For this new year, I’d like to learn the skills necessary to self host. Specifically, I would like to eventually be able to self host Nextcloud, Jellyfin and possibly my email server too.

I’ve have a basic level understanding of Python and Kotlin. Now I’m in the process of learning Linux through a virtual machine because I know Linux is better suited for self hosting.

Should I stick with Python? Or is JavaScript (or maybe Ruby) better suited for that purpose? I’m more than happy to learn a new language, but I’m unsure on which is better suited.

And if you could start again in your self hosting journey, what would you do differently? :)

EDIT: I wasn’t expecting all these wonderful replies. You’re all very kind people to share so much with me :)

The consensus seems to be that hosting your own email server might be a lot, so I might leave that as future project. But for Nextcloud and Jellyfin I saw a lot of great tips! I forgot to mention that ideally I would like to have Nextcloud available for multiple users (ie. family memebers) so indeed learning some basic networking/firewalling seems the bare minimum.

I also promise that I will carefully read the manuals!

  • NeatoBuildsEnglish
    21·
    9 hours ago

    Learn how to properly backup your data in case you nuke something you shouldn’t

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      9 hours ago

      And regularly check them. I just found out the hard way this last week that my backups haven’t been running for a few weeks …

      • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Yep.

        I have friends in the SMB space, one thing they do is a regular backup verification (quarterly). At that frequency, restoring even a few files (especially to a new VM), is very indicative, especially if it’s a large dataset (e.g. Quickbooks).

        In Enterprise, we do all sorts of validation, depending on the system. Some is performed as part of Data Center operations, some is by IT (those are separate things), some by Business Unit management and their IT counterparts.

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          5 hours ago

          Unfortunately, that wouldn’t have done anything. Because I did that in December and they stopped running like 2 weeks after my verification. I would have caught it on my next scheduled validation, but that doesn’t help me now 😕