I wanted to ask where the border of selfhosting is. Do I need to have the storage and computing at home?
Is a cheap VPS on hetzner where I installed python, PieFed and it’s Postgres database but also nginx and letsencrpt manually by mydelf and pointed my domain to it, selfhosting?
I would say yes, it’s still self-hosting. It’s probably not “home labbing”, but it’s still you responsible for all the services you host yourself, it’s just the hardware which is managed by someone else.
Also don’t let people discourage you from doing bare-metal.
Interesting distinction. I use a small managed vps, but didn’t consider that self-hosting, personally. I do aspire to switch to a homelab and figure out dynamic DNS and all that one day.
It depends who you ask (which we can already tell hehe), but I’d say YES, because you’re the one running the show – you’re free to grab all of your bits and pieces at any time, and move to a different provider. That flexibility of not being locked into one specific cloud service (which can suddenly take a bad turn) is what’s precious to me.
And on a related note, I also make sure that this applies to my software-stack too – I’m not running anything that would be annoying to swap out if it turns bad.
I would say there’s no value in assigning such a tight definition on self-hosting–in saying that you must use your own hardware and have it on premise.
I would define selfhost as setting up software/hardware to work for you, when turn-key solutions exist because of one reason or another.
Netflix exists. But we selfhost Jellyfin. Doesn’t matter if its not on our hardware or not. What matters is that we’re not using Netflix.
Self hosting just means maintaining your own Instance of a web service instead of paying for someone else‘s
As long as you dont pay hetzner for an explicit fully maintained Nextcloud server, it dosent matter if the OS you‘re running it on is a VM or a bare bones server
Is a cheap VPS on hetzner where I installed python, PieFed and it’s Postgres database but also nginx and letsencrpt manually by mydelf and pointed my domain to it, selfhosting?
I don’t get hung up on the definitions and labels. I run a hybrid of 3 vps and one rack in the closet. I’m totally fine with you thinking that is not selfhosting or homelabbing. LOL I have a ton of fun doing it, and that’s the main reason why I do it; to learn and have fun. It’s like producing music, or creating bonsai, or any of the other many hobbies I have.
Your stuff is still in the cloud, so I would say no. It’s better than using the big tech products, but I wouldn’t say it’s fully “self hosted”. Not that that really makes much of a difference. You’re still pretty much in control of everything, so you should be fine.
Where is the tipping point though? If I have a server at my parents house, they live in Germany and I in Korea, does my dad host it then because he is paying for the electricity and the access to the internet and makes sure those things work?
Isn’t my dad the hosting provider? I ordered the hardware, he connected it to his switch and his electricity and pressed the button to start it the first time. From there on I logged in to his VPN and set up the server like I would at Hetzner.
But you’re right it doesn’t really make a difference. I feel the only difference it makes for me where I post my questions on Lemmy if it is in a !selfhosting community or a !linux community.
From a feeling perspective, even if I use Hetzners cloud, I feel I self host my single user PieFed instance (and matrix, my other websites, mastodon, etc.) because I have to preform basically the same steps as for things I’m really hosting at home like open-webui, immich, peertube.
A hosting provider is a business. If your dad is a business and you are buying hosting services from him, then yes, he is a hosting provider and you are not self hosting. But that’s not what you’re doing. You’re hosting on your own hardware on your family’s internet. That’s self hosting.
When you host on Hetzner, you’re hosting on their hardware using their internet. That’s not self hosting. It’s similar, cause like you said, you have to do a lot of the same administration work, but it’s not self hosting.
Where it gets a little murky is rack space providers. Then you’re hosting on your own hardware, but it’s not your own internet, and there’s staff there to help you… kinda iffy whether you’re self hosting, but I’d say yeah, since you own the hardware.
I wanted to ask where the border of selfhosting is. Do I need to have the storage and computing at home?
Is a cheap VPS on hetzner where I installed python, PieFed and it’s Postgres database but also nginx and letsencrpt manually by mydelf and pointed my domain to it, selfhosting?
I would say yes, it’s still self-hosting. It’s probably not “home labbing”, but it’s still you responsible for all the services you host yourself, it’s just the hardware which is managed by someone else.
