The best way to self host

What is Self-Hosting?

Self-hosting means the practice of running some services yourself and maintaining and controlling it to the fullest extent you can. There are several reasons to self-host apps - you might be paranoid about Google / Apple having your data (photos, email, etc.), you might want to access a remote PC for work / school or host some website for your family and friends or just have fun tinkering and trying out new apps.

You can host a Google Photos like app, your own email client, a Wordpress website, Repl.it type service and much more. Although there are well written tutorials regarding all those different apps, I have found managing many apps and quickly trying out or debugging to be a huge bottleneck. It was a hassle and not the most fun thing to do especially when you want it to always work. Until I had found CapRover.

What is CapRover?

From its website -

> CapRover is an extremely easy to use app/database deployment & web server manager for your NodeJS, Python, PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby, MySQL, MongoDB, Postgres, WordPress (and etc...) applications!

CapRover basically is a simple tool to manage, create and deploy all types of applications. It uses Docker at its core and has a powerful and super functional & beautiful GUI to manage everything. It has an amazing collection of one-click to install apps and it auto generates and renews Let's Encrypt SSL certificates, making it as easy as clicking a button to deploy your own Google Drive alternative. The best part is that even after removing the CapRover utility, all the apps continue to function. Did I mention it's open-source!

(GitHub)

Getting Started

First off, you need a system to install CapRover on. For self-hosting the best thing is to have a server / old-pc / raspberry pi running in your home. You can also use a reputed Cloud Provider like Digital Ocean (affiliate link) to quickly create a small VM for free and play with it.

Currently, Oracle Cloud is offering amazing Always-Free tier with 2 AMD CPU cores or 4 ARM cores and 24 Gigs of RAM, also 200 GB storage, which is more than enough for most use-cases.

You can follow an amazing guide on their website to quickly get started, or expand the Steps below.

Steps

I would recommend Ubuntu as the distro of choice because most docker images function best with it. Official recomendation is for Ubuntu 18.04 but for me 20.04 has worked fine.

Step 0 : SSH into the machine (VM or bare-metal and follow these instructions)

Code to Upgrade packages:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

To Install Docker

sudo apt-get install \

apt-transport-https \

ca-certificates \

curl \

gnupg \

lsb-release

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

echo \

"deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \

$(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

To verify if Docker is working:

sudo docker run hello-world

Configure Firewall

Clear all already set iptables if set by your cloud provider and configure firewall via UFW (personal preference)

Also make sure to allow ports which you are actively using for caprover from your router or cloud provider's console.

sudo ufw allow 22,80,443,3000,996,7946,4789,2377/tcp; sudo ufw allow 7946,4789,2377/udp;

Installing Caprover

Just run the following line, sit back and enjoy!

sudo docker run -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 3000:3000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /captain:/captain caprover/caprover

NOTE: Do not change the port mappings. CapRover only works on the specified ports.

Configure domain name (after port forwarding if hosting in your home)

*.domain.name should point to publicly reachable IP address of the machine

Assuming you have npm installed on your local machine (e.g., your laptop), simply run (add sudo if needed):

npm install -g caprover

Then, run

caprover serversetup

and follow the instructions shown.

CapRover should be available on the domain name you configured it with.

Once you login you will see a simple UI, click on one-click apps.

Some Useful and Amazing Apps

Firstly, these are some apps which I use and love, though your preference may vary. Secondly, it's not just that you can JUST install the apps already there, but in fact you can install any you like (instructions for same), although most well maintained apps are already available as one-click images.

If you are using an ARM processor (Raspberry Pi / Graviton instance, etc.) some images might not work and some tweaks may be needed in the captain-definition file. One such example for WordPress is attached below, and I will be adding others as and when I find compatibility issues.

Nextcloud

It is a must have all-in-one platform. It is Google Drive + Photos + Docs + iMessage combined. In fact it also has a huge library of apps you can install, within a Nextcloud instance. Link

Duplicati

Duplicati is a backup solution that takes encrypted backups to almost any provider of your choice (Backblaze, Onedrive, etc.) You might want to backup Nextcloud photos / notes or any other file to an offsite location. Link

Invidious

An alternative front-end for YouTube. Very customizable and mobile-friendly! Link

Plausible Analytics

Privacy friendly analytics platform for your websites. Link

Poste.io

A complete email server. Email hosting is hard, but with Poste.io not so much. Super easy and quick to setup. Link

Searx

A privacy-respecting meta search engine. Proxy your Google search results. Use multiple search engines - all from one place. Link

PrivateBin

PrivateBin is a minimalist, open source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data. Link

VScode via code-server

Run VS Code on any machine anywhere and access it in the browser. This has been a game-changer for me personally as now I can code my school projects and assignments from a chromebook, desktop PC, or any other device, with continuity and is maintained perfectly between all the devices. Link

Others

There are multiple RSS feed readers, database images, website platforms (Ghost, WP, etc.), File managers, Joplin server, Adguard Home, Plex, Etherpad, Gitea and many more. With CapRover you can easily try out as many as you want. Also you can host custom docker images, apps, etc.

