Framework 16 as a Server
I started hosting my own Git server in February using Forgejo and I’ve been pretty happy with it, but it and all my sites still ran on 3 separate VPS’s that I rented from UpCloud, so while I was self-hosting these things, it wasn’t really me that was hosting them in the end.
It also cost me roughly 60-70€ per month, bulk of which going to just Forgejo as I relied on Forgejo for a number of things, from a test runner to a full CI/CD pipeline, meaning that it needed quite a bit of juice and that adds up quick in price.
Then at some point I had a thought - can’t I just use my Framework 16 as a server instead? It mostly sits on my desk as a Linux testing machine as I’m mostly daily driving a MacBook, and with a whopping 3.5TB of storage (can fit up to 26TB with the Dual M2 adapter!), 64GB of RAM, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU .. the thing is a beast.
It being Framework also means that I could easily swap parts out if they fail, and I already have plenty spare parts, like the previous Ryzen 7840HS mainboard just sitting in a closet.
And so I purchased a static IP from my ISP, which runs only 6€ per month, set up the ports on my router, set up my Framework as a server, and I’ve been running everything on my own machine, from my own home, for about a week now.
The thing flies! An absolute behemoth of a home server. It being a laptop also means that if electricity goes away, it’ll be fine, though I live in a place where that happens maybe once every few years, and for just a few minutes. I’ve also made a little uptime tracker (note that the 3 min downtime there is me just testing the tracker).
I’ve got daily root filesystem backups running, so worst case scenario it should be possible to get up and running again in half an hour or so, but I am contemplating getting a second Framework machine just for replication, in case one fails. We’ll see. For now though, all my hosting needs are met with just a 6€ per month static IP fee and some electricity cost. A thing of beauty, really.