Introduction

For the past 12 years, I worked in the managed hosting sector as an in-house developer. My job was largely to build software we needed if no reasonable third-party software existed (CMDB, DCIM, IPAM, CRM, system monitoring, etc). There’s a lot to talk about in that space:

But let’s save those discussions for another day. Instead, I’d like to focus on something that’s new to me: building a self-hosted environment from the ground up.

I recently left my job to start a 6-month stint of parental leave. While my memory is still fresh, I figured I’d look into reinforcing those bits of knowledge that have always been supplemented for me by others: networking, OS virtualization, backups, etc. The double-edged sword of relying on the talents of others on your team!

It was suggested that I document my thought process for others looking to do the same, so I figured I’d take a stab at it. What follows might be cursory as I’m looking to sketch the decision-making process, not spend all my time writing thorough documentation.

Climbing in Lighthouse Park