My minimalistic homeserver: Internal Applications (2/N)

This post describes how to install your first batch of internal apps. Internal in the sense that they are not public, only allowed devices will be able to reach them.

Internal services/apps:

• NextCloud: the self-hosted Dropbox
• Immich: the self-hosted Google Photos
• Glance: sleek dashboard to monitor all the applications

All the applications here use Tailscale for tunneling between devices. For example, to connect Immich to your phone you need to install Tailscale in the phone. Immich, as all the other applications, will work seamlessly in all the devices you have Tailscale installed.

1. The connector: Tailscale

Why do I need Tailscale?

To access your server files (e.g Nextcloud) outside of your network (e.g. from a cafe) without exposing the server to the public internet.

Tailscale will allow you to connect your server to other devices on the same secure network (called “tailnet”). It has a very generous free tier of up to 100 devices.

All the devices in this network pool will be able to connect between each other through the tailnet.

1.1 Install Tailscale in the client

In your client (e.g. your laptop) go to https://tailscale.com/download and follow the instructions.

1.2 Install Tailscale in the server

Run in the server: curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

After the installation is completed, run sudo tailscale up and it will give you a website to visit in your client (e.g. https://login.tailscale.com/a/1204ecba01999). Log in to that website, and it should say Success. in the server terminal.

Into your Tailscale profile (https://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines) it should appear both machines (your tailnet):

• If the tag ssh does not appear, run: sudo tailscale up --ssh

Please notice that if you google "what is my public ip", it will show your real public IP. Tailscale uses their own IPs to connect and communicate devices. This is not a free VPN to mask your devices, this is a VPN network to connect them securely.

1.3 Connect between devices

From here on you can ssh from your laptop using your server user/server ip (e.g. ssh [email protected]) or name of the server (e.g. ssh pg@home ), even when you are outside your home network.

Notice that if you deactivate Tailscale in your client then it is not synced with the tailnet and therefore you cannot access the server (e.g. try switching the toggle off in your laptop). This is the correct behavior: never expose the server out of that secured network pool.

To install any of the following applications, you can either use the Desktop straight in the server or ssh into the server from the client, it doesn't matter.

2. Self-hosted Dropbox: NextCloud

I have to admit that calling Nextcloud a "self-hosted version of Dropbox" is a discredit to Nextcloud. I enjoy using Nextcloud much more than I ever did Dropbox - it works flawlessly.

2.1 Installation

Make a nextcloud folder under docker and cd into it: mkdir nextcloud && cd nextcloud

After, create the file docker-compose.yml under your newly created folder your_user/docker/nextcloud with the following:

---
services:
  nextcloud:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/nextcloud:latest
    container_name: nextcloud
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Copenhagen
    volumes:
      - /home/your_user/docker/nextcloud/config:/config
      - /home/your_user/docker/nextcloud/data:/data
    ports:
      - 4040:443
    restart: unless-stopped

This Nextcloud image is safe and comes from https://www.linuxserver.io/.

Change:

• your_user for the user/folder name of your home user
• TZ timezone for yours (e.g. America/New_York)
• 4040 to any other number if that port is used. Never change the container internal port (right number), only the external (left number)
• 1000 for your user id

Finally, start Nextcloud:

docker compose up -d

Once the installation finishes, Nextcloud should be visible locally.

2.2 Setup

Visit server Tailscale IP/name + Nextcloud port (e.g. https://100.123.90.81:4040/ or https://homeserver:4040/) and set up a user. As the database, IMO SQLite is a great choice for homeservers.

From the client side (e.g. your phone or laptop), Nextcloud works like Dropbox. Download the app at their website: https://nextcloud.com/install/ and install it.

After installing the app, it will ask for the server ip (e.g. https://homeserver:4040/) and for permission to sync the server data.

Please notice that the app has many more functionalities that you can explore: office, calendar, notes, videocalls. I personally only use the Notes app on my Android phone, and Nextcloud on all my devices.

3. Self-hosted Google Photos: Immich

3.1 Installation

I followed the official documentation :

Make an immich folder under docker and cd into it

mkdir immich && cd immich

Download the latest docker-compose

wget -O docker-compose.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
wget -O .env https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env

Before running this docker compose, please change the .env file (e.g. nano .env) that you just downloaded with your own timezone, db passwords and username. The same as with Nextcloud.

Run the immich docker: docker compose up -d and once the installation finishes, Immich should be visible locally.

3.2 Setup

Same as with Nextcloud. Visit server Tailscale IP + Immich port: http://homeserver:2283/ and set up a user.

From your smartphone or tablet, download the app from the Apple/Play store and similarly you can use the Tailscale IP + Immich port to log in.

There is no desktop app but you can always visit http://homeserver:2283/.

4. A Dashboard for your server: Glance

Glance is a great dashboard that provides a visual overview of your whole server and offers all kinds of widgets to personalize.

I strongly recommend it to control the temps, load, and application status of your server. Here is the public repository of the project

4.1 Installation

Download the latest docker-compose

mkdir glance && cd glance && curl -sL https://github.com/glanceapp/docker-compose-template/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar -xzf - --strip-components 2

Note that besides downloading the docker-compose.yml file, the command also downloads a template dashboard to start with.

Run the Glance docker image: docker compose up -d and you should be able to see it at port 8080.

4.2 Setup

The whole dashboard is configurable via a single .yml file: docker/glance/config/home.yml.

In the official config docs here you have plenty of widgets easy to configure to make it your own.