This question is mainly for those that have family/friends depending on their self-hosted services/data. Does anyone have a plan for the worst case scenario in terms of data access/passwords/making sure your services are kept running if people depend on them? I know I sure don’t, it’s just a strange curiosity my brain thought up and I wondered if anyone else had considered this?
My will contains the master password for my keepass file, from there someone could theoretically handle everything.
This is the origin of the phrase “where there’s a will, there’s a way”.
I uhh… I don’t think that’s right… But I also dont know enough about the idiom to prove you wrong…
It’s will, as in “strength of will.” Basically meaning “Where there’s someone willing to do something, there will be a way to do it”
that’s very smart
It’s the theoretically part that i haven’t figured out. I know none of my family members would have any idea what to do with anything. I feel like All the Data will just be lost when i go… which is a huge issue as everything moves to digital.
Test it. Seriously.
There are likely roadblocks you haven’t seen. For example, it is increasingly true that login & password aren’t good enough to access most commercial systems. So many businesses rely on active session cookies to determine identity, and if that’s missing, they’ll fallback to email or SMS based one-time passwords. And if they don’t have access to your laptop or phone, it might be impossible for them to gain access.
You could make a document describing what each set of data is, if its useful to anyone but yourself, or if its safe to delete. You could offer suggestions of what to do with each set. I think of it as a treasure map that you leave behind. Maybe they will be interested in it, maybe they will pass it on to someone else.
I actually started doing that. It’s a living document, shared with others. It’s the best solution I’ve come up with. Knowing whether or not I can convey enough info to make it usable and able to be followed for a less technical person like other family members drives my adoption of software/hardware solutions.
Your family members are unable to ask someone else who knows something about it to help with it? X to doubt.
But… Why do you care? What kind of information is on there? Something like the Epstein files?
At least for me, the only stuff that’s really on there is some music, photos, backups. If it gets lost, nothing important really is lost.
You vastly overestimate boomers-era individuals (and really the entire general population). Beyond turning things on and ‘everything magically works’, most know fuck all about tech.
I know that if I croak tomorrow, while my ex partners and a couple friends would be able to piece together things, 1) they’d have to be informed that I’m dead, 2) they’d have to be asked to help with my different hosts, and 3) they’d need to remember where I physically put the password in case of emergency to access the main host (with all of the family’s important shit, like all of it). Assuming they got those three things done, they would have to convey to the ex/friend how to access the main node, and then figure out my password manager master password, and the mfa (multiple options), or assume it’s inaccessible and use the physical password to retrieve the data and restore… on an OS none of them has ever used before.
Assuming all that is doable, after the restore is to maintain the system and the containers, perpetually, as well as continue paying for the domains so they can access the services hosted on the nodes, and continue paying for my vps and the backup storage strategy (two different companies on two different continents alongside the local copy).
As I have literally almost died before (I was supposed to have died, according to doctors who saved me), I have tried to make this hypothetical situation easy, and still it would astonish me if they get past like step #2.
Yeah if your family is too prideful or stupid or whatever to ask your exes/friends about the “magic technology” (which like I said, asking someone who does know is super easy and you don’t have to know anything), then I think they deserve to not get whatever is on your server, lol
the only stuff that’s really on there is some music, photos, backups. If it gets lost, nothing important really is lost.
Photos are pretty important to a lot of people, I know that’s the most obvious thing on my server that people would miss and not be able to get anywhere else
There’s a project on github just for this, I forget what it’s called.
Basically they’ve developed a mechanism for providing instructions and access to security (usernames, passwords, etc).
I’ll see of I can find it
Looks interesting but explicitly says it’s “alpha software “ and hasn’t been updated in five years. I’d be weary of using something like this in such a critical situation.
Replying to get notified!
deleted by creator
When my brother’s brother-in-law passed, he gave all that to my brother. Both on the high end of tech/self-hosting capabilities. I’ve come to the conclusion much of it wasn’t worth it.
I’ll be focusing on ensuring access to financial accounts is passed on cleanly. And I’m working on digitizing all remaining physical photo negatives, then planning how to share all digitally with family while still alive. Since I don’t expect any to be interested in maintaining a server after I’m gone, I’m thinking I’ll keep it simple and just give everyone an external hard drive with all the photos. It’s up to them to do what they want with the drive. A copy to each sibling is increases odds it’s survives for a generation.
