home server alternatives

[Bob Proulx]

Hi Steve,

Steve Wolf wrote:
> I figure my options at that point are colocation, dedicated (leased)
> server, shared server, and cloud server.  Colocation is probably off
> the table for cost reasons.

How much disk space are you talking about?  Disk space is the main
decision point.  If it is smaller than about 50GB then cloud hosting
is simplest.  If it is larger than about 100GB then cloud hosting is
prohibitive at some level of disk space.

Because disk space is expensive for cloud providers.  It must be
redundant to be reliable.  It must be backed up.

If you can fit within the cost of a rented server then putting
everything there is the easiest.  Then everything is very normal
looking all around.

> What are the advantages/disadvantages of the other options?  Which has the
> most bang for the buck?  Are there other options  I haven't thought of?
> Who are the best providers?

You will require a static IP address.  Generally the typical thing to
do is to rent a VPS/VM virtual private server / virtual machine from a
cloud hosting provider.  This is a shared server cloud server.  They
will supply you with a static address.  That satisfies your main
problem.

Daniel is talking about using a VPN to connect your home system on a
dynamic address to the cloud server then use kernel routing to connect
between them.  Daniel is talking FreeBSD and I am also running
FreeBSD.  FreeBSD makes an excellent Internet facing server.

Zak is talking almost the same but using GNU/Linux and xinetd to
connect between the two.  I would do the same but using Nginx as a
proxy instead of xinetd but basically the same thing.  I will channel
Aaron and say that HAProxy is the best tool to connect them up.

In all of those cases the cloud server has the public address and all
of the disk space is located at your residence on a dynamic address.
Then one of the many methods is used to connect between them.

> Optimally, I'd like a solution that gives me most of what I currently have:
> root access, multiple domain support, email support, MariaDB support...

You always get root access when you rent a server.  I would always
backup everything to my own backup because I have no trust.

You can run anything you want to install so if you want MariaDB then
install MariaDB.

Email support means you must rent from a provider that polices their
customers because those that don't are scorched earth neighbors and
their entire network will be blocked by many.  Meaning that Linode is
good.  But Digital Ocean is blocked for general abuse by many.  The
best answer here is not to get attached because initially if you
choose wrong you might have to move.  Which is easy to do.

I don't understand your domains comment.  You can run ten thousand
domains on your system if you want.  It's almost unrelated to the
server.  It's really a question of do you have control of your domain
name or not.  If you have control of it then you can point the DNS to
anywhere you want.

I am sure things will not yet be clear.  Ask more questions.

Bob