Selfhosted

If a project doesn’t make it dead simple to manage via docker compose and environment variables, just don’t use it.

I run close to 100 services all using docker compose and it’s an incredibly simple, repeatable, self documenting process. Spinning up some new things is effortless and takes minutes to have it set up, accessible from the internet, and connected to my SSO.

Sometimes you see a program and it starts with “Clone this repo” and it has a docker compose file, six env files, some extra fig files, and consists of a front end container, back end container. Database container, message queueing container, etc… just close that web page and don’t bother with that project lol.

That being said, I think there’s a bigger issue at play here. If you “work in IT” and are burnt out from “15 containers and a lack of a gui” I’m afraid to say you’re in the wrong field of work and you’re trying to jam a square peg in a round hole

🤮 I hate gui config! Way too much hassle. Give me cli and a config file anyday! I love being able to just ssh into my server anytime from anywhere and fix, modify or install and setup something.

The key to not being overwhelmed is manageable deployment. Only setup one service at a time, get it working, safe and reliable before switching to actually using full time, then once certain it's solid, implement the next tool or deployment.

My servers have almost no breakages or issues. They run 24/7/365 and are solid and reliable. Only time anything breaks is either an update or new service deployment, but they are just user error by me and not the servers fault.

Although I don't work in IT so maybe the small bits of maintenance I actually do feel less to me?

I have 26 containers running, plus a fair few bare metal services. Plus I do a bit of software dev as a hobby.

My biggest problem is every docker image thinks they're a unique snowflake and how would anyone else be using such a unique port number like 80?

I know I can change, believe me I know I have to change it, but I wish guides would acknowledge it and emphasize choosing a unique port.

Sounds like you haven't taken the time to properly design your environment.

Lots of home gamers just throw stuff together and just "hack things till they work".

You need to step back and organize your shit. Develop a pattern, automate things, use source control, etc. Don't just file follow the weirdly -opinionated setup instructions. Make it fit your standard.

I wouldn't say im stick of it, but it can be a lot of work. It can be frustrating at times, but also rewarding. Sometimes I have to stop working on it for a while when I get stuck.

In any case, I like it a lot better than being Google's bitch.

Use portainer for managing docker containers. I prefer a GUI as well and portainer makes the whole process much more comfortable for me.

You should take notes about how you set up each app. I have a directory for each self hosted app, and I include a README.md that includes stuff like links to repos and tutorials, lists of nuances of the setup, itemized lists of things that I'd like to do with it in the future, and any shortcomings it has for my purposes. Of course I also include build scripts so I can just "make bounce" and the software starts up without me having to remember all the app-specific commands and configs.

If a tutorial gets you 95% of the way, and you manage to get the other 5% on your own, write down that info. Future you will be thankful. If not, write a section called "up next" that details where you're running into challenges and need to make improvements.

Yes, I get lab burnout. I do not want to be fiddling with stuff after my day job. You should give yourself a break and do something else after hours, my dude.

BUT

I do not miss GUIs. Containers are a massive win in terms because they are declarative, reproducible, and can be version controlled.

I reject a lot of apps that require a docker compose that contains a database and caching infrastructure etc. All I need is the process and they ought to use SQLite by default because my needs are not going to exceed its capabilities. A lot of these self hosted apps are being overbuilt and coming without defaults or poor defaults and causing a lot of extra work to deploy them.

If you'll let me self promote for a second, this was part of the inspiration for my Ansible Homelab Orchestration project. After dealing with a lot of those projects that practically force you to read through the code to get a working environment, I wanted a way to reproducably spin up my entire homelab should I need to move computers or if my computer dies (both of which have happened, and having a setup like this helped tremendously). So far the ansible playbook supports 117 applications, most of which can be enabled with a single configuration line:

immich_enabled: true
nextcloud_enabled: true

And it will orchestrate all the containers, networks, directories, etc for you with reasonable defaults. All of which can be overwritten, for example to enable extra features like hardware acceleration:

immich_hardware_acceleration: "-cuda"

Or to automatically get a letsencrypt cert and expose the application on a subdomain to the outside world:

immich_available_externally: true

It also comes with scripts and tests to help add your own applications and ensure they work properly

I also spent a lot of time writing the documentation so no one else had to suffer through some of the more complicated applications haha (link)

honestly, i 100% do not miss GUIs that hopefully do what you want them to do or have options grayed out or don’t include all the available options etc etc

i do get burnout, and i suffer many of the same symptoms. but i have a solution that works for me: NixOS

ok it does sound like i gave you more homework, but hear me out:

• with NixOS and flakes you have a commit history for your lab services, all centralized in one place.
• this can include as much documentation as you want: inline comments, commit messages, living documents in your repository, whatever
• even services that only provide a Docker based solution can be encapsulated and run by Nix, including using an alternate runtime like podman or containerd
• (this one will hammer me with downvotes but i genuinely do think that:) you can use an LLM agent like GitHub Copilot to get you started, learn the Nix language and ecosystem, and create Nix modules for things that need to be wrapped. i’ve been a software engineer for 15 years; i’ve got nothing to prove when it comes to making a working system. what i want is a working system.

