Personal Server Setup

Deploy self-hosted services over SSH from your local machine with a single command.

Services

Service	Description
VaultWarden	Unofficial Bitwarden-compatible password manager server
Mailcow	Full-featured mail server suite (SMTP, IMAP, webmail, spam filtering)
Nextcloud AIO	Self-hosted cloud storage and collaboration platform
Chhoto URL	Minimal self-hosted URL shortener

Prerequisites

• A Debian-based VM accessible as root over SSH (both password and passwordless are required)
• Local commands: ssh, rsync
• DNS records pointing each service's domain to the server — refer to the official documentation of each service for the required records

Quick Start

0. Remove *.example extension from dot files (.install, .backup, .security).
1. Fill in .install with your server IP, domains, and the services to install. All options are documented inside the file.
2. Fill in .backup with your backup schedule and remote storage credentials. All options are documented inside the file.
3. Run the setup:

./setup.sh

Credentials for installed services are displayed once at the end of the run. Save them — they will not be shown again.

Actions

Each service is controlled by an ACTION_<SERVICE> variable in .install:

Value	Effect
install	Install the service
uninstall	Remove the service and all its data
reinstall	Remove everything (including data), then reinstall
(empty)	Skip this service

⚠️ uninstall and reinstall permanently delete all service data. There is no confirmation prompt.

Backup & Restore

⚠️ Backup is strongly recommended. If the server is lost or data is corrupted, data that has not been backed up cannot be recovered.

Backup requires a remote storage accessible over SFTP (recommended), WebDAV, or SMB. Configure the connection credentials under MOUNT_N_* in .install, then set the mount index in .backup to enable backup for each service.

Backup settings are configured in .backup — schedule, remote path, and retention period. All options are documented inside the file.

Restoring a service

A fresh install of the service is recommended before restoring. The service must be installed and running.

Run the corresponding restore script directly on the server:

# VaultWarden
bash ~/scripts/setup-vaultwarden/restore.sh

# Mailcow
bash ~/scripts/setup-mailcow/restore.sh

The script fetches the list of available backups from the configured remote, lets you pick one, and restores it.

Notes per service

Nextcloud

To access admin page, use SSH tunneling. Execute this command:

ssh -L 9909:localhost:8080 root@IP

And then visit https://127.0.0.1:9909.

There you can enable backup by providing a Borg remote storage. This is unfortunately not automatable at the moment and you need to look for the official documentation at https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one?tab=readme-ov-file#backup

Security

Fail2ban + Cockpit is automatically setuped in addition to automatic security updates. Look in .security for more information. You can access Cockpit using SSH tunneling:

ssh -L 9909:127.0.0.1:9909 root@IP