Comment by bentcorner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bentcorner | Hacker News Reader

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Agree that documentation is key here. Anything you do that is beyond the vanilla "pave the install and plug it in" should be written down.

It doesn't need to be perfect - I have a onenote notebook that has the customizations that I've done to my router (static IP leases and edits to /etc/config/network), and some helper docs for a local Zabbix install in docker that I have. I recently how to migrate a database from one docker image to another and there is no way I would remember how to do that for the next time, so I wrote everything I learned down.

Just a simple copy/paste and some explanatory text is usually good enough. Anything more complex (e.g., mirroring config files in github) still (IMO) needs enough bootstrap documentation because unless you're working with it daily you're going to forget how your stuff works.

Additionally a part of my brain is worried that if I get hit by a bus my wife/kids will have a hell of a time figuring out what I did to the network. Onenote won't help them there but I haven't figured out the best way of dealing with this.

(I recognize the irony in a "I'll host it myself" post in storing stuff in onedrive with onenote but oh well)

Just to throw more products at the wall, I've been using Bookstack[0] for the same sort of documentation.

Besides being relatively lightweight and simple to setup, out-of-the-box draw.io integration is nice. Makes diagramming networks and other things dead simple. And I know "dead simple" means I'm infinitely more likely to actually do it.

[0] https://www.bookstackapp.com/

I set up a folder for notes that shares across my network using SyncThing and is backed up with a FreeNAS box.

That folder is just a collection of markdown files for each program / system and when I save on one device it updates the documentation on them all.

I use Atom to view and edit them on my Linux machines and a markdown editor app on my phone. This allows me to search across the notes too.

I've had this fairly simple, free, open source setup for years with no problems.

I also started doing something similar via org-files, git, emacs, and Working Copy. It has worked pretty well, though Working Copy (the iOS git client) was buggier than I expected (but they have a great developer and support). My network isn't very good, or I'd just use emacs on iOS via SSH via Blink.

Interesting, what markdown editor do you use on your phone?

I work on trying to script each install. So if I need to repave, I have a documented, working script, and the source bits to work with.

I've preferred VMs for functional appliances for a while now. I like the isolation compared to containers. Though YMMV.

Right now, the hardest migration I have is my mail system, which makes use of a fairly powerful pipeline of filters in various postfix connected services. Its not fragile, but it is hard to debug.

I host it myself, as the core thesis of the article pointed out, you can be deplatformed, for any reason, with no recourse. And if you lose your mail, you are probably in a world of hurt.

The one thing I am concerned about is long term backup. I need a cold storage capability of a few 10s of TB, that won't blow up my costs too badly. Likely the best route will be a pair of servers at different DCs, running minio or similar behind a VPN that I can rsync to every now and then. Or same servers with zfs and zfs send/recv.

Thinking about this, but still not sure what to do.

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