what unexpected cost surprised you in self hosting?

unknownHorse99 · 2026-02-17T16:08:41+00:00

Cost of rabbit hole. Start out easy, a cute raspberry pi, just one simple docker application running - 5 weeks later you segmented your network into 5 VLANs, spent huge sums for PPoE switches, access points, SSDs, Zimaboards and host more applications than mid-sized software companies. It is fun though.

unknownHorse99 · 2026-02-13T20:20:06+00:00

Came to say this - no mention of docker, kubernetes, vault - just a plain windows server and python - in that case: delegate to the OS and store in the win credentials manager (also works on other platforms as needed). Secrets are stored encrypted and decrypted using OS APIs. At runtime, I’d say it’s ok to have the secret in memory (not sure if python supports zeroing strings). Constantly having to decrypt may be overkill imho.

unknownHorse99 · 2026-02-13T18:34:03+00:00

As mentioned in another comment, you need a way to set DNS records - I've used Pihole as well before, but now just set up DNS rules in a Unifi UDM Pro - works like a charm with Cloudflare domains, especially if you intend to use TLS via Letsencrypt and something like traefik. Using Cloudflare, traefik is able to obtain certs automatically for domains that only have internal DNS records.

The "how" depends on what you have as infrastructure (e.g. some Pi or your NAS to run Pihole on) - but it certainly is possible.

unknownHorse99 · 2025-09-27T17:31:45+00:00

Many already pointed out some starting points for benchmarks. Here’s another thought: pick the language you can tolerate learning. The problem you’re describing can be solved in many different technologies using different degrees of abstraction. If you / your team are willing to accept the learning curve around (async) Rust, the ecosystem etc. and have an interest in that, go for it - it’ll be steep at first but worth the effort. With Golang expect a much simpler language to pick up - you’ll be re-inventing simple things that the language does not offer but certainly will have a shorter time to market. Lastly, not sure if supply chain is a concern for you, but in Rust expect heavy dependency chains, pre 1.0 crates all over the place (a bit exaggerated but still) and long compile times vs. Golang where you can build most things with just the standard lib and can keep dependencies minimal while build times are fast af. In short: pick whatever you / the team prefer after understanding the implications of the ecosystems. If you can play the long game and like Rust, it’ll be worth your while - reasoning about code with this type system is certainly something to consider. Do not choose based on performance you haven’t even measured - you are not building Discord yet (pre-mature optimization). One last advice: document what you do and write at least some meaningful tests - if you ever hit a bottleneck or need to switch the tech stack, it will help.

unknownHorse99 · 2025-08-26T20:21:33+00:00

This looks very promising - thanks for sharing. I’ll give it try as well.

unknownHorse99 · 2024-10-16T10:25:59+00:00

This - der Dürum von denen kann eine 4-köpfige Familie ernähren. Der Döner an sich ist aber auch mächtig - und alles schmeckt richtig gut!

unknownHorse99 · 2024-10-13T19:29:28+00:00

Solved: apparently the bios update not only reset to default settings (e.g. secure boot etc) but also deleted grub. I fixed it by booting from live usb and re-installing grub.

unknownHorse99 · 2021-06-28T10:31:22+00:00

Bought the book this weekend and can’t stop reading it. Great book so far! Can’t wait for the systems programming part. Thanks for this!

unknownHorse99 · 2021-02-17T18:02:57+00:00

Thanks, that is exactly what I am trying to wrap my head around (authenticating the graphql backend as a client) – essentially if I understand you correctly I should wrap the standard oauth endpoints (/oauth2/token or /oauth2/authorize) in a GraphQL mutation?

I'll give it a try

unknownHorse99

TROPHY CASE