Useful programs and scripts for your Home Server

Running multiple home servers in many form-factors for several years I came across dozens of useful programs that may help you to set it up or maintain it. Here I will list some of them - and for each a quick guide on the installation and maybe some useful commands - as a reference for myself and others. I will also update it from time to time if I find some new. As I am using mostly my Raspberry Pi's I will use the user pi, the user and group id 1000 in all commands.

Also before using any scripts in general I want to remind you that you should always examine downloaded scripts before running them.

• docker
  • Installation using convenience script

    curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
    sudo sh get-docker.sh
    sudo usermod -aG docker pi # relog after this
    

  • Useful commands
    docker run hello-world
docker ps
docker logs <container id>
  • For Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa): the current script does not support it yet but replacing the apt source with the Bionic repo did work for me. Replace lines 317-322 (lines after ubuntu); starts with if and ends with fi) with dist_version="bionic".
• docker-compose
  • Installation
    sudo apt install docker-compose
  • Useful commands
    docker-compose up -d (without -d for logs)
    docker-compose down
  • Example docker-compose.yml

    version: '2.0'
    services:
      web:
        build: .
        ports:
        - "5000:5000"
        volumes:
        - .:/code
        - logvolume01:/var/log
        links:
        - redis
      redis:
        image: redis
    volumes:
      logvolume01: {}
    

• NodeJS 13.x
  • Installation

    curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_13.x | sudo -E bash -
    sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
    

  • Useful commands
    node <file>
npm run
npm init
• nodemon
  • Description
    nodemon restarts your application after a change in the current folder
  • Installation
    npm i -g nodemon
  • Usage
    nodemon <file>
• pm2
  • Description
    pm2 is a process manager with load balancer
  • Installation
    npm install pm2 -g
  • Useful commands
    pm2 status
pm2 logs <id>
pm2 start <file>
pm2 start <file> -- <extra parameters>
• ssh tunnel
  • Description
    while ssh is already installed on most systems its tunnel feature can be used as a cheap way to forward traffic from a local host behind a firewall over a vps to the public
  • Usage
    ssh -tt -R 0.0.0.0:<server port>:localhost:<local port> [email protected] -i /home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa -N
  • Server settings
    Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set GatewayPorts yes

Have you come across a useful command or program that I did not list here? Then please leave a comment so that I can add it to the list.