Also don’t let people discourage you from doing bare-metal.
That’s actually a good point, self hosting and home lab are similar things but don’t necessarily mean the same thing
Interesting distinction. I use a small managed vps, but didn’t consider that self-hosting, personally. I do aspire to switch to a homelab and figure out dynamic DNS and all that one day.
It depends who you ask (which we can already tell hehe), but I’d say YES, because you’re the one running the show – you’re free to grab all of your bits and pieces at any time, and move to a different provider. That flexibility of not being locked into one specific cloud service (which can suddenly take a bad turn) is what’s precious to me.
And on a related note, I also make sure that this applies to my software-stack too – I’m not running anything that would be annoying to swap out if it turns bad.
It’s self hosting as long as you are in control of the data you’re hosting.
I would say there’s no value in assigning such a tight definition on self-hosting–in saying that you must use your own hardware and have it on premise.
I would define selfhost as setting up software/hardware to work for you, when turn-key solutions exist because of one reason or another.
Netflix exists. But we selfhost Jellyfin. Doesn’t matter if its not on our hardware or not. What matters is that we’re not using Netflix.
Self hosting just means maintaining your own Instance of a web service instead of paying for someone else‘s
As long as you dont pay hetzner for an explicit fully maintained Nextcloud server, it dosent matter if the OS you‘re running it on is a VM or a bare bones server
I don’t get hung up on the definitions and labels. I run a hybrid of 3 vps and one rack in the closet. I’m totally fine with you thinking that is not selfhosting or homelabbing. LOL I have a ton of fun doing it, and that’s the main reason why I do it; to learn and have fun. It’s like producing music, or creating bonsai, or any of the other many hobbies I have.
Your stuff is still in the cloud, so I would say no. It’s better than using the big tech products, but I wouldn’t say it’s fully “self hosted”. Not that that really makes much of a difference. You’re still pretty much in control of everything, so you should be fine.
Where is the tipping point though? If I have a server at my parents house, they live in Germany and I in Korea, does my dad host it then because he is paying for the electricity and the access to the internet and makes sure those things work?
Your parents’ house isn’t the cloud, so yeah, it’s self hosted. The “tipping point” is whether you’re using a hosting provider.
They are using a hosting provider - their dad.
“The cloud” is also just a bunch of machines in a basement. Lots of machines in lots of “basements”, but still.
“hosting provider” in this instance I think means “do you pay them (whoever has the hardware in their possession) a monthly/quarterly/yearly fee”
otherwise you can also say “well ACTUALLY your isp is providing the ability to host on the wan so they are the real hosting provider” and such…
Their dad is not a hosting provider. I mean, maybe he is, but that would be really weird.
Isn’t my dad the hosting provider? I ordered the hardware, he connected it to his switch and his electricity and pressed the button to start it the first time. From there on I logged in to his VPN and set up the server like I would at Hetzner.
But you’re right it doesn’t really make a difference. I feel the only difference it makes for me where I post my questions on Lemmy if it is in a !selfhosting community or a !linux community.
From a feeling perspective, even if I use Hetzners cloud, I feel I self host my single user PieFed instance (and matrix, my other websites, mastodon, etc.) because I have to preform basically the same steps as for things I’m really hosting at home like open-webui, immich, peertube.
A hosting provider is a business. If your dad is a business and you are buying hosting services from him, then yes, he is a hosting provider and you are not self hosting. But that’s not what you’re doing. You’re hosting on your own hardware on your family’s internet. That’s self hosting.
When you host on Hetzner, you’re hosting on their hardware using their internet. That’s not self hosting. It’s similar, cause like you said, you have to do a lot of the same administration work, but it’s not self hosting.
Where it gets a little murky is rack space providers. Then you’re hosting on your own hardware, but it’s not your own internet, and there’s staff there to help you… kinda iffy whether you’re self hosting, but I’d say yeah, since you own the hardware.
I’d say you need storage. Once you get storage, use cases start popping up into view over time.
Personally, I’d say no. At that point you are administering it, not hosting it yourself.