This is the home for a most excellent book about self-hosting. Read on to realize data sovereignty for you and your beloved users.

The book is in early access: see 👀 Beta.

Welcome!

Steadfast is an authentic and inspiring self-hosting tutorial by seasoned tech entrepreneur and self-proclaimed self-hosting expert Adam Monsen. Benefit from Adam’s decades of applied effort distilled into this quick and exciting initiation to data sovereignty.

Save money, time, and sanity

Learn an easy and reliable method to self-host services for your small group of beloved users.

Batteries included

Corresponding source code is provided under a Free and Open Source software license.

Tools in the book

The book details why and how to use these tools to self-host:

• bare metal physical server
• Ubuntu operating system
• Ansible provisioner
• Traefik reverse proxy
• Docker container manager
• Docker Compose service manager

It cover specific services you should host, mostly Nextcloud.

Origin story

I researched and wrote the book over several years. I’ve been working on related technologies professionally and personally for the last couple of decades.

I wrote this book after having realized the power and potential of self-hosting. I used the method it describes to provide a robust data haven for myself and my family. I haven’t found other books like it and I want mine to be the first.

I’ve given lectures on self-hosting and received feedback from attendees: they are already experienced at learning tech, they are seeking the motivation to self-host along with high-quality information on how to do it well. In response to this feedback I wrote a large Background chapter. In it, I approach self-hosting with a good deal of justification for why someone should self-host at all. I use anecdotes, figures, and tenants of relatable value-based living to provide sufficient motivation for getting through the learning and implementation stages of self-hosting.

Audience

Steadfast primarily targets aspiring self-hosters looking for a quick and reliable method to get started. Some basic IT and networking skills are required. A reader should be familiar with Linux, command-line basics, and transferring files to and from a server.

Experienced self-hosters will also benefit when they read, compare, and improve their existing homelabs.

Author

Adam is a kind and savvy FOSS enthusiast. He’s been in tech for over 20 years: building, producing, coding, debugging, architecting, leading, managing, debugging some more, lecturing, writing, administering and securing systems and processes, ensuring privacy and compliance; in markets of all maturities, sizes, and scales; startups to big enterprise. He’s most proud of his family, growing Mifos, founding SeaGL, selling C-SATS, and writing a FOSS book about self-hosting FOSS.

Adam is privileged and lucky to have given talks and workshops at a handful of conferences (LFNW, SeaGL, LibrePlanet, OSCON, FOSSY) and various other engagements. There’s a full list here.