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Hello everyone!

I did it. I reached a point where I got everything exactly how I wanted and now... Now I am dissatisfied as I look over my home lab's chaotic mess of a setup. This was my first time selfhosting things, and I learned a ton of stuff. I'll probably want to tear it down and start anew in the near future, being much tidier and mindful of what goes where.

Does anyone have any tips they want to impart to someone who's not an entire newbie but still learning stuff? Kind of a "If I could tell myself this before I set everything up, I would say..."

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[-] irmadlad@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

“If I could tell myself this before I set everything up, I would say…”

TAKE PROLIFIC NOTES! Do it as you go. Then, when you have whatever you were working on the way you want it, go back and clean your notes up, and make them a part of your 3,2,1 back up policy. Make a road map of how you want everything to operate. That way, as you add to your server/network, all the pieces will be much tidier and easier to troubleshoot.

[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

... don't forget about the backups.

And if your major issue is putting things in wrong locations... Maybe learn about some abstraction layers, so next time you're able to just move it, instead of tearing it down?

this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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