Same, exactly. I would so much rather be given a docker-compose or k8s yaml along with some other tidbits like how to run migrations and stuff, than get a bash script I can just run. I've been doing this long enough to know that it's not initial setup work that really matters, it's the upgrade and backup/restore story that really matters. If your bash script just pulls and runs a docker container or something then cool, but if it's doing much more than that then that's a big red flag to me.

This message is for anyone who might find trying self-hosting intimidating.

Like hosting an application in the cloud, you also will never stop improving how you self-host.

If there's questions lacking about a software package, it's often could be reflected in your self-hosting environment too.

Running this type of an installer is excellent to quickly introduce yourself to any technology - to then start learning about how you want to run it long term.

The questions expressed above are not new. How SRE's solve it today also can be different and more complicated than needed.

Easy answer - if they have an install script, it's getting run inside a VM, or Docker which itself is a baseline backup and HA automatically if needed.

If generally anything is run inside of a self-hosted hypervisor like Proxmox, it can be setup to automatically backup, mirror, HA as-is, while you figure out what you want. This includes running docker inside a Proxmox VM, there is not a big performance hit anymore for doing this for things that are largely idle most of the time.

There is a big difference between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. It's easier and easier to get the benefits from all three by being willing to build up the foundation instead of pointing at the gaps in each package for not filling it for you.

It's encouraging to see things becoming more possible :)

I was about to do this as well but their installer sketched me out. Why can't it just be some easy to follow docker instructions? They use docker too but instructions to set it up on your own is basically "read the installer script".

Meanwhile mastodon is incredibly easy to self host w/ relays.

> How do I secure the webserver and the data? Where is the data on my disk? How to backup and restore? High availability?

I feel like that it's kind of out of the scope from an article describing the steps for application/protocol specific infrastructure. You need to look for resources, guides and such for general self-hosting instead, somewhere else.

For example, if you use TrueScale NAS/unraid/proxmos or whatever for local self-hosting, you'd setup those things via those platforms. If you use Kubernetes/Nomad/Incus/Containers, you'd solve those things via that tooling.

> For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that

I've come across this a lot too. But what I've found is that it mostly applies to open source projects that offer a hosted paid version, so it kind of makes sense they'll make the experience slightly worse than it could be (consciously or subconsciously), as it pushes people to their hosted solution. I don't particularly like it though.

Doesn't seem to be the case for Zotero specifically, but your comment reminded me that I've noticed this more often lately.

> For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that (even for just one user) without that being ones job. So one needs to make a distinction between something being open source and being feasible to use/maintain

Just for the benefit for anyone that want to go through this rabbit hole. You cannot selfhost Zotero. In theory but in practice it is no feasible. If you find their free storage limiting then store them on webdav (all clients support that).

zotero team explicity said that they don't see this as a priority [1] and with the release of zotero 7 and transition it is not realistic to think they will ever do.

[1] https://github.com/zotero/dataserver/issues/105#issuecomment...

Self-hosting/mirroring all these Bluesky components is currently a mixed bag as well though honestly the only outlier is the Relay, which is a beast. i currently have my copy of the PLC, a Jetstream with 2 days of data and a clone of the app on my laptop i play with sometimes and/or change things for an elaborate shitpost of Bluesky Nitro https://bsky.app/profile/alice.mosphere.at/post/3l7bpmmtiop2...

I don't self-host my PDS yet because there is no migration path back yet (but there will be). Though maybe I'll just yolo one day and do it anyways.

Totally understandable. Personally I don't use Bluesky for anything vital, it's just data that the world wouldn't be better/worse without anyways, so I'm gonna go and give it a try even if there is no undo.

I love that people even has the choice, so much better than not even being able to.

What's in that 4.5 TB? e.g. message metadata? Message text? Media?

What time window does it cover? A rolling N day window? Everything since year dot?

Can it be pruned? e.g. only data of accounts followed or messages interacted with

Thanks for making yourself available to answer questions! Hopefully this is not a dumb question.

Is plc.directory a single point of failure for BlueSky users who want to take advantage of the benefits of a did:plc? And if so, is that a permanent thing or down the road will there be multiple interoperating did:plc directories?

How are Direct Messages implemented in Bluesky if anyone can access a firehose of all network activity?

What's the difference between social-app and the AppView?

https://bskycharts.edavis.dev/ is a good starting point for a number of charts

Thanks! Its code is available at https://github.com/aliceisjustplaying/whtwnd-blog, I intend to turn this into the template as the posts are stored on my PDS, on ATProto, using WhtWnd https://whtwnd.com/

(And all of this is a fork of my friend's Samuel's blog, https://mozzius.dev, see https://github.com/mozzius/mozzius.dev)

Great do I have to setup LDAP , oauth, and troubleshoot corporate-style single-signon systems for the next 6 months just to get a chat server running now....

I think if you replaced the plc directory with a corporate domain that would be pretty straightforward?

This was a quick and dirty post I put together primarily for people who are already on Bluesky and have dev experience, and peppered with appropriate links where you have actual guides and/or documentation for each bit.

> I guess I'll try and reset my password to bluesky website, assuming it's this .app one, but then it's asking me to maybe select a provider ... of my password.

It's asking what the host of your data is. If you're not running your own server, then the default value of Bluesky itself is the correct one.

It's likely the correct page was submitted. The correct page includes a canonical link in the HTML:

  <link rel="canonical" href="https://alice.bsky.sh"/>

@dang a better URL would be https://alice.bsky.sh/post/3laega7icmi2q

(I can't tell if Dan has an alert set up on his handle or whether he just sees everything, but hopefully that works :))

Fixed now!

If you thought, past tense, you were probably right, but it's been in the oven for 3 years so it's finally approaching "fully baked"

I'm sure there are HNers who built desktops with 8TB or 16TB hard drives, and have not (yet) needed the space for as many games and media as expected.

8TB WD CMR is like $99, 2x48GB of DDR5 is ~$250. Memory and storage are currently way cheaper than many think it is.

didn't say it was cheap!