I’ll make project notes and plans available to anyone interested, but no hard feelings if no one is interested. And my music and movies can disappear for all I care. My tastes are pretty mainstream so I’m not thinking about archival value.
It’ll die with me. Albeit probably a slow death over a couple months, I have to be realistic here - none of my family members will care enough to keep anything running in the long run.
It’s the same fate your grandma’s unfinished knitted scarves and socks had a couple years ago.
I had a few cousins who took and finished all my grandma’s unfinished quilts. They were already into quilting though. YMMV, but it is a good example - if there is someone who can understand/take this over give it to them.
This is why my lab is well documented and managed by runner.ci workflows and the vault password and keys are in an encrypted file in my will. Explicit instructuons for decryption are in same will and handled via one time pad.
Also all of my loved ones know that I am not suicidal and will not under any circumstances take my own life…because reasons.
Anyone at the reading of my will can either take up administration, or put the resources on codeberg funded by a trust for 3 years after my death. If what I’ve built cannot be forked within 3 years i lt deserves to die with me.
deleted by creator
I suppose you could add the qualifier “unexpectedly”
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved, for the Machine is immortal… Even in death I serve the Omnissiah.
Bitwarden has a account custodian feature that will give my wife all the info she needs to access essential accounts and hardware, however, realistically the homelab will only continue to work until things start dropping - there is likely no easy recovery of crashes.
I haven’t talked to my wife about it directly, you’ve reminded me this would be a good conversation to have, but the first thing she should do when the insurance money comes in is (after paying off the assassin) buy a bunch of dumb light bulbs and pay to print any photos she cares about in case our digital backups die.
I created a text file with all the IPs, server name, and function and some general notes. I don’t use good passwords in my home network, sue me. But my master password should go into the will stored with lawyer.
It’s enough to get started but my family will have to find someone to help them at some point as they don’t have the technical skills I do.
hardware I’m giving to my sister most likely. Software? well that’s definitly dying with me. I’m the only one in my family that has any form of technical skill required to keep services going. They won’t know what to do with it.
The most I’m able to share is pictures and files.
I decided very long ago not to pollute the gene poo, so everything dies with me.
gene poo
Indeed, sounds polluted enough 💩
Ha! Spell check fail
I’ve learned to wear brown pants so it’s not as bad.
Since others were posting end of life style docs, here is another: https://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm
That’s actually some good info there.
Yeah, have a tech mate ready to step in, like a “porn buddy” https://youtube.com/shorts/kgu3PzpKhn4
I bought a separate laptop and set it up with an encrypted password that both my wife and I know. It contains instructions on everything from my self hosted stuff to anything else related to my personal life that she would need. It’s 100% offline to keep it safe from a network compromise. This whole thing was especially important since I wanted to make sure my family could access all photos, calendar, contacts, etc for the last decade that are stored on my server.
It takes time to transfer everything to it (all in Obsidian) since it’s a brain dump… But it actually benefits me too. I’ve had a few times where I was like “how the hell did I set that up?” and had some instructions on there the helped lol.
Definitely recommend this to others to consider.
This is one of the reasons why I don’t host other people’s data. I’d consider this option if there was another technical person among users with whom I could share workload and risks like a sudden death.
I do, and it’s probably the main reason I started self hosting.
Managing parents estate made me want to get my shit in order for my own kids in the event I die. There’s a good chance that if I die, my cell phone is gonna die with me. And commercial services from Apple, Google, banks, and other institutions are increasingly tied to a single cell phone as “identity.” If you try to login on a device with no session cookies, they treat it as hostile, and do all sorts of oddball stuff that almost always requires the cellphone to access. And if you don’t have that phone, it’s incredibly hard.
By self hosting, I can choose to make access to that most of that data much easier for my family if I die and my cellphone dies with me. I don’t expect them to continue self-hosting, but I do want them to have easy access to files so they can move them to some system they are comfortable with.
I doubt anyone else will know how to deal with the server tbh. Nobody else really uses it, either. Inertia’s a pain, and while I do technically have other users here, I think the most recent login aside me was 6 months ago. They’ll have access to the password to get into stuff to handle whatever accounts they need to, and I may include instructions on how to turn my blog into an epub file if they want to do that, but the server itself likely won’t last more than a month after I die.
