![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sonic.fabio.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/nuc.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf you leave them with networking and no I\/O, they will sip power (~30 Watts) and act like a little server. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NUCs and other similar mini PCs such as the Antec Asrock have many use cases. For example, host websites (like this one!), be home media servers (with Jellyfin or Plex software) and be used for Home Automation servers (and more). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Below are two examples: Hosting a Discord bot and Bedrock Minecraft Server. As for software prerequisites, my NUC has Ubuntu server, Python, Docker and Docker Compose already installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discord bot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sonic.fabio.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-1024x513.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLet’s create our own Discord bot and self-host it. First, you want to want to visit https:\/\/<\/a>discord<\/a>.com\/developers<\/a>, create an application and add a bot. You will need to copy the token and save it somewhere safe. For permissions, it depends on the bot, but usually I enable send and read messages at the least. For Privileged Gateway Intents, I would usually enable all.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA typical bot could start like this<\/p>\n\n\n\n
import discord\nintents = discord.Intents.all()\nintents.members = True<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThis gives your bot the ability to receive member-related events. Next, we could make our bot invoke commands when a user types in ‘$’ in chat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from discord.ext import commands\nclient = commands.Bot(command_prefix = "$", intents = intents)\n\n@client.event\nasync def on_ready():\nprint('We have logged in as {0.user}'.format(client))<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThe on_ready()<\/code> function will let us know when the bot is connected to Discord and ready to start processing events.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf we want the bot to say hello when we type $hello in the discord server we can use “context” (ctx).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
@client.command()\nasync def hello(ctx):\n await ctx.send('Hello!')<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nDon’t forget to run the bot with your token client.run("TOKEN")<\/code>. You can add your bot to your server using the OAuth2 URL generator in the Developer Portal, ticking send and read messages, and pasting the URL into the browser<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sonic.fabio.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-2-1024x146.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nI recommend using ctx<\/code> for sending messages – it can make things easier. The context contains information about the message that triggered the command. This includes the channel, server, and author of the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou can run the bot with python3 name_of_bot.py<\/code> in the terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCheck out my GitHub for a Discord bot that uses the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) Python package to find the most negative user (silly usage I know!). Fabio-RibeiroB\/NLPdisrespectBOT: Discord Bot for Sentiment Analysis (github.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is not a dedicated server for my bot so let’s containerise the application and let it run in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t want my secret token in the container in case I want to share the image so I created a .env<\/code> file with TOKEN=my_token<\/code> (ignore quotes) and add this to a .gitignore<\/code> and .dockerignore<\/code> files. In the bot script, you will then need to load the env variables using the python-dotenv<\/code> library.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOur Dockerfile could look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FROM python:3\nWORKDIR \/app\nCOPY . .\nRUN pip install -r requirements.txt\nCMD ["python", "sentimental_analysis_bot.py"]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThis assumes you have a requirements.txt file with all your dependencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in the directory of the bot, let’s build the image from a Dockerfile and name it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
docker build -t my_container_name -f Dockerfile .\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nNow we run the image as a container and pass it to the .env file and run it in the background<\/p>\n\n\n\n
docker run -d --env-file=.env my_container_name<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter entering the container I can see that there is no .env file. Great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minecraft Bedrock server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sonic.fabio.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-1-1024x343.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNo need to spend $5\/month on a server when you can host it yourself. Thanks to the itzg\/minecraft-bedrock-server – Docker Image | Docker Hub<\/a> docker image, having your own Minecraft server is not too difficult. I have only played around with the Bedrock version but I believe the Java steps are similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou will need docker to pull the image above (see the GitHub or Docker hub page for more info) and I recommend using docker-compose to get the container up in the background (command: docker-compose up -d<\/code>). <\/p>\n\n\n\nAs for configurable settings, I would enable the “allow list” which specifies which players can join the server; it’s just a security feature. However, the easiest way to add people to the allow list from the terminal is not clear to me. In the end, I just entered the running container (command: sudo docker exec -it my_server_name bash<\/code>) and edit the allow list JSON by installing vim (apt update && apt upgrade && apt install vim<\/code>). Here is an example allowlist.json.