This note explores self-hosting through its infrastructure and associated services.
```
 
```toc
style: number
```
 
---
 
### Infrastructure
 
This section sums up required infrastructure for self-hosting online services.
 
#### Hardware
An option is to look at a **Virtual Private Server** (VPS) service. This also solves the issue of the access to the Internet, that is more and more advised to not come from a home connection.
```ad-tip
title: Tip
A good aggregator for low-cost VPS [here](https://lowendbox.com)
```
Otherwise, **physical hardware** include:
Product | Type | Price range
--------|-------|-----------
<pstyle="color:green">**Synology (DS218/220+)**</p> | NAS | £250/300
<pstyle="color:cyan">**Dell Poweredge Tower Server T30**</p> | Server | £300/400
**Linux** is the most common OS for servers. **Ubuntu**, **Debian** or **CentOS** the most common distributions.
**MacOS** would require a Virtual Machine to run properly.
 
#### Internet connection
More and more literature point that a home Internet connection may not be the most appropriate way for a server to connect to the Internet. ISPs limit traffic to manage bandwidth and comply to legislations.
 
#### Domain
Domain management is important for several reasons: email and email routine can only be defined once per domain. As such, email services (self-hosting, email aliasing) need to be run on separate domains.
For self-hosting, the folllowing domain will be used: **mfxm.fr**
```ad-warning
title: Warning
Sub-domains to be defined with **webhost**.
```
 
#### Security
Security is paramount at the points of connection to the server. SSH protocols are secured but csn be intercepted. Two different ways of protection can be implemented:
Backups are managed through the **tar** command and dispatched over the network with **rclone**. Instructions can be found [[VPS Console Dialogue#Backing up a server|here]].
In essence, to run multiple services on the same hardware, a few basic steps need to be taken to ensure that each service runs properly.
 
| Consideration | Tool | Description
|---------------|------|------------
<pstyle="color:cyan">**Compartimentalise services into containers**</p> | **docker** | Creates containers that can be run independently
<pstyle="color:turquoise">**Simplify docker commands**</p> | **docker-compose** | Enables to create 'script' for docker commands
<pstyle="color:teal">**Route internet traffic appropriately**</p> | reverse proxy: **nginx**, **Caddy2** | Enables to route addresses to the appropriate containers and manage SSL certificates (and https forcing)
 
---
 
### Self-hosted services
 
A list of FOSS services can be found [here](https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted)
Service | OS | Technical reqs | Description
--------|----|----------------|--
<pstyle="color:orange">**Email service**</p> | Linux | 2GB RAM recommended | self-host an [[#Email service]]
<pstyle="color:green">**Email aliases**</p> | Linux | 2GB RAM; ports: 22, 25, 80, 443 | an [[#Email alias service\|alias service]] like [SimpleLogin](https://simplelogin.io)
**[[Nextcloud]]** | Linux | 500M RAM; MySQL & SQL Lite; PHP 8.0; Apache 2.4 with PHP or nginx with PHP | [[#Personal cloud syncing]] instance
<pstyle="color:purple">**Instant Message**</p> | Linux | 2/4GB RAM; ports & other extensions | [[Element]] instance for [[#Instant Messenging]]
<pstyle="color:violet">**VPN**</p> | Linux | 500MB RAM | Host a private [[#VPN]]
 
#### Email service
Email service can be fully built but has many components to it: server, database, imap, caldav, carddav, DNS specificities, spam whitelisting as well as security (server access & spam filtering). It can therefore be tideous to build an email service from scratch. Pre-packaged solitions exist to manage all components:
1. [IRedMail](https://www.iredmail.org/)
2. [Mail-in-a-Box](https://mailinabox.email/)
3. [Docker-mailserver](https://hub.docker.com/r/tvial/docker-mailserver/) which is command-line-only and to be built more extensively than the two other alternatives
