Hi! I’m starting out with self-hosting. I was setting up Grafana for system monitoring of my mini-PC. However, I ran into issue of keeping credentials secure in my Docker Compose file. I ended up using Docker Swarm since it was the path of least resistance. I’ve managed to set up Grafana/Prometheus/Node stack and it’s working well.
However, before continuing with Docker Swarm, I want to check if this is a good idea or will I potentially dig myself into a corner? Some of the options I’ve found while searching:
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Continue with Docker Swarm and look into automation of stack/swarm in future
- Ansible playbook has plugins for Docker Swarm.
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Self-hosted vault: I want to avoid hosting my own secret/password manager at the moment.
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Kubernetes (k8s / k3s) - I don’t wanna 😭
- More seriously, I’m actually learning this for work but don’t see the point of implementing it at home. The extra overhead doesn’t seem worth it for a single node cluster.
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Live dangerously - Store crdentials in plaintext. Also useadminas password for everything
Edit: Most of the services I’m planning on hosting will likely be a single replica service.
I use swarm in my home lab, I don’t have any docker things at work so Kubernetes is way more then I want to manage.
All my stacks are in a git repo, I have an ansible playbook to update them if needed. I also have most things tracked on new releases (https://newreleases.io/) so I know when something needs an update, then I can either update the git repo by hand or use ansible.
Also have a look at docker contexts, you can manage your swarm from a remote location.