Running terraform and docker on my home server ⚓

09 Nov 2017

The last time I’d posted about my Home Server build in September, I’d just gotten it working. Since then, I’ve made a lot of progress. It is now running almost 10 services, up from just Kodi back then. Now it has a working copy of:

Kodi

I was running kodi-standalone-service, set to run on boot, as per the ArchLinux Wiki, but switched in favor of openbox to a simple autorun.

Steam

The current setup uses Steam as the application launcher. This lets me ensure that the Steam Controller works across all applications.

Openbox

Instead of running Kodi on xinit, I’m now running openbox with autologin against a non-privileged user.

PulseAudio

I tried fighting it, but it was slightly easier to configure compared to dmix. Might move to dmix if I get time.

btrfs

I now have the following disks:

128GB root volume. (Samsung EVO-850)
1TB volume for data backups
3TB RAID0 configuration across 2 disks. There are some btrfs subvolumes in the 3TB raid setup, including one specifically for docker volumes. The docker guide recommends running btrfs subvolumes on the block device, which I didn’t like, so I’m running docker volumes in normal mode on a btrfs disk. I don’t have enough writes to care much yet, but might explore this further.

Docker

This has been an interesting experiment. Kodi is still installed natively, but I’ve been trying to run almost everything else as a docker container. I’ve managed to do the configuration entirely via terraform, which has been a great learning experience. I’ve found terraform much more saner as a configuration system compared to something like ansible, which gets quite crazy. (We have a much more crazy terraform config at work, though).

Terraform

I have a private repository on GitLab called nebula which I use as the source of truth for the configuration. It doesn’t hold everything yet, just the following:

Docker Configuration (not the docker service, just the container/volumes)
CloudFlare - I’m using bb8.fun as the root domain, which is entirely managed using the CloudFlare terraform provider.
MySQL - Running a MariaDB container, which has been configured by-hand till this PR gets merged.

Gitea

Running as a docker container, provisioned using terraform. Plan to proxy this using git.captnemo.in.

Emby

Docker Container. Nothing special. Plan to set this up as the Kodi backend.

Couchpotato

Experimental setup for now. Inside a docker container.

Flexget

I wish I knew how to configure this. Also inside docker.

traefik

Running as a simple reverse proxy for most of the above services

elibsrv

A simple OPDS server, which I use against my Kindle. If you don’t know what OPDS is, you should [check this out][]. Running on a simple apache setup on the archlinux box for now. WIP for dockerization.

ubooquity

Simple ebook server. Proxied over the internet. Has a online ebook reader, which is pretty cool.

MariaDB

I set this up planning to shift Kodi’s data to this, but now that I have emby setup - I’m not so sure. Still, keeping this running for now.

Transmission

Hooked up to couchpotato,flexget, and sickrage so it can do things.

Sickrage

Liking this more than flexget so far, much more easier to configure and use.

AirSonic

This is the latest fork of libresonic, which was itself forked off subsonic. My attempt at getting off Google Play Music.

Learnings

Moved these to a separate blog post

TODO

A few things off my TODO list:

Create a Docker image for elibsrv that comes with both ebook-convert and kindlegen pre-installed
~~Do the same for ubooquity as well~~ (Using the linuxserver/ubooquity docker image)

If you’re interested in my self-hosting setup, I’m using Terraform + Docker, the code is hosted on the same server, and I’ve been writing about my experience and learnings:

If you have any comments, reach out to me

Published on November 09, 2017

By Nemo

Nemo's Home

Running terraform and docker on my home server ⚓

Learnings

TODO