I switched to Docker ages ago and don’t regret it. The other benefit aside from the “works on my machine” is that usually it’s very easy to back up with minimal bloat, especially for projects that don’t document what you should be backing up.

I can, and have, switch hosts on a moments notice and only have to mess with DNS updates.

Although I’ve been procrastinating switching to rootless Docker.

The only thing I run on a VM right now is Home Assistant. But I do that with Cockpit and KVM/virsh.

All my backups are tested, so upgrades (or recovering from a failure) are usually straightforward. The only thing I don’t back up is my collection of Linux ISOs, but that I can easily reacquire.

I have some invites.

9? That’s quite a bit of compute lol.

My journey started with 1 server, then 4, then 5 (one functioning as a NAS), then 1 (just the NAS box), then I moved and decided to slim it down to a proper NAS and 1 mini PC/NUC clone. Now I’m up to two because the first was an Intel N105 which just isn’t up for the challenges lol

Last time I tried to migrate to Podman the first container I tried was incompatible, so was the second, and the third. Turns out at the time Linuxservers.io stuff wasn’t rootless podman compatible. There have since been some improvement according to my most recent Google search just now, so maybe a retry is coming up.

If I’m using Bluetooth earbuds I can receive a call from Signal or WhatsApp. So it stands to reason it’s possible a Bluetooth device exists to act like earbuds but for a landline phone. I found a few (cell2jack and XLink BT HD) but could not verify if they’d work for anything other than normal phone calls.

The fundraising was for the development of Pixelfed’s source code. e.g. adding new features, bug fixing, etc. - not for currently hosted servers and their infrastructure. So it went to @dansup.

Programming and self hosting the results when I was ~14 is what led me to a tech background. No university, but I’ve been working professionally in both IT and software for over a decade and self hosting even longer.

I’ve been using Porkbun for over 5 years and haven’t had any issues. I switched from a mix of Google Domains and Namecheap.

Generally the country based TLDs have that problem. That isn’t unique to porkbun or .de

I second this. They’re upfront about pricing and don’t have many different products so the interface isn’t overwhelming.

I checked the quick start, that aren’t deterring people from using Docker, they’re saying you shouldn’t use the Docker CLI to launch it, and instead use docker-compose. Which is fair, compose is a much better format for persistent containers and being able to use l easily manage and migrate them.

I would start by getting a Kill-A-Watt (or generic) so you can measure power draw (under artificial load). The price between a 600W UPS and a 1000W UPS can be dramatic. When I hear “small server” I think of an R210ii / similar platform that uses less wattage than a old fashioned light bulb.

Highly available. For example, being able to run multiple instances of it and if one server goes down the other picks up slack.

Schrodinger’s backups.

What you’re looking for is a reverse proxy, or in this case, a TCP reverse proxy. I believe only NGINX plus (paid?) supports that. You’re probably better off using haproxy.

I haven’t done it so I can’t help in that front, but I found this: https://www.linuxbabe.com/mail-server/smtp-imap-proxy-with-haproxy-debian-ubuntu-centos

Which is close to your scenario (I just looked at the first result). Otherwise the search term “haproxy imap” or “haproxy mail server” may help you find something, maybe throwing in wireguard or VPN.

You create a “Torrent Blackhole” download client, set the Blackhole folder to somewhere irrelevant (nothing should end up here anyway if you don’t have an indexer setup, I set mine to /tmp). Set the watch folder to the one you want it to watch for new files.

When you add a book, it’ll go in the activity tab and either auto import if it matches a book with your settings, or you’ll get the option to manual import it and select the author, book, series, etc.

Keep in mind you still have to add the author under “Add New”.

So you set up a download folder, that is where it expects new files. Then you can drop them in there and it should be detected for automatic import (if it is confident), otherwise manual import (where you select the author & book & format). You still need to add the author to the library in order to have it manage it.

I’ll be on my computer later so if you’re still having trouble let me know and I can try and put together a step by step guide.

I use Readarr, it’s an automation tool such as Sonarr and Radarr. You don’t necessarily need to use it to do the download portion and could only use it for sorting / folder structure, but that might be overkill.

I imported all my Audible audio books (I used OpenAudible to download them) without much issue.