%title 3 Years of Owning a Server
:blog:writing:web:
%date 2020-11-06 02:58

Once I'd built my first computer (which was actually very late, perhaps sometime in 2016) I needed to figure out what to do with my old one. My old one was a mid-spec laptop from 4+ years prior to that, but it had a decent graphics card at the time that allowed me to play some of the games I'd wanted to -- Though in part the small specs lead me to prefer indie games and roguelikes, the only games I'm even remotely interested anymore. 
I figured I'd try and configure it to run as a server. By this point I'd been running exclusively Linux for a couple years and had come across interesting server software. Perenially interested in Privacy and Free Software, I decided to see what I could muster up. 
Thus began my on-going experiment with Docker. At the time I knew just enough system adiminstration to be dangerous and hadn't previously set up nginx. Since Docker seemed a lot easier, that's what I went with. 
The docker instances I stood up then are the very same images that have been running on my server this entire time, I'm a little ashamed to admit. They're horrible out of date, and basically the only sort of server admin work I did was write scripts so they boot on startup and kick them when they fell down. Being the only one who used this software made that a totally fine solution for me. 
Now, I'm trying to level up once again. I've learnt a lot more about server administration, and I'm trying to achieve [[201015-2313|Invincible Computing]]. The sad part is what stirred me to finally commit to doing this whole process (Backup, Automation and Reliable builds) is *losing* all the data that I had stored in my bookmarks server since it's inception. That place was a comfy little treasure trove for me I could turn to when I finally needed a tool, book or guide in order to accomplish something. It was a personally curated springboard from which whenever I had an idea, I knew where I should go. It was, in some senses, my Google. Rather than search for something through the public search indexes, I would always choose to search this first. 
And now it's gone. And I never want to let that happen again. So here I am in the dead of night checking all my backups before wiping this ancient machine to imbue it with new life and new power. 
I hope I don't lose any more data, ever. It's a small step for me, in removing a thorn that has been deeply embedded in my technical prowess. [[201106-0311|Controlled Difficulty]] and all.