this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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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 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

“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.

[–] other_cat@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

haha, this goes along with my husband's comments when I asked him this question too. He said that nobody does documentation the first time.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Most likely reasons people don't document right out of the gate is excitement of the moment, and I've got this tutorial I found....why would I need to document? However, I've found that writing it down in your own words seems to make it stick more for me. The way I have my notes, I could format the entire drive, and using notes alone, have the server back up and running full production in a solid day's effort. Don't be lulled into the notion that you'll be able to remember everything 6 months down the road. That's the devil talking Bobby Boucher.