Introducing myself and ElfHosted

funkypenguin

Hi LES, I'm David,

I'm a self-hosting, kubernetes-loving geek, I've been publishing technical guides ("recipes") on Funky Penguin's Geek Cookbook since 2016, one of the most popular being the ever-popular "AutoPirate" stack

In anticipation of applying for a provider tag, and making a Black Friday offer, I'd like to introduce myself and my platform..

How it started:

For the past 2 years, I provided Kubernetes-based architecture consulting to Seedplicity, a seedbox provider who eventually shut down due to increased datacenter costs, and unanticipated capital expenses.

Unwilling to abandon my work , I took the plunge and launched a re-imagined appbox provider, leveraging previous work and my public designs, and building "in public" on Hetzner auction server infrastructure.

The most agonizing part of shutting down Seedplicity was supporting an unhealthy platform long enough for users to migrate TBs of data to their new provider. With ElfHosted, I decided to experiment with a "bring-your-own-storage" model... I'd provide apps using slick automation and all the resiliency I'd architected with Kubernetes, and users could then mount their existing could storage using rclone/samba, and interact directly with that storage from their apps. My thinking was that I wouldn't have to invest in loads of storage, and users wouldn't be locked into my fledgling experiment, and could leave without migration headaches whenever they wanted to.

How it's going

Over the past 5 months (You'll find monthly progress reports at https://elfhosted.com/open), and with the help of lots of initial "elf-a-testers", I've refined the model as follows:

1. Hetzner Storageboxes are my preferred BYO storage option, due to their proximity to the cluster infrastructure, their price, and their upgrade-ability.
2. I quickly discovered that I do need to provide storage, so I built a simple, scalable "ElfStorage" product, using a ceph cluster running on spinning rust HDDs (again, Ceph and Kubernetes providing the resiliency)
3. Torrent clients (and Plex, as of Oct, thanks to the Plex Hetzner ban) require a user to bring their own VPN credentials. A gluetun container is attached to each app pod, and all torrent traffic (and Plex's metadata/phone-home activity) is routed via the VPN.
4. Users pay per-app, per-day, using "store credits" (apps start at $0.05/day), which they then top up when necessary with real money (avoids payment gateway charges on teeny tiny amounts!)

It's not at all profitable yet, but so far the monthly reports are showing that we're progressing in the right direction!

Importantly, I'm having fun architecting a solution for which I'm the ideal customer (a busy geek, who likes to get right into playing with new apps without a hassle, and have them work reliably and consistently), and I'm enjoying meeting and befriending some of the more technical of our users, in my Discord server.

So that's me - happy to answer any questions about the design / details, and I hope to continue to contribute in future

D

ehab

welcome funkypenguin and hope you enjoy your stay.

i think you could best friends with @vitobotta

Otus9051

welcome to les
you are probably one of the only selfhosters here

joined your discord, lots of people, lots of nothing in the chat

cybertech

is this something like swizzin?

Astro

@cybertech said:
is this something like swizzin?

With a lot of extra work

funkypenguin

@Otus9051 said:
welcome to les
you are probably one of the only selfhosters here

joined your discord, lots of people, lots of nothing in the chat

I'd like to say "quality over quantity", but maybe we're just boring geeks

Otus9051

@funkypenguin said:

@Otus9051 said:
welcome to les
you are probably one of the only selfhosters here

joined your discord, lots of people, lots of nothing in the chat

I'd like to say "quality over quantity", but maybe we're just boring geeks

No one is boring when you bring up the topic they specialise in

funkypenguin

welcome funkypenguin and hope you enjoy your stay.

i think you could best friends with @vitobotta

@vitobotta, my kubernetes-on-Hetzner new friend!

yoursunny

All the apps, okay with pubic tracker?

Chievo

@funkypenguin said:
Hi LES, I'm David,

I'm a self-hosting, kubernetes-loving geek, I've been publishing technical guides ("recipes") on Funky Penguin's Geek Cookbook since 2016, one of the most popular being the ever-popular "AutoPirate" stack

In anticipation of applying for a provider tag, and making a Black Friday offer, I'd like to introduce myself and my platform..

How it started:

For the past 2 years, I provided Kubernetes-based architecture consulting to Seedplicity, a seedbox provider who eventually shut down due to increased datacenter costs, and unanticipated capital expenses.

Unwilling to abandon my work , I took the plunge and launched a re-imagined appbox provider, leveraging previous work and my public designs, and building "in public" on Hetzner auction server infrastructure.

The most agonizing part of shutting down Seedplicity was supporting an unhealthy platform long enough for users to migrate TBs of data to their new provider. With ElfHosted, I decided to experiment with a "bring-your-own-storage" model... I'd provide apps using slick automation and all the resiliency I'd architected with Kubernetes, and users could then mount their existing could storage using rclone/samba, and interact directly with that storage from their apps. My thinking was that I wouldn't have to invest in loads of storage, and users wouldn't be locked into my fledgling experiment, and could leave without migration headaches whenever they wanted to.

