For awhile I’ve liked the idea of using a VPS for “critical” services. Currently looking at running:

  • Authentik
  • Komodo (with periphery agents on local boxes)
  • Uptime Kuma
  • NTFY
  • Panglolin (or Cosmos Cloud?)

So, first of all, to folks already using a VPS, do you think it’s worth it? Do you think I’m missing anything? Happy to discuss/research alternatives, too. I’ve thought about TinyAyuth+PocketID in place of Authentik. While I think Authentik is probably more complex (and likely overkill), it’s a single solution. That said, I haven’t played with TinyAuth/PockedID.

Second, I was pretty interested in Pangolin until I saw Cosmos Cloud mentioned elsewhere. It seems like it actually ticks a lot of boxes:

  • Built-in authentication
  • Reverse Proxy
  • VPN (At least for local-to-VPS connection, but possibly also for external clients?)
  • Docker management(?): They have an “app store” that’s all docker images, so there’s some docker capability built-in. Not sure yet if it can handle multiple hosts like Komodo.
  • DNS (I would still keep at least 1 local pi-hole instance)

Looking at the doc for chaining proxies and hiding IP, here, it mentions creating an A record for services hosted on a different server. I’m curious to know if this means Cosmos will only manage DNS for services hosted on the same box. Honestly this seems kind of odd, unless I’m misunderstanding how proxy servers work.

Anyway, I know this was a bit of a meandering post. Curious to know thoughts on my original plan, but also if anyone has played with Cosmos, I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Lastly: This morning, I found this interesting write-up to manage container updates using Forgejo, Renovate, and Komodo. Another rabbit hole to explore!

EDITS:

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  • cmc@lemmy.cleberg.netEnglish
    1·
    9 hours ago

    Worth it in what way? Are you already self hosting and looking to just offload some of your critical services to a VPS for its availability, or are you fairly new to all of this?

    For your first question on the VPS, I’d suggest thinking about backups (Is it provided by your VPS? Do you need something like Backblaze B2?) and firewalls.

    For your Cosmos question:

    I’m curious to know if this means Cosmos will only manage DNS for services hosted on the same box.

    No, not necessarily. The DNS zone you control lives on Cosmos, but the records themselves just point to IP addresses. You can point an A record to any reachable IP, whether it’s the same VPS or a completely different server. As long as the tunnel is alive, the backend can be anywhere.