Backups for a self-hosted setup

Back to list2023-11-18
You

What is the minimum backup for a home server?

ChatGPT

The data volumes and the compose files, nothing else. Containers are rebuildable; the database and the uploads are not. A nightly restic snapshot to a second machine plus a weekly copy offsite covers the realistic failure modes: disk death, deletion, and theft.

You

Simplest way to get HTTPS in front of a few home services?

ChatGPT

Caddy, because certificate handling is the default rather than a plugin:

archive.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8080
    encode zstd gzip
}

That is the entire configuration, certificates included. The equivalent nginx setup is four times longer and needs a separate renewal timer that fails silently.

You

Is there a simpler version that gets most of the benefit?

ChatGPT

Yes: do the first step, skip the automation, and revisit in a month. Most of the value is in the first step, and most of the cost is in making it repeatable before you know it is right.