I’ve just spent the last 10 hours completely revamping my server setup—and honestly, it’s been a fantastic experience. What began as a simple hardware upgrade quickly evolved into a full-scale rebuild that taught me a lot along the way.
Starting with the SSD Upgrade
It all started with a plan to swap out my old hard drive for a new solid-state drive (SSD). The performance gains alone were worth it—faster read and write speeds, quicker boot times, and better reliability. The cloning process went smoothly, but once I booted up, I noticed some software didn’t play nicely with the new drive.
Instead of wrestling with compatibility issues, I took that as a sign to start fresh.
A Fresh Start: Rebuilding from Scratch
I decided to rebuild the entire environment from the ground up. No half measures—just a clean, efficient setup. I began by outlining my plan in my head and then brought it to life using Portainer and Docker Compose.
By containerizing each component, I gained more control, better isolation, and an easier way to manage updates. This approach also makes troubleshooting and scaling a lot simpler down the line.
Modernizing with Cloudron and Nginx Proxy Manager
One of the most significant changes was moving Cloudron into a Portainer-managed environment, with Nginx Proxy Manager sitting in front. This setup allows me to deploy, manage, and update applications much faster. Whenever new versions are released, I can pull them immediately without disrupting the rest of my environment.
It’s streamlined, modular, and designed for longevity.
The Learning Curve and Rewards
This rebuild wasn’t without its challenges. There were moments of trial and error, a few late-night debugging sessions, and plenty of “aha” moments. But the result has been incredibly satisfying—a clean, flexible infrastructure that I understand inside and out.
Over the following weeks, I’ll be updating all of my documentation to reflect this new setup. Once that’s complete, I’ll have an environment that’s not only faster and more reliable but also maintainable and future-proof.
Looking Ahead
As a side project, I’m also rebuilding my previous documents and posts from my old, lost website. It’s a big task, but also a great opportunity to reorganize and expand on what I had before. My goal is to make everything more detailed, better documented, and ready for what’s next.
Every so often, what feels like a small upgrade turns into a complete transformation—and this one has been absolutely worth it.