Table of Contents
It’s been over a year since the past update and a lot has changed, so in this brief post, I’ll update on the current status of my self-hosting setup, with what applications I have removed, added, and why.
Removed
Starting with what I was paying for, although I like PikaPods and Umami, I found I didn’t use it enough to justify the cost, so I stopped using it a while ago. Maybe if I need a lot of analytics at some point, I will go back because I have no complaints with either.
Moving onto my Raspberry Pi, I experienced a kernel panic and had to wipe the SSD attached to it. This wasn’t a major issue as everything backed up via Syncthing to various other devices in my network. However, it gave me a good reason to evaluate my setup and assess what I actually used.
As such, I ended up permanently removing:
I also temporarily removed the following before later adding them back:
Additionally, these were also later removed and replaced by other software:
Not Replaced
For Baïkal, having the Raspberry Pi break made me realise it was too important to store calendar and to-do lists, so I started to use the CalDAV supported by my email provider for this function, as I previously wrote about in more detail here.
For Uptime Kuma and Gotify, I felt the amount of effort required to get everything all working and setup again was not worth it, as I realised I did not use these enough. I will say this though, I may use them in the future if I find myself needing to be alerted to critical services experiencing downtime, but that’s not right now.
For Paperless and Homebox, I had an unease of the files I was uploading into it being sunken into an unknowable pit to be lost forever, which sounds very dramatic, but was my feeling that I didn’t feel quite safe with these important files not being readily accessible and difficult to locate. I know I do need a system for storing important information and having not digitised, but I’m not yet convinced of the offerings currently out there in the state they’re in. However, I may just need to revisit this area again and assess recent developments which may put my mind at ease a bit more.
Temporarily Removed
I removed tasks.md as I had no need for it, but recently brought it back into my setup as I wanted a kanban board to organise a project I am working on and I knew this was an easy and effective way of doing having one. I’m pretty pleased with it, but I don’t use it for much aside from needing to prioritise tasks in this project.
Memos underwent a journey since I last mentioned in this post here about note taking. I have completely changed my note taking setup and I actually ought to do another post it, but for now I can update that I use Octarine (which I previously wrote about in a post here) for all my note taking needs on desktop, with Markor being used as a temporary way of accessing the data on Android, until a dedicated Octarine Android app is developed. As such, I no longer use Logseq for notes and didn’t need Memos, so didn’t reinstall it.
(Also, as an aside, I should add that since Omnivore was brought out and an announcement made of it shutting down, I also am no longer using Obsidian, but have a replacement for Omnivore, that I will talk about later on…)
However! I recently had to change my phone and doing so required me to reinstall Signal on it, my messaging application of choice. But doing so, with its focus on privacy, meant I lost all my previous “messages” in my Notes To Self section, something I used extensively to send myself all sorts of things primarily from my phone to my computer to access at a later date - something I previously spoke about using Gotify for as a replacement for Pushbullet.
At a whim, I randomly decided to one day reinstall Memos and see if I, in combination with the Android app MoeMemos, could use this as the bridge, where I could send myself links and notes to later review at my computer - and it works! I’ve had this setup going for a few weeks now, and I’m satisfied with the result. I acknowledge that I’m not fully utilising the potential of Memos, nor using it for its intended purpose, but it works for me!
Replaced
I wrote in a previous post about replacing Mealie and Tandoor here with RecipeSage, and I am still happy with this setup. I’m not sure when I came across Stump, though probably found it on Reddit, but I am significantly happier using it to manage my electronic library of books and magazines compared to Calibre-Web, finding it so much easier to use and manage.
With linkding, I wasn’t intending to replace it, especially with Hoarder, which I had previously encountered by ruled out due to concerns of how I was to back it up. But I stumbled across it again in the past couple of months and reconsidered it, particularly as a type of ArchiveBox, something I spoke about wanting previously here, but had not got around to doing. However, as I poked around it (having setup a cron job to do the backing up for me), I realised I could store my bookmarks in it, and that I just liked the interface more than linkding. I’m now able to more easily access various websites I have saved for all sorts of purposes on all platforms (thanks to the companion Android app) and save with the browser extension as well as via the sharing feature into the app on Android.
Migrated (+ New)
Originally, I had Stump installed on my Raspberry Pi because I was able to easily install and control it via Portainer and SSH’ing into the device via Terminal on my Mac. However, I later realised this was not the best idea as I did not have a large hard drive connected, nor the resources to upgrade. But I do have my old Synology DiskStation NAS where Navidrome is installed and plenty of room for my eBooks too.
I was reluctant though in setting up Stump on my NAS because I had installed Navidrome via this guide, and there was not one for Stump. I also felt uneasy trying to work it out myself as I was not used to working with Docker outside of Portainer. But when I came across AudioBookShelf, and wanted to install it to handle my handful of scattered audiobooks, I saw that there was a guide for not only installing it on my NAS, but one for installing Portainer!
With that in mind, I first successfully installed Portainer and then AudioBookshelf according to the instructions, and then modified my existing Stump Docker Compose setup in hopes of adapting it to work with Synology - and it worked! Happily, this means my NAS, correctly, now manages my media files, leaving my Raspberry Pi for everything else that doesn’t require a lot of space.
Overview
All in all, here is what my setup currently looks like:
Raspberry Pi | Synology DiskStation |
---|---|
AdGuard Home | Navidrome |
Syncthing | Plex |
FreshRSS | Synology Photos |
Libreddit | Stump |
Whoogle | AudioBookshelf |
Flame | |
Memos | |
tasks.md | |
RecipeSage | |
Hoarder |
Tags: Setup Self Hosting Productivity