I dunno why but I’m worried that casaos is holding me back from doing greater things I guess? I’m pretty new to self hosting and I discovered casaos from a Minecraft server setup tutorial of all things and it’s been great for me so far and does pretty much everything I need it to do, but I feel like I don’t really have a full understanding of what I can do outside of it, and I don’t really hear many people talk about casaos so I’m like worried it’s just not very good I guess? I’m just looking for ways to improve really.

For reference I just use my server for Minecraft on the occasion, a self hosted obsidian live sync, adguard, and in the future plan on hosting nextcloud. Casaos seems great for that and maybe it’s perfectly fine but I’d just be interested in being more knowledgeable I guess, and aware of any ways to improve.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    112·
    24 days ago

    Stop worrying about stuff like this.

    Does it do what you need?

    Does it fail where you need it?

    Then start asking that question. Don’t be OCD about it. It’s an automation suite. Chill.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      51·
      24 days ago

      Disagree. There should be a few more questions as well:

      • if development stops, what are my alternatives and how hard is the migration process?
      • how responsive are the devs to patching vulnerabilities?
      • if I need more software down the line, how do I get it? What if it’s not in the repos?
      • how is the documentation and community? If something breaks, how likely am I to find a fix?

      Look beyond initial setup and think about what happens after a couple years.

  • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    24 days ago

    As far as I know, CasaOS (same as Cockpit) is installed on top of a default OS install, so you could always access the OS directly to install/configure things outside of it, if the need arises.

    I would not say you would be held back by it, if it does what you need. And for what I can see online, you can install any docker container even if it’s not on the default catalog of CasaOS, or access the OS.

    If you want to grow your knowledge of how things work, or how to deploy services without CasaOS, you can always do so in parallel of using CasaOS, so I don’t see where the issue could be.

  • Dagamant@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    24 days ago

    If you want to learn more, then you will need to move away from casa. Casa is pretty much just a collection of custom docker images that play well together and with their interface. You could grab an old computer, install Linux, and do more but you would expend more time and effort.

  • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    24 days ago

    Serious question: last I looked at casaOS (because I liked the hardware), they had SSH open and accessible to default passwords by default. This scared me off hard.

    Is this still a thing/are there other glaring security holes?

  • AustralianSimon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    24 days ago

    If that’s what you are doing there is definitely heaps more you can do with casaOS.

    The apps are basically docker made easy and it has a lot of connections that are hidden behind ease of use menus.

    What do you think you are missing out of aside from more explicit controls?

  • PriorityMotif@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    24 days ago

    Just looking at their website makes me not want to use it because it doesn’t give any details as to what it actually is.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      24 days ago

      Yeah, what is it based on? Debian? Fedora? Something custom?

      My systems use openSUSE, and I could switch to Fedora or Debian without much issue if openSUSE dies.

      If it’s not clear, I don’t use it. What happens if there’s a critical vulnerability or the project stalls? How would I migrate my stuff to something else? What if I need some wonky software not in the repos?

  • UnfairUtan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    24 days ago

    As some said, it’s fine!

    I have it installed on my raspberry pi to run Jellyfin and a few other apps, and it’s been mostly stable. However I’ve had the same thoughts as you, so I can confirm that you won’t be able to learn as much with it.

    Some of my other needs are hosted on a VPS without CasaOS, and that’s where I was able to learn most of what I know. It’s also where I spent the most time configuring and fixing incompatibilities.

    I’d suggest that you keep CasaOS for the things you want to depend on, and start learning on another system without CasaOS by installing apps you’re interested to try out. This way you’ll learn about reverse proxies, certificates, docker, etc, without being afraid to mess up your current setup.

  • Batbro@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    23 days ago

    I don’t see any truenas or unRAID, I think they would be a step up in complexity before going to proxmox imo

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    23 days ago

    Was the first car you drove a Lamborghini or an f1 car? K.I.S.S. Is definitely a good thing when learning. If it works and does what you need it to, then use it till you learned how it works and want to try the next challenge.

  • Willdrick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    22 days ago

    A few years ago I got a laptop with a busted video output, installed CasaOS and that kicked off a learning experience that continues to this day. I’m now running a 2 node proxmox deployment with several LXC containers and a HomeAssistant VM. I self-host most of my stuff for me and my family.

    If it wasn’t for CasaOS, I’d probably had tried proxmox and fled in horror of the difficulty to grasp what it’s doing.

    Also IIRC Casa now uses proper docker-compose exports, while I was using it, it was a self-rolled json file you couldn’t really import on other platforms. So enjoy Casa, and when you feel like it’s hindering your learning or desires, jump to portainer and import your stuff with just a few clicks.

    For reference, here’s some of the stuff I’ve been hosting:

    • NextCloud AIO for document syncing across machines, backups and contacts/calendars/todo via DavX5 on android devices

    • immich replaces google Photos so I don’t have to ever “solve” a storage issue for any family member getting those googleOne popups

    • HomeAssistant is still a rabbit hole on it’s own, but I love tinkering and automating stuff

    • Paperless-ngx solved my download folder always full of random invoice PDFs as well as referencing documents and manuals

    • Jellyfin is not only on my main TV but also my hifi music source for mobile devices and standalone speakers

    • Portainer makes it super easy to spin up game servers for me and my friends in a few clicks

    • PiHole+Unbound makes surfing the web bareable again

    And a bunch more I use on and off, like NetAlertX to map and check on my network stats, Navidrome for older devices (like iPad2) music streaming, etc

  • madejackson@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    24 days ago

    May I suggest you have a look at cosmos cloud? It’s comparable to casaOS from a usability standpoint but it is more secure and has much more features like integrated Auth-Proxy.