Tag: Homelab

A JetKVM from $33, wired or wireless. New open-source firmware, the same web interface.

I've run Nextcloud for years and I like it, but OpenCloud caught my eye. It's the continuation of ownCloud Infinite Scale, written in Go, with no database to babysit and no schema migrations to worry about. In this guide I go over where OpenCloud came from, how it stacks up against Nextcloud, and then a full Docker Compose setup with a real domain and certificate, storage on a local disk, full text search, and browser based document editing with Euro-Office. All links and resources are down below.

My daily tech stack is not just a list of apps. It is a connected workflow that helps me document my HomeLab, work from the terminal, use AI with real project context, test applications locally, and safely move more complex tasks onto real infrastructure.

A production-ready, lightweight open-source virtualization platform for environments from homelabs to hyperscale infrastructure.

How I deployed a complete VCF 9.1 management domain in a nested homelab, recovered orphaned NSX transport nodes, and fixed VCF Automation.

ProxMate is an open-source, self-hosted Proxmox VE management portal. Spin up tenant VMs, manage users, and control your homelab mini-cloud — all from a single, beautiful UI.

This is a full tour of my homelab which runs KTZ Systems and most of my digital life. I walk through the network, Proxmox and Ceph cluster, storage servers, cameras, core services and local AI hardware. It may not be the neatest rack on YouTube, but it is real, reliable and built to do a job.

Re-benchmarking the three-node Ceph-over-Thunderbolt cluster under real production load, days after the original build, and asking whether the numbers hold up or were just good for a novelty setup.

I've probably tried close to 5 different options for access to my homelab services. Whether public or private, SaaS or self-hosted, everything ended up falling short.
Pangolin is different.

My home lab has been a cluster for close to twenty years, from two Dell Precision T7500s to four Dell OptiPlex 7090 UFF nodes on VMware vSAN, to a new three node ASUS NUC 15 Pro cluster on Proxmox VE and Ceph. This is the story of the rebuild: why it happened now, what my first GitOps attempt got badly wrong, and the principles behind the single repo, called Dojo, that runs it all today.

A deep dive into the DNS and Caddy design behind my Proxmox VE homelab rebuild: layered resolvers, a deliberate core/apps zone split, a Cloudflare Tunnel, and a second, fully separate Caddy for anything genuinely public.

The same class of NVMe drive failed three times in 48 hours on my three-node Thunderbolt cluster: a real NVMe firmware bug, a smartctl red herring, a fix I already had half of by accident, and a ten-hour alerting blind spot I didn't know I had.

The everyday mechanics of running DNS in my homelab: the zone file format, how Knot auto-derives every PTR record, adding and removing hosts and zones, and what actually happens when something goes wrong.

Learn the most common reverse proxy mistakes in home labs and how I avoid them using Traefik, Docker, proper networking, TLS, and security best practices.

Single Sign-On for Your Self-Hosted Universe 🐈‍⬛🔒

I've used and loved PiHole for years, but it's time for a change. Technitium provides the one thing I found sorely lacking from Pihole, that is clustering and real-time synchronisation between servers. In this tutorial I show how to create a cluster and configure it.

Since the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1 back in May, customer excitement has been tremendous, with many deploying the latest release in their labs for evaluation and some even using …

A UniFi restore that reports no errors, restarts cleanly, and lets you log in with your admin account, but somehow leaves you with an empty configuration, is a special kind of frustrating. That's the short version of what it took to move from a HostiFi-hosted controller to a local UniFi Express 7 (UX7). It should have been a cable swap and a restore. Instead it turned into a two-attempt debugging exercise, followed by a workaround involving a throwaway Docker controller and some direct MongoDB open-heart surgery.

Proceed at your own risk! (... it's worth it)

Tu as un homelab Proxmox, tu as entendu parler de Talos Linux et de Cilium, tu as même développé ton propre module Terraform pour automatiser tout ça. Mais entre le moment où tu te dis “je vais créer un petit cluster K8s” et le moment où tu as un cluster fonctionnel avec kubectl get nodes, il y a tout un chemin de commandes à taper, de fichiers à éditer, de tokens à générer.

HomeLab secrets usually start simple: one `.env` file next to a Docker Compose stack. But over time, those secrets spread into GitLab variables, deployment scripts, copied folders, backups, notes, and places where they should not live.

Netbird does it all: tunnels, proxying, firewall, if you want it - netbird delivers.
https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird

Hashicorp Academy Labs. Contribute to hashimiche/hal development by creating an account on GitHub.

I have several Cisco network devices in my homelab. In this post will showcase a first-glance on how to access such via Boundary, a PAM solution from HashiCorp.

