What route do I go if I want to up my admin slowly so I eventually feel able to run pure Debian? Currently running Docker on Unraid with two minor VMs but looking to migrate away from Unraid with the intention to only run FOSS (and get a deeper understanding of everything under the hood).
I know that’s little information, all I need is a nudge in the right direction so I can figure things out by consulting documentation and forums.
If you can afford it it’s a good idea to buy a Raspberry Pi since Raspbian is basically just debian. Then replicate your current setup on it and just try to tinker with it without any risks of breaking things or losing data.
If you’re using a lot of Docker I would recommend learning the command line since you’ll be able to use Docker on basically any real OS at that point.
Honestly figuring out docker is 50% of the journey with the other 50% mostly being networking. For instance if your looking to start your own Jack Sparrow themed streaming service you’d want to grab a domain name, point it at your ip, open up ports 80 and 443 on your router, install a reverse proxy via docker and set up SSL ( hint: Caddy makes this easy ) and point it at your jellyfin docker container and voila, your very own streaming service you can access from anywhere! Notice the complicated part of all this is mostly the networking and docker setups, not so much the OS that your running. ( Note: don’t open ports without knowing the risks )
Debian is a fine OS but most homelab stuff can be done on anything you can install docker on, even on a windows computer! That’s not to say you shouldn’t learn some Linux server stuff but it isn’t wholly necessary. That being said…
My best advice for getting into Linux servers would be to grab an old PC, laptop or even a raspberry pi and install Debian, raspbian or any other distro on it. Figure out how to log in via ssh and get the thing running headless ( no keyboard or monitor ) and just learning to navigate and do things via the terminal. Some of the basics would be learning to use the package manager to install software, mounting the file system remotely and figuring out how to setup static IPs and such. When your ready go ahead and install docker, follow some tutorials, learn some yaml and your off to the races!
You seem like the right person to ask this:
What route do I go if I want to up my admin slowly so I eventually feel able to run pure Debian? Currently running Docker on Unraid with two minor VMs but looking to migrate away from Unraid with the intention to only run FOSS (and get a deeper understanding of everything under the hood).
I know that’s little information, all I need is a nudge in the right direction so I can figure things out by consulting documentation and forums.
If you can afford it it’s a good idea to buy a Raspberry Pi since Raspbian is basically just debian. Then replicate your current setup on it and just try to tinker with it without any risks of breaking things or losing data.
If you’re using a lot of Docker I would recommend learning the command line since you’ll be able to use Docker on basically any real OS at that point.
Welcome to home labbing… you poor fool!
Honestly figuring out docker is 50% of the journey with the other 50% mostly being networking. For instance if your looking to start your own Jack Sparrow themed streaming service you’d want to grab a domain name, point it at your ip, open up ports 80 and 443 on your router, install a reverse proxy via docker and set up SSL ( hint: Caddy makes this easy ) and point it at your jellyfin docker container and voila, your very own streaming service you can access from anywhere! Notice the complicated part of all this is mostly the networking and docker setups, not so much the OS that your running. ( Note: don’t open ports without knowing the risks )
Debian is a fine OS but most homelab stuff can be done on anything you can install docker on, even on a windows computer! That’s not to say you shouldn’t learn some Linux server stuff but it isn’t wholly necessary. That being said…
My best advice for getting into Linux servers would be to grab an old PC, laptop or even a raspberry pi and install Debian, raspbian or any other distro on it. Figure out how to log in via ssh and get the thing running headless ( no keyboard or monitor ) and just learning to navigate and do things via the terminal. Some of the basics would be learning to use the package manager to install software, mounting the file system remotely and figuring out how to setup static IPs and such. When your ready go ahead and install docker, follow some tutorials, learn some yaml and your off to the races!