.

Naturally, this hands-on approach led me to build on a novice understanding of tools like Terraform/OpenTofu and Ansible, which further enhanced my skills in automating and managing infrastructure.

Onto Incus!

Recently during FOSDEM 2024, I was introduced to Incus, an open-source project filling the void left by the LXD project’s transition. Guided by the enthusiasm and expertise of Stephane Graber, a primary member of the Linux Containers project, I became deeply interested in Incus. Its foundation in LXC technology and commitment to open-source comunity driven principles resonated with me.

Therefore, going forward, I have decided to use Incus exclusively as my virtualization and containerization platform and will base this blog around using that to host various systems and technologies for various purposes, be it Docker, Kubernetes, or Incus itself.

I hope you find my guides and tutorials helpful on your own self-hosting journey!