Get started with SerpApi using 250 free credits: https://serpapi.com/?utm_source=youtu...

Infisical: https://infisical.com/?utm_source=you... — manage application and deployment secrets across Docker, CI/CD, and infrastructure workflows.

I built a 10-inch mini rack from aluminium extrusions and I had a lot of fun doing it. I want to share my build in this post.

After years of running a Proxmox cluster, I migrated my entire homelab to NixOS with Incus. I explain the philosophical friction of imperative 'appliance' OSs vs declarative hosts, share how I migrated my LXC/VM workloads, and why it is the perfect infrastructure to manage using AI agents.

DNSimple is a developer friendly, rich API DNS system!
Start your 30 day FREE trial here: https://dnsimple.com/api?utm_source=d...
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SimpleRelay - Self-hosted SMTP relay with web dashboard, DNS validation, and per-sender access control (FastAPI/Postfix/Docker) - toinbox/simplerelay

During the deployment of an additional VCF 9.1 component, the precheck failed with the following platform health error: Platform Health Check Error
[platform-statefulsets-core : 1 of 10 resources are not ok:logging-operator-fluentd: wrong resource state: InProgress - Ready: 0/1;][VCFMS-HEALTH-002]

What am I doing in this post? My Goal: To build custom ESX install ISOs for the Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro which I am using as workload domain home-lab nodes. We will cover ESXi 8.0 U3, ESX 9.0, and …

Here's a description of how to configure TGWEVPN/VXLAN in the new VCF 9.1 version. I encourage you to read on. Implementing this isn't difficult.

VCF Automation, Monitoring, more...

ProxPatch orchestre la mise à jour de manière discrète et continue d'un cluster Proxmox VE. Il effectue des upgrades, des migrations à chaud des VM, des reboots et contrôle le quorum.

Since the PiKVM came out in 2017, there's been an explosion of IP KVMs. I've tested almost every one. But what are they good for?
You can use Remote Desktop, Screen Sharing, or VNC to remote control a computer from anywhere on a LAN. And if you don't have a private VPN, you could use RealVNC, Raspberry Pi Connect, or wire up Tailscale or Pangolin for fully remote access. Those solutions are great, and so is SSH if you don't need a full desktop.

Do you want some inspiration for your ultimate home office desk setup? How about smart lighting, smart blinds and more? Look no further than my 2026 guide!

Un setup DNS sans redondance ni zone locale, c'est un SPOF qui s'ignore. Découvrez comment refondre son infrastructure DNS en haute disponibilité avec Technitium, AdGuard Home et Proxmox HA.

This is follow up to my previous blog post Deploying VCF 9 in a Minilab – I have made some changes in my lab and upgraded to VCF 9.1. My original HW BOM: Two GMKtec K8 Plus mini PCs. One with…

Connect your CalDAV calendar, define bookable meetings, share a link. No Node.js, no PostgreSQL, no subscription.

Check out Twingate and supercharge your security: https://bit.ly/3Y1OaZi

Some notes and screenshots of my experience upgrading VCF 9.0.2 to VCF 9.10.

My VCF homelab runs on GMKTec K8 Plus nodes which have AMD Ryzen CPU with 16 threads – which means the biggest VM that can be powered on can have only 16 vCPUs. However VCF Automation runs on…

With the announcement of VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1, I know many of you are eager to start planning for 9.1 and get it into your lab environment for hands…

With the announcement of VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1, I know many of you are eager to start planning for 9.1 and get it into your lab environment for hands…

If you want a reverse proxy that gets out of your way, Caddy is one of the easiest places to start. In this video, I test it in a practical homelab setup: serving a static site, proxying Docker apps, getting HTTPS working, and showing where the simplicity is real and where the advanced stuff starts.

Self-hosted homelab infrastructure visualizer — interactive network diagram with live status monitoring - Pouzor/homelable

How do you actually expand a management domain in VCF9, and what do I need to keep in mind? A quick guide.

Proxmox 9.1.8 adds automatic HA rebalancing and Dynamic Load scheduling. A look at how it works and why it matters for your home lab.

Learn how to automate vSphere power management using Ansible and SemaphoreUI, scheduling ESXi host shutdowns based on Octopus Agile energy tariffs to cut costs.

Healthchecks.io ping endpoints accept HTTP HEAD, GET, and POST request methods. When using HTTP POST, clients can include an arbitrary payload in the request body. Healthchecks.io stores the first 100kB of the request body. If the request body is tiny, Healthchecks.io stores it in the PostgreSQL database. Otherwise, it stores it in S3-compatible object storage. [...]

