For me it is writting docker compose files describing my services. I like to test them on my machine before pushing them to the server(s). But I guess that’s my own fault for not using something like portainer or even SSHFS.
What’s the most annoying / painful step for you?
Yeah and Ebay isn’t filled with millions of bits of excellent used equipment, you’d be lucky to find a 10 year old Dell server without cpu and memory and a 4 year old Ruckus AP that looks like it’s been run over by a truck but the condition description is “Refurbished”.
I use a Nuc for all 24/7 services and the 9 disk NAS goes to sleep for most of the week to save on power.