How it's going

Over the past 5 months (You'll find monthly progress reports at https://elfhosted.com/open), and with the help of lots of initial "elf-a-testers", I've refined the model as follows:

1. Hetzner Storageboxes are my preferred BYO storage option, due to their proximity to the cluster infrastructure, their price, and their upgrade-ability.
2. I quickly discovered that I do need to provide storage, so I built a simple, scalable "ElfStorage" product, using a ceph cluster running on spinning rust HDDs (again, Ceph and Kubernetes providing the resiliency)
3. Torrent clients (and Plex, as of Oct, thanks to the Plex Hetzner ban) require a user to bring their own VPN credentials. A gluetun container is attached to each app pod, and all torrent traffic (and Plex's metadata/phone-home activity) is routed via the VPN.
4. Users pay per-app, per-day, using "store credits" (apps start at $0.05/day), which they then top up when necessary with real money (avoids payment gateway charges on teeny tiny amounts!)

It's not at all profitable yet, but so far the monthly reports are showing that we're progressing in the right direction!

Importantly, I'm having fun architecting a solution for which I'm the ideal customer (a busy geek, who likes to get right into playing with new apps without a hassle, and have them work reliably and consistently), and I'm enjoying meeting and befriending some of the more technical of our users, in my Discord server.

So that's me - happy to answer any questions about the design / details, and I hope to continue to contribute in future

D

Welcome feel like at home like @ehab says no pants it is OK

host_c

@funkypenguin welcome.

AuroraZero

@Otus9051 said:
welcome to les
you are probably one of the only selfhosters here

joined your discord, lots of people, lots of nothing in the chat

@Otus9051 said:
welcome to les
you are probably one of the only selfhosters here

joined your discord, lots of people, lots of nothing in the chat

That is because discord is crap.

It is AIM or nothing!!!!

Jab

Could you guys like select normal animals?

I have no idea what sounds does Yeti make
or Penguin
or Elf.

Hello FunnkyElfPenguin, welcome to LES.

AuroraZero

@Jab said:
Could you guys like select normal animals?

I have no idea what sounds does Yeti make
or Penguin
or Elf.

Hello FunnkyElfPenguin, welcome to LES.

Ever seen Star Wars? Yeah it is not like Chewbacca

P.S. welcome to LES @funkypenguin I hope you enjoy your stay and can take joke

funkypenguin

@yoursunny said:
All the apps, okay with pubic tracker?

Not sure I’m into your pubic tracker, but public trackers are fine on our torrent apps, since they require you to bring your own VPN config anyway

D

Nekki

I'm not seeing any funk

AuroraZero

@Nekki said:
I'm not seeing any funk

It's a smell

Nekki

@AuroraZero said:

@Nekki said:
I'm not seeing any funk

It's a smell

If you can't see the smell, it ain't funky enough.

terrorgen

Stay away from anyone's pubics! Geez!

Nekki

@terrorgen said:
Stay away from anyone's pubics! Geez!

Everyone knows the pubics are the place to be.

funkypenguin

@terrorgen said:
Stay away from anyone's pubics! Geez!

Especially if there’s a funky smell! 🤢

AuroraZero

@funkypenguin said:

@terrorgen said:
Stay away from anyone's pubics! Geez!

Especially if there’s a funky smell! 🤢

Oh no that's exactly when you want to be all up there.

host_c

vitobotta

@funkypenguin said:

welcome funkypenguin and hope you enjoy your stay.

i think you could best friends with @vitobotta

@vitobotta, my kubernetes-on-Hetzner new friend!

Hi! nice to have you here, and I like your project, sounds interesting! We might share notes on some stuff

I took a look at your website and saw that you too use k3s, awesome! You also mention Ceph, are you using Rook for it or out of cluster Ceph? Have you considered Longhorn? Longhorn is a lot easier to operate and has also backups to s3/nfs built in. I also saw you switched to Cilium. Cilium is awesome and I am gonna try it again for some things but I had problems with it for something so I am currently using Calico in eBPF mode so the performance is similar, but Calico is more "compatible" with some things like MetalLB in L2 mode and other things.

I am the author of https://github.com/vitobotta/hetzner-k3s (you may have come across it if you use Hetzner and Kubernetes) and am currently building the foundation for a premium version - the name is Cluster Ninja - although I am unsure of the exact direction to take so I am going to post a poll today or tomorrow to ask the community's opinions. I also considered implementing a PaaS like Heroku but based on Kubernetes, however I gave up on the idea because I am worried about the legal implications (I am liable for what apps my customers publish on the platform so it's very risky). So I am definitely going with a cluster management tool where apps are hosted on my customers' own infrastructure so I am not responsible for those.

don_keedic