It's Just DJ

Running a Home Server

This is a duplicated page from my old site at dj-codes.com. It doesn’t apply to itsjustdj.com.

This site is self-hosted WordPress running on a private server in my home. More specifically, it’s in my office — behind me and to my left. The site is hosted on a Raspberry Pi 4, which runs Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS.

Wyse terminal on desk connected to Raspberry Pi. There's tape on the monitor that says, "BIT HAPPENS." On the screen there's an ASCII dragon saying "Hello! Rawr"
You should really try cowsay. It’s fun.

Why am I hosting this site on my home server instead of DreamHost (where all my other sites live) or on some cloud service like AWS or Digital Ocean?

Because I can. And, I’m a nerd. Plus, I love messing around on Linux systems and experimenting with old tech. Which is why it’s connected to a Wyse terminal. It’s fun for me.

I have another Raspberry Pi that functions as our home media server, using Jellyfin. I wrote about that on opensource.com.

Getting this site up and running on my own server was — is — an adventure. WordPress was the easy part. Configuring a No-IP domain and setting up the SSL certificate was a challenge. But here it is!

Skills (Ab)Used

  • Apache server configuration
  • Security (ufw, fail2ban)
  • Port forwarding and router configuration
  • MySQL and database setup (CLI)
  • WordPress installation and setup (CLI)
  • DNS configuration (A and MX records)
  • SSL certificate setup
  • Patience
  • Determination