Evolution of a self-hosting hobby: from clueless to amateur.

A practical deep dive into Tailscale exit nodes: route changes, traceroute evidence, DERP fallback, trust boundaries, and why this model can be free.

J’ai installé Home Assistant OS en VM sur Proxmox avec ZFS, réplication multi-nœuds et 2 backups/jour. Guide complet : création VM, HAOS vs Docker, Zigbee en Docker.

Let's make a tiny, standalone CA! We'll use a Raspberry Pi 4, YubiKey 5 NFC, and Infinite Noise TRNG.

Installer Datadog sur un homelab vSphere peut sembler contre-intuitif à cause du coût habituel de la plateforme, mais cela présente des avantages réels en termes de gain de temps et de fonctionnali…

I recently picked up a Starlink Mini to use as a backup connection for my home network. The underlying technology is fascinating - thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit delivering broadband almost anywhere. With the new £4.50 standby plan, it's an excellent way to keep things online.

Getting from Delhi back to a Minnesota meant unforgiving networks. Tailscale Peer Relays offered a massive improvement.

CLI agents like Claude Code make self-hosting dramatically easier and actually fun. This is the first time I would recommend it to normal software-literate people.

This post explains how I operate my homelab with no public WAN exposure, using WireGuard to stay permanently connected to my home network from all my devices, …

With a Red Hat Developer Subscription (for Individuals) it’s possible to get Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) licensing valid for up to 16 systems for a home lab at no cost!

Découvrez comment remplacer votre box Internet SFR, Free, Bouygues ou Orange par du matériel UniFi. Guide complet opérateur par opérateur.

A free, open source, self-hosted customer feedback tool 🦊 - astuto/astuto

I recently migrated my self-hosted services from a VPS (virtual private server) at a remote data center to a physical server at home. This change was motivated by wanting to be in control of the hardw

“It’s always DNS” is a famous meme among network people. Name resolution is technically quite simple. It’s “just” translating a hostname like jan.wildeboer.net to an IP address. What could possibly go wrong? I am a radical optimist and detail-obsessed knowledge collector, so I decided to find out. As part of my goal to make my home network a little island of Digital Sovereignty, meaning that everything at home should JustWork™, even with no working internet connection, a DNS server is needed.

Setting up a Wake-on-LAN server you can reach from a browser, using Tailscale, a webapp, and a little Raspberry Pi.

An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server - juanfont/headscale

After years of self-hosting on a VPS in a datacenter, I’ve decided to move my services at home. But instead of just porting services, I’m using this as an opportunity to migrate to a more flexible and

This post is part of a short series that builds on our minimal VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 deployment (2x Minisforum MS-A2) and showcases how to fully leverage the exciting new capabilities i…

You deserve some always-on gadgets—and an easier way to access them.

After Claude Pro changed to weekly limits, I explored self-hosting Qwen3-Coder-480B with 400k context windows. Here's what I learned about costs, alternatives, and why Claude Code still dominates the landscape.

When working on my homelab, I regularly need to pass credentials to my tools. A naive approach is to just store the token in clear text, but there's a better alternative. Let's see how direnv and the Bitwarden password manager's CLI can be hooked together to let me keep my infrastructure credentials safe, in a simple, sturdy setup!

How to migrate from RAIDZ1 to RAIDZ2 without a spare ZFS server or a boatload of extra disks.

A brief guide on how to switch from a VCF9 Operations instance to a central VCF Operations instance.

Guide by Example. Contribute to DoTheEvo/selfhosted-apps-docker development by creating an account on GitHub.

RustDesk is the best open-source remote desktop software. Secure alternative to TeamViewer and AnyDesk with self-hosted servers. Cross-platform support for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.

With additional Kubernetes mode!

Miniature rack builds, for portable or compact Homelabs.

Since launching the MS-01 in 2024, Minisforum has steadily gained popularity for its unique design that sets it apart from established players in the small form factor (SFF) market. Following the s…

I'm fortunate enough to live in a place where 10Gbps fiber (FTTH) is not only available but also cheap. Here's how I'm taking advantage of this.

Explore essential homelab services for 2025 including Plex, Jellyfin, the *arr stack, Immich, Home Assistant, Pi-hole, Grafana, and more.

Part 2 VCF Import Cluster with NFS and activating the overlay.

Why you should use MAC Learning

After a homelab crash, the VCSA file-based backup isn't working anymore. In this post I'm describing how I was able to get the VMware Postgres Archiver service back into operating state by interfere with vCenters vPostgres instance.

Mapping Pihole to Tailscale and enabling subnet routing has made accessing my homelab outside the house an absolute joy.