Do you self host? \ stacker news ~tech

2741 sats \ 35 comments \ @rustaceanrob 20 Oct 2023 tech

I am looking into buying an Umbrel Home and paying the premium for the easy set up. Do you use a home server? What's your set up?

Yes80.0%

No20.0%

45 votes \ poll ended

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393 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullcount 20 Oct 2023

Umbrel home is over priced. Learn about hardware and build a real server capable of running multiple virtual machines.

https://nullcount.com/how-to-install-umbrel-in-a-proxmox-virtual-machine/

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @final 22 Oct 2023

Best comment on this thread by far. A cheap refurbished Xeon workstation or a small rack with Proxmox is quality.

180 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheWildHustle 20 Oct 2023

Start9 was an easy setup, i'm using the bitcoin apps, nextcloud and vaultwarden

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 21 Oct 2023

Yeah start9 ftw. I can self host everything from source myself but it's a lot of work to do yourself properly and it's nice to have startOS take care of it.

121 sats \ 2 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 20 Oct 2023

Self host what?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 21 Oct 2023

I was about to ask the same. People nowadays have no idea what they want.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Michelson_Morley 21 Oct 2023

I wondered too, but after a moment of considering things from the OPs point of view realized that clearly the implication was self-hosting a lightning node.

You make a living from shilling bitcoin, acting like andrew tate in order to impress (and sell to) impressionable newcomers with your no-nonsense confidence. I respect the hustle. Though I suppose that it doesn't require empathy for those who already actually support cryptocurrency, like OP.

186 sats \ 5 replies \ @chairman_pretense 20 Oct 2023

Buy a NUC or cheap mini PC and run openmediavault for self hosting services. With Tailscale you can access your data on all your devices easily.

Running a node is pretty useless unless you're running a proper lightning routing node, in which case you want a more robust setup than Umbrel.

For self custodial lightning spending wallets, use a mobile node like Blixt or Phoenix.

For cold storage run Bitcoin Core on a laptop with Sparrow (keys managed with a good hardware device like Coldcard, Jade or Seedsigner). Once you've done the initial block download, you don't really need to run it 24/7 as catching up on a few days or even weeks is pretty quick on the rare moments you want to move on chain funds.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @rustaceanrob OP 20 Oct 2023

What you've described in the last bit is my current setup. I run a pruned Bitcoin Core node when I care to see the UTXO set. I am completely happy as is but a part of me feels like a hack using things like gmail.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chairman_pretense 20 Oct 2023

It's the best, simplest setup I reckon. For self hosting you just want a basic box to run docker containers on. It's really easy to spin things up with docker compose. Which is basically what Umbrel OS is -- a fancy front end for Docker.

100 sats \ 2 replies \ @kristapsk 21 Oct 2023

Running a node is pretty useless unless you're running a proper lightning routing node

It isn't. You can run node and use it for Bitcoin onchain payments too.

For Lightning I recommend having setup with two SSDs in a mirror.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @chairman_pretense 21 Oct 2023

You're right, what I meant is running a dedicated machine as a node isn't needed unless you need always on lightning routing.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kristapsk 21 Oct 2023

There are other use cases where you might want always on Bitcoin node at home. For example, running Electrum server there and connecting wallet(s) on your mobile phone to it.

120 sats \ 0 replies \ @kristapsk 20 Oct 2023

Have Odroid HC4 with more or less RaspiBolt guide at home, also some more Gentoo machines at home and some Ubuntu as a VPS.

I like self-hosting not only Bitcoin stuff. Make Internet Great (decentralized) Again!

111 sats \ 0 replies \ @lumps 20 Oct 2023

Old Dell Vostro running Linux, Bitcoin Core 25, and Sparrow. I considered a device such as Umbrel, but I wanted to learn to set it up myself. There were a few head aches, of course, but the experience was worth it; especially if you are trying to teach yourself Linux etc etc.

111 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 21 Oct 2023

Everyone should self host. For those of you that don't, what's holding you back?

120 sats \ 0 replies \ @oomahq 20 Oct 2023

Yes. I run the full circus on a dedicated Intel NUC at home (Bitcoin Core, Electrs, BTC RPC Explorer, Mempool, Sparrow Server, Core Lightning and RTL).

IMO it's worth it to DIY, and there's plenty of excellent resources online to help you do it. The point of having a Bitcoin node is running it however you want (this becomes really important from time to time). Buying a pre-packaged solution kinda defeats the purpose.

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @nikotsla 21 Oct 2023

You can go as complicated as you want :), starting from the router to all the service you need.

