stop waiting for aws: self-host your dev stack on autopilot

why waiting for aws credits is killing your momentum

every month, students post the same question on reddit: “how long until aws educate credits arrive?” meanwhile, their side-projects sit untouched and portfolios stay empty. devops is a hands-on sport; you learn by wiring pieces together, not by reading docs on the bus. in this guide you’ll build a miniature, production-ready stack on a $5/month vps that you control completely—no more gatekeepers, no more expiration dates.

what we’re about to build

a “dev stack on autopilot” that gives you:

• a git server (gitea) to host private repos
• a ci runner (drone) that tests and builds every push
• a container registry that keeps your docker images safe
• a deployment target (dokku) so you can git push straight to production
• free, auto-renewing ssl via let’s encrypt

all glued together with docker compose and watched by a tiny systemd service that reboots things if they crash. total ram footprint: < 400 mb.

pick a $5 cloud and lock it down in 5 minutes

1. create the vm

any provider with ubuntu 22.04 ltc works—digitalocean, hetzner, linode. select the ipv6-enabled plan; we’ll use that later for extra nerd cred.

# ssh in, never use password auth again
ssh root@your-ipv4

2. harden the box

apt update && apt upgrade -y
adduser deploy && usermod -ag sudo deploy
curl -fssl https://github.com/.keys >> /home/deploy/.ssh/authorized_keys
# disable root login
sed -i 's/^permitrootlogin yes/permitrootlogin no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl restart sshd

3. point your domain

create three a records:

• git.yourdomain.com → your-server-ip
• ci.yourdomain.com → same ip
• *.apps.yourdomain.com → same ip (dokku will catch sub-domains)

install docker and docker-compose (one-liner)

curl -fssl https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -ag docker deploy
su - deploy
mkdir -p ~/dev-stack && cd $_
# docker-compose v2 comes with the script above, verify:
docker compose version

define the stack in a single docker-compose.yml

place this file at ~/dev-stack/docker-compose.yml:

version: "3.9"
services:
  gitea:
    image: gitea/gitea:1.20-rootless
    environment:
      - gitea__server__root_url=https://git.${domain}
      - gitea__server__ssh_domain=git.${domain}
      - gitea__server__ssh_port=2222
    volumes:
      - ./gitea:/data
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
      - "2222:2222"
    restart: unless-stopped

  drone:
    image: drone/drone:2
    environment:
      - drone_gitea_server=https://git.${domain}
      - drone_gitea_client_id=${drone_gitea_client_id}
      - drone_gitea_client_secret=${drone_gitea_client_secret}
      - drone_rpc_secret=${drone_rpc_secret}
      - drone_server_host=ci.${domain}
      - drone_server_proto=https
    volumes:
      - ./drone:/data
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    restart: unless-stopped

  registry:
    image: registry:2
    environment:
      - registry_http_addr=0.0.0.0:5000
      - registry_storage_filesystem_rootdirectory=/data
    volumes:
      - ./registry:/data
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    restart: unless-stopped

  nginx-proxy:
    image: nginxproxy/nginx-proxy:latest
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro
      - ./vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html
    restart: unless-stopped

  acme-companion:
    image: nginxproxy/acme-companion
    volumes:
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - ./acme:/etc/acme.sh
    volumes_from:
      - nginx-proxy

create a companion .env file—never commit secrets!

domain=yourdomain.com
drone_rpc_secret=$(openssl rand -hex 16)
# leave the two lines below empty for now
drone_gitea_client_id=
drone_gitea_client_secret=

launch and close the ports

docker compose up -d

ufw example:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw --force enable

wire gitea + drone (oauth dance)

1. visit https://git.yourdomain.com → sign up → top-right avatar → site administration → applications → new oauth2 application.
2. name: drone; redirect uri: https://ci.yourdomain.com/login; copy client id/secret into the .env file.
3. restart drone: docker compose restart drone.
4. hit https://ci.yourdomain.com and “authorize application”.

push your first project (full-stack example)

we’ll deploy a tiny express + react repo so you see the whole pipeline.

1. create the repo in gitea

2. add a .drone.ymlfile at the root

kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: default

steps:
  - name: test
    image: node:18-alpine
    commands:
      - npm ci
      - npm test

  - name: build
    image: node:18-alpine
    commands:
      - npm run build
      - docker build -t registry.yourdomain.com/myapp:$${drone_commit_sha:0:8} .
      - docker push registry.yourdomain.com/myapp:$${drone_commit_sha:0:8}

image_pull_secrets:
  - dockerconfig

3. add a dockerfile (multi-stage keeps images tiny)

# ---- build stage ----
from node:18-alpine as build
workdir /app
copy package*.json ./
run npm ci
copy . .
run npm run build

# ---- run stage ----
from node:18-alpine
workdir /app
copy --from=build /app/dist ./dist
copy --from=build /app/node_modules ./node_modules
expose 3000
cmd ["node","dist/server.js"]

commit + push. drone should turn green inside 30 s, and your image now sits in the registry.

install dokku (your personal heroku)

# run as root
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dokku/dokku/v0.31.0/bootstrap.sh
sudo dokku_tag=v0.31.0 bash bootstrap.sh

visit http://your-server-ip once to paste your ssh public key. then, on your laptop:

# create the app
ssh [email protected] apps:create myapp
# link registry
ssh [email protected] registry:login registry.yourdomain.com
# set image
ssh [email protected] tags:deploy myapp registry.yourdomain.com/myapp:abc123
# enable let’s encrypt
ssh [email protected] letsencrypt:enable myapp
# done: https://myapp.apps.yourdomain.com is live

autopilot hardening checklist

• turn on unattended-upgrades: sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
• backup gitea daily with docker exec gitea gitea dump → rsync to cheap object storage
• set up logrotate for docker; containers are noisy
• add a simple cron health-check:

  */5 * * * * /home/deploy/health-check.sh || /usr/bin/docker compose -f /home/deploy/dev-stack/docker-compose.yml restart

cost & seo side effects

devops wins: by actually shipping you learn nginx reverse-proxy rules, let’s encrypt renewal hooks, oauth scopes—skills every employer asks for.

seo wins: owning your domain means every tutorial you publish lives at awesome-post.yourdomain.com, building domain authority instead of sending juice to medium/dev.to.

full-stack wins: frontend, backend, ci, registry, ssl—one horizontal slice you can demo in interviews.

component	ram	monthly cost
gitea	120 mb	$5 total
drone	80 mb
registry	40 mb
dokku	100 mb
system overhead	~200 mb

tl;dr for impatient students

waiting for aws credits is the new “my dog ate my homework.” spin up a $5 vps, paste the files above, and you’ll have a private git, ci, registry, and heroku-style deploy in under an hour. commit code tonight; show a working url tomorrow. stop waiting for aws—start owning your devops journey today.