Conclusion

With ability to easily (with press of a button) install and try out apps, auto generate SSL certs, and an amazing monitoring utility NetData already bundled in, it is the best platform to self-host most services (that offer docker images! - or which you can maintain). And probably the best for most users.

The only downside is that being a nodeJS application, its ram usage is a little high - although not even close to being a hinderance for most people.

CapRover ARM Wordpress Template

For Wordpress (with Database) -> using MariaDB for Databse

captainVersion: 4

services:

$$cap_appname-db:

image: arm64v8/mariadb:$$cap_database_version

volumes:

- $$cap_appname-db-data:/var/lib/mysql

restart: always

environment:

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: $$cap_db_pass

MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress

MYSQL_USER: $$cap_db_user

MYSQL_PASSWORD: $$cap_db_pass

caproverExtra:

notExposeAsWebApp: 'true'

$$cap_appname-wordpress:

depends_on:

- $$cap_appname-db

image: arm64v8/wordpress:$$cap_wp_version

volumes:

- $$cap_appname-wp-data:/var/www/html

restart: always

environment:

WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: srv-captain--$$cap_appname-db:3306

WORDPRESS_DB_USER: $$cap_db_user

WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: $$cap_db_pass

caproverOneClickApp:

variables:

- id: $$cap_db_user

label: Database user

defaultValue: wordpressuser

validRegex: /^([a-zA-Z0-9])+$/

- id: $$cap_db_pass

label: Database password

description: ''

validRegex: /^(\w|[^\s"'\\])+$/

- id: $$cap_wp_version

label: WordPress Version

defaultValue: '5.8'

description: Check out their Docker page for the valid tags https://hub.docker.com/r/arm64v8/wordpress/tags

validRegex: /^([^\s^\/])+$/

- id: $$cap_database_version

label: Database Version, for MariaDB

defaultValue: 'latest'

description: We are USING MARIADB| Check out the Docker pages for the valid tags https://hub.docker.com/r/arm64v8/mariadb/tags

validRegex: /^([^\s^\/])+$/

instructions:

start: >-

WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. But in non-geek speak, it’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today.

Enter your WordPress Configuration parameters and click on next. A MariaDB (database) and a WordPress container will be created for you. The process will take about a minute for the process to finish.

end: >

Wordpress is deployed and available as $$cap_appname-wordpress .

IMPORTANT: It will take up to 2 minutes for WordPress to be ready. Before that, you might see a 502 error page.

displayName: WordPress

description: WordPress is one of the most popular a content management system (CMS) based on PHP.

documentation: Taken from https://docs.docker.com/compose/wordpress/. Port mapping removed from WP as it is no longer needed

CapRover ARM Etherpad Template

captainVersion: 4

services:

$$cap_appname:

image: vimarsh244/arm-etherpad:$$cap_etherpad_version

depends_on:

- $$cap_appname-db

environment:

NODE_ENV: production

DB_TYPE: mysql

DB_HOST: srv-captain--$$cap_appname-db

DB_PORT: '3306'

DB_NAME: etherpad

DB_USER: etherpad

DB_PASS: $$cap_db_pass

DB_CHARSET: utf8mb4

TRUST_PROXY: 'true'

caproverExtra:

containerHttpPort: '9001'

$$cap_appname-db:

image: mariadb:$$cap_mysql_version

volumes:

- $$cap_appname-db-data:/var/lib/mysql

restart: always

environment:

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: $$cap_db_pass

MYSQL_DATABASE: etherpad

MYSQL_USER: etherpad

MYSQL_PASSWORD: $$cap_db_pass

caproverExtra:

notExposeAsWebApp: 'true'

caproverOneClickApp:

variables:

- id: $$cap_etherpad_version

label: Etherpad Docker Image

defaultValue: latest

description: Check out their Docker page for the valid tags https://hub.docker.com/r/vimarsh244/arm-etherpad/tags

- id: $$cap_db_pass

label: Database password

description: ''

validRegex: /.{1,}/

- id: $$cap_mysql_version

label: Mariadb Version

defaultValue: '10.5.7'

description: Check out their Docker page for the valid tags https://hub.docker.com/_/mariadb/tags/

validRegex: /^([^\s^\/])+$/

instructions:

start: Etherpad is a real-time collaborative editor for the web

end: Etherpad is a real-time collaborative editor for the web is deployed and available as srv-captain--$$cap_appname. Note that the application may take some time to become available.

displayName: Etherpad

isOfficial: true

description: Etherpad is a real-time collaborative editor for the web

documentation: 'https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/blob/develop/doc/docker.md'

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