Main router: Firewall, VPNs, remove the ISP hardware, ask for a "bridge" setup. Storage: What data are you going to save? if it's a lot and it's important... maybe a NAS. Services: What kind of resource will be used? CPU? ram? IO between components? renders? External server/service: Maybe you want a public IP

About BTC ecosystem, if you are going to just use BTC as a person, almost any configuration will be ok.

It's all depend of you curiosity, some easy setup is better to start your rabbit hole, learn and upgrade according to your requirements, it's going to be more expensive with any mistake, but you will learn a lot.

110 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 20 Oct 2023

I'd say have one NUC for bitcoin stuff and another NUC for media and non-money stuff. On the bitcoin NUC you can install Umbrel and it works quite well. Keep the bitcoin NUC clean, updated and safe. On the non-money node you can do either Umbrel, or Proxmox or for example CasaOS and you can do whatever projects on this one.

If you want to go as small as possible, then something like this is cool: https://www.amazon.com/MeLE-Overclock3C-Desktop%EF%BC%8CMini-Computer-Education/dp/B0C8NKRCRW

110 sats \ 4 replies \ @Zepasta 20 Oct 2023

deleted by author

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Zepasta 20 Oct 2023

Forgot to mention, Raspberry Pi watt consumptions is extremely low, so you can leave it on 24/7/365. If you go "Mini PC" root they will usually consume way more watts.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @oomahq 20 Oct 2023

Not that many more. An RPI4 consumes around 3-5W, and a Mini PC should be around 10-15W.

Yes it's a 3x difference, but still very low. Like leaving a LED light always on vs three of them.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @rustaceanrob OP 20 Oct 2023

Is the 1TB SSD external? Any recs? I have an old RPi 2 somewhere.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zepasta 20 Oct 2023

I bought a case that you can insert the SSD directly. It's not one of those that you connect with USB. I don't recommend RPi2 for this, probably too weak.

150 sats \ 0 replies \ @danieltapa 21 Oct 2023

my RPi4 8gb + 1 TB SSD is running smoothly since january, zero maintenance. i followed Raspibolt, pretty clear instructions, even if you're not familiar with CLI environment.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @chapped 22 Oct 2023

I'm late but yes! I self host whenever I can for privacy and not needing to depend on another service so much.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @chapped 22 Oct 2023

I self host a bitcoin and lightning node using Nix-Bitcoin on an Intel Nuc.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @billiam 21 Oct 2023

start9 on a vmware workstation. Runs like a charme.

Services:

Bitcoin core
electrs
mempool
searxng

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 21 Oct 2023

Umbrel or ANY of those bundle software machines are NOT a good way to run your "home server" or even Bitcoin nodes. WHY?

Because is not good to concentrate all your "server" stuff in one place.
those little machines, no matter how "powerful" look like, will still not be enough to run specific servers tasks.
mixing all kind servers tasks, that require specific levels of security, you are just making it worse.

Separate machines, with separate tasks. If you really want a single or two machines, then use VM implementations, but even then you still have to group specific servers tasks/apps by level of importance.

Running a bitcoin/LN node on such "home server" is totally NOT indicated. A BTC/LN node must stay out of any other non-bitcoin related app/task. Read more here https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/lightning-node-maintenance

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @chovyfubar 21 Oct 2023

what's Umbrel?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @rustaceanrob OP 21 Oct 2023

They make an operating system and sell a home computer that can run as a personal server. Based off of the comments its overpriced and I won't get it (:

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @NoStranger 21 Oct 2023

I use my main PC with some apps running nginx and raw docker apps with NixOS (couple lines of code and no weird tooling required), all reachable from anywhere using a custom domain that point to my Tailscale VPN IPs.

I'm the only user so I just turn it on when I need it using Wake-on-LAN, still remotely.

I also have a cheap VPS on Contabo, I use it for shared services and clients projects hosting, also for an always-on CouchDB, I need it for web apps on my phone to sync, it'll also sync with my PC instance when it's running.

I also have a Raspberry Pi 3, I was planning to use that instead of the VPS but the setup now works great.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @2bithits 20 Oct 2023

I'd like to, but there are endless rabbit holes. Self hosting is further down the list for me

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @faradayfedora 20 Oct 2023

I run it as a VM on an old Lenovo desktop that runs proxmox.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @evanbaer 27 Oct 2023

Curtis Yarvin, on self hosting:

Ideally, owning your own server would be like owning your own dog: normal. Today, owning your own server is like owning your own bear: not normal. - source