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[{"ignoresPlayerLimit":false,"name":"Your_name","xuid":"Your_xuid"}<\/code>]<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo find your xuid use this site: https:\/\/www.cxkes.me\/xbox\/xuid<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLet’s create our own Discord bot and self-host it. First, you want to want to visit https:\/\/<\/a>discord<\/a>.com\/developers<\/a>, create an application and add a bot. You will need to copy the token and save it somewhere safe. For permissions, it depends on the bot, but usually I enable send and read messages at the least. For Privileged Gateway Intents, I would usually enable all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A typical bot could start like this<\/p>\n\n\n\n This gives your bot the ability to receive member-related events. Next, we could make our bot invoke commands when a user types in ‘$’ in chat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The If we want the bot to say hello when we type $hello in the discord server we can use “context” (ctx).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t forget to run the bot with your token I recommend using You can run the bot with Check out my GitHub for a Discord bot that uses the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) Python package to find the most negative user (silly usage I know!). Fabio-RibeiroB\/NLPdisrespectBOT: Discord Bot for Sentiment Analysis (github.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not a dedicated server for my bot so let’s containerise the application and let it run in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t want my secret token in the container in case I want to share the image so I created a Our Dockerfile could look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This assumes you have a requirements.txt file with all your dependencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in the directory of the bot, let’s build the image from a Dockerfile and name it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we run the image as a container and pass it to the .env file and run it in the background<\/p>\n\n\n\n After entering the container I can see that there is no .env file. Great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n No need to spend $5\/month on a server when you can host it yourself. Thanks to the itzg\/minecraft-bedrock-server – Docker Image | Docker Hub<\/a> docker image, having your own Minecraft server is not too difficult. I have only played around with the Bedrock version but I believe the Java steps are similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You will need docker to pull the image above (see the GitHub or Docker hub page for more info) and I recommend using docker-compose to get the container up in the background (command: As for configurable settings, I would enable the “allow list” which specifies which players can join the server; it’s just a security feature. However, the easiest way to add people to the allow list from the terminal is not clear to me. In the end, I just entered the running container (command: To find your xuid use this site: https:\/\/www.cxkes.me\/xbox\/xuid<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nimport discord\nintents = discord.Intents.all()\nintents.members = True<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nfrom discord.ext import commands\nclient = commands.Bot(command_prefix = "$", intents = intents)\n\n@client.event\nasync def on_ready():\nprint('We have logged in as {0.user}'.format(client))<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\non_ready()<\/code> function will let us know when the bot is connected to Discord and ready to start processing events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n@client.command()\nasync def hello(ctx):\n await ctx.send('Hello!')<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nclient.run("TOKEN")<\/code>. You can add your bot to your server using the OAuth2 URL generator in the Developer Portal, ticking send and read messages, and pasting the URL into the browser<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nctx<\/code> for sending messages – it can make things easier. The context contains information about the message that triggered the command. This includes the channel, server, and author of the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\npython3 name_of_bot.py<\/code> in the terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n.env<\/code> file with TOKEN=my_token<\/code> (ignore quotes) and add this to a .gitignore<\/code> and .dockerignore<\/code> files. In the bot script, you will then need to load the env variables using the python-dotenv<\/code> library.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFROM python:3\nWORKDIR \/app\nCOPY . .\nRUN pip install -r requirements.txt\nCMD ["python", "sentimental_analysis_bot.py"]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ndocker build -t my_container_name -f Dockerfile .\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ndocker run -d --env-file=.env my_container_name<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\nMinecraft Bedrock server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\ndocker-compose up -d<\/code>). <\/p>\n\n\n\nsudo docker exec -it my_server_name bash<\/code>) and edit the allow list JSON by installing vim (apt update && apt upgrade && apt install vim<\/code>). Here is an example allowlist.json.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[{"ignoresPlayerLimit":false,"name":"Your_name","xuid":"Your_xuid"}<\/code>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n