You're not alone.

The industry itself has become pointlessly layered like some origami hell. As a former OS security guy I can say it's not in a good state with all the supply-chain risks.

At the same time, many 'help' articles are karma-farming 'splogs' of low quality and/or just slop that they're not really useful. When something's missing, it feels to our imposter syndrome like it's a skills issue.

Simplify your life. Ditch and avoid anything with containers or bizarre architectures that feels too intricate. Decide what you need and run those on really reliable options. Auto patching is your friend (but choose a distro and package format where it's atomic and rolls back easily).

You don't need to come home only to work. This is supposed to be FUN for some of us. Don't chase the Joneses, but just do what you want.

Once you've simplified, get in the habit of going outside. You'll feel a lot better about it.

I'm sick of everything moving to a docker image myself. I understand on a standard setup the isolation is nice, but I use Proxmox and would love to be able to actually use its isolation capabilities and already have the isolation. The enviroment is already suited for the program. Just give me a standard installed for the love of tech.

Just 15 containers? lol

do you get lab burnout

Not really. I have everything set the way I want it and it's stable. On occasion, I'll see a container that catches my fancy, so I'll spin it up on a test server, dick around with it, and monitor it before I ever decide to put it on my production server. On occasion I'll have to fix, or adjust something. Most of the time I'm just enjoying it. I wouldn't say I was running anything super complex tho.

As far as time, I've got you beat there most likely. Used to be lickity-split, but then you get old, things slow down. LOL Also, there is only one user...me. I realize you have family, but my hard and fast rule is: Multiple users cause issues, so I don't share. I'd say, go spend your time with the family. That's the most important.

I'm with you on the incomplete guides. There always seem to be that one 'secret' ingredient' that just didn't get documented. And to the devs of the opensource software, me love you long time, but please include a screenshot.

I do it in sprints. I'll set up a service, test it, get it working, then share it with the family.

I hear you on the instructions. A lot of these are pet projects that just happen to work well enough to share, so a bit of work is needed to implement them. If you document for others, you find that you can't ever put every step in there because you can't control all the variables.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

10 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 4 acronyms.

[Thread #40 for this comm, first seen 29th Jan 2026, 05:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

Proxmox?

And yes. Its like a full time job to homelab. Or a part time job. Its just hard, and sometimes things just don't work.

I guess one answer is to pick your battles. You can't win them all. But things are objectively better than they were in the past.

I just have yunohost do like 90% ofbthebwork nowadays. My day job is docker/cli so the last thing i want to do is more of it.

I don't run a service unless it has reasonably good documentation. I'll go through it first and make sure I understand how it's supposed to run, what port(s) are used, and if I have an actual, practical use case for it.

You're absolutely correct in that sometimes the documentation glosses over or completely omits important details. One such service is Radicale. The documentation for running a Docker container is severely lacking.

While I am gaining plentiful information from this comments section already, wanted to add that the IT brain drain is real and you are not alone.

Not trying to start any measuring contest, but what I've learned is that there are always people out there that does things 100x more than I do. So yes, 1500 Docker composes are a thing, and I've witnessed some composes with over 10k lines.

Yeah that's part of having a hobby. If you do it for work too I can understand getting sick of it. But, no one is making you do it. If you don't enjoy it, don't do it.

It can absolutely be overwhelming, and very easy to forget specifics over a long time. It's partly why I don't really go for CLI apps, and ~all of my apps are just Ansible manifests. Which apps are causing the biggest problems for your family?

What exactly is breaking each of these times? Guides that cover 95% sound pretty solid to me. It's hard to write a guide covering 100% of scenarios. Admittedly I also worked in the field, but the field is extremely wide so maybe there's some knowledge areas to deepen that are commonly giving you problems and/or move towards a less brittle setup.

Re-evaluating what's important is important. If it's not fun then you should reflect on having the right balance of what is helping you and your family vs causing excessive stress. IMO the "avoid all tech companies" is slightly overblown (blasphemous, I know). It's a good guiding principle but it's fine to "buy services" that make your life better. For example, I self host a lot, but I was totally fine buying a finances tracking app (the spreadsheet-based one) because it's doing a lot of heavy lifting that I can't reasonably do myself at the level of convenience I want.

My advice is : just use Nix.

It always works. It does all the steps for you. You will never "forget a step" because either someone has already made a package, or you just make your own that has all the steps, and once that works, it works literally forever.

It's a mess. I'm even moving to a different field in it due to this.

I deliberately have not used docker at home to avoid complications. Almost every program is in a debian/apt repo, and I only install frontends that run on LAMP. I think I only have 2 or 3 apps that require manual maintenance (apart from running "apt upgrade"). NextCloud is 90% of the butthurt.

I'm starting to turn off services on IPv4 to reduce the network maintenance overhead.