Alec Blance

TLDR: These are my must-haves after a long trial and error journey. Docker, Docker compose, Portainer, Cloudflared.

When you are a fresh graduate that just entered the IT industry, you might be confused or even lost where to start. That happened to me, and I'm willing to dive into anything new within my scope just to test the water. And boy have I found my own playground.

🔥 Where I started

Docker is my entrance towards this self hosting rabbit hole. The ability to run any application without needing to check whether your machine can handle it, or if your system is compatible is probably one of the best thing ever happened into the development world. Docker compose instantly came through, it enabled me to configure the way I want to build my images, and run my containers. That definitely improved the way I manage things, but at the cost of not remembering the docker commands and arguments; 🥹 forgive me!

‼️ Challenges

I started learning Docker when I was still using Windows OS + WSL + Docker Desktop. Imagine the storage they ate! I'm constantly getting no space left. Just to clear some storage, I needed to compress the virtual disk of WSL, and factory reset Docker Desktop. It is too hectic, and too much manual work on my side. Not to mention that Docker Desktop itself is pretty laggy.

🏃 Transition

I noticed that things are getting more linux-sy on my part. So, I started looking into dual booting a linux distribution. It has its own its own challenges, but we won't be touching that 😐️. I settled with Linux Mint, and man, Linux is so easy to manage especially with the packages or apps. But, I'd like to separate my docker instance / processes to avoid any strain in my system (pretty old - Dell Optiplex 7010). That's where I decided to get a mini pc; cheaper, and stronger than raspberry pi. Portainer became my host at this point since we want to share our docker host. It is easy to configure, manage docker stuff, and lighter than docker desktop.

💫 Current

Since Portainer enables me to easily manage stuff, it is quite easy starting from here. If I like to host stuff, and point it to my domain, I always use cloudflare tunnel . It is the easiest to setup, and it has its own image which you can easily create a docker compose to deploy in portainer. While I do have a mini pc, I decided to get a dedicated cloud server to have it running 24/7 even if I'm not home. Currently, it is hosting my minecraft server which is in play.alecblance.com . Fast, efficient, and 24/7.

I'm still exploring, and looking for something to host. I already tried arr stack, but still I'm in limbo if I should continue, since I also discovered about Stemio, and of course third party streaming sites that I cannot mention (it is not what you think it is unless we are thinking the same thing 😉). If you have any suggestions, let me know.