Uses debian 13 as I had difficulties setting up everything in nixos.

Personal Server Setup Guide

This document explains how to rebuild and deploy the personal server stack on a fresh Debian VPS.

The server uses:

• Debian
• Docker CE
• Docker Compose
• Caddy as reverse proxy
• Containers for all self-hosted services
• Git as the source of truth for configuration

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1. Create the VPS

Recommended:

• Debian 13
• SSH key authentication enabled
• Public IPv4 enabled
• Firewall enabled

After creation:

ssh root@SERVER_IP

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2. Bootstrap the server

Copy the bootstrap script to the server:

scp bootstrap.sh root@SERVER_IP:

Connect:

ssh root@SERVER_IP

Run:

chmod +x bootstrap.sh
./bootstrap.sh

This installs:

• Docker CE
• Docker Compose
• Git
• Basic administration tools
• Firewall rules

Verify:

docker --version
docker compose version

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3. Create an administrator user

Do not run everything as root.

Create a user:

adduser USERNAME

Add permissions:

usermod -aG sudo,docker USERNAME

Copy SSH keys:

mkdir -p /home/USERNAME/.ssh
cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/USERNAME/.ssh/
chown -R USERNAME:USERNAME /home/USERNAME/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/USERNAME/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/USERNAME/.ssh/authorized_keys

Test:

ssh USERNAME@SERVER_IP

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4. Clone the server configuration

Clone the configuration repository:

git clone https://github.com/tomasriveral/vps-config
cd vps-config

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5. Configure secrets

Never store passwords or tokens in Git.

Create:

nano .env

See .env.example

6. Init the system

./scripts/init.sh

7. Deploy

./scripts/deploy.sh