Homelab
Everything I currently run or have run for myself, and why I do it
Why I Homelab
I think homelabbing is just a great way to get into IT and a great way to keep skills sharp or develop new ones. I got started with homelabbing like many people do, a Minecraft server running off my own desktop as a kid. From that Minecraft server I moved onto a Raspberry Pi that ran OwnCloud and OpenVPN.
When I interviewed for my first IT position, a Linux Admin position I was woefully underqualified for, I hit it off with their Security lead who happened to be standing up OpenVPN as a solution and we had a great conversation about the struggles of learning the tool. Needless to say I did not get that job but they did end up calling me back a couple months later for a helpdesk/junior admin position that I accepted.
Homelabbing is what got me into the field and I encourage anyone who asks me about getting into IT to take a crack at it. You don’t need an entire rack of servers, you don’t need expensive disk arrays, a Pi is more than enough to get started down the IT road and to learn a couple new things on.
The Environment (Jan 2026)
In 2025 I had 2 consolidation efforts, removing and replacing hardware to reduce the power load in my rack and to prepare for married life that is just around the corner.
I initially swapped out my R220, Catalyst switch, and WRT router for a UDM pro with U7 Lite AP as well as retired one of my hypervisors and my media NAS. I took my power draw down from ~920W down to ~270W.
In the next wave I further consolidated into a 10” rack with 2 Dell Ultra 7070 machines as a hypervisor pair and Pi4 (2GB) NAS while using a Unifi Flex switch to network it all. A unique thing I wanted to with this rack was to have it 100% USB-C powered. So there is one power cable, and one network cable going into the rack. I chose the Dell Ultra’s, Pi 4s and the Unifi Flex Mini all for this USB-C capability.
All of the services I am running are in containers or a PaaS, for this run through I am deploying everything through Nomad as recommended by Arc. So far it is a great solution that I will write a post about soon.
I turned off the final R620 and R420 NAS to complete my migration in January.
Hardware
Main Rack
| Hardware | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Unifi Dream Machine Pro | Firewall |
| U7 Lite | AP |
| Tradfri | Ikea smart home hub |
| Aqara | Home security hub |
| Cyberpower OR1000LCDRM1U |
Mini Rack (8U)
| Hardware | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Unifi Flex Mini | Switch |
| Dell Ultra 7070 | XCP-NG Server |
| Dell Ultra 7070 | XCP-NG Server |
| Pi 4 w/ 5TB HDD & SSD | NAS |
| Pi 4 | Tailscale endpoint |
| 800W GaN3 10-Port USB-C block |
Service List
Currently running services
- 365 Tenant
- As low as $6 for just an online license for one user and you get everything in 365 but I use the $22 Business Premium license to have the desktop office suite and Azure functionality/protections.
- 365 - Exchange Online
- I of course use this for email and contacts management. I love Outlook and it is just an absolute joy to have such a powerful suite available for cheap.
- 365 - SharePoint Online
- I dabbled with various failed use cases for SharePoint in the past like photo hosting and a “Paperless-NG” alternative but now I am using it just for family documents like it was intended.
- Azure Static Web Apps
- I am using this for 2 sites, my homepage and my blog/documentation site. One is hosted on Github while the other is hosted in Azure DevOps and they use those respective pipelines to be built.
- https://dev0.sh
- https://docs.dev0.sh
- https://webdbg.rtech.support
- Podman containers orchestrated with Nomad and proxied with Traefik
- Xen-Orchestra
- The web interface and backup solution for for Xen/XCP-NG hypervisor
- Homebridge
- My home automations are based around Apple and Siri
- FreshRSS
- I use this all day every day, RSS is the best way to get news and updates and I will die on that hill.
- Bitwarden Lite
- I’ve used Bitwarden_rs/Vaultwarden in the past and moved onto this new official offering for the sake of support. I export and backup to the official Bitwarden cloud periodically as my reliable hot backup option.
- Fittrackee
- I have ran this on and off over the years as my interest ebbs and wanes, it has come a long way so maybe I will stick with it this time.
- Immich
- For forever and a day I’ve been looking for a reliable photo solution to digitize the boxes and boxes of family photos we have, we will see how this pans out.
- Forgejo
- I moved my personal repos from Azure Devops back to on prem for giggles mostly but once I started using Actions it became rather useful for learning about modern CICD deployment
- TheLounge
- Xen-Orchestra
- Backrest
- A web interface for Restic, a new solution I am trying out. Previously I used a cloud task in TrueNAS to Rclone my data into Backblaze. I am still using Backlaze for the Restic remote.
- WebDGB API endpoints
- These are running in 2 Server Core VMs with Docker installed, they are being proxied by Nginx-Cerbot in Digital ocean for SSL and load balancin.
- Azure Container Apps
- Hyde
- A dev and prod instance
- Hyde
- Azure DNS
- I have my personal domains running here for giggles mostly, why not learn how to use it. It does cost like $1.
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365
- It is nice having a central panel for AV, I had been on Sophos Home a while ago and I was missing a solution. I never notice it running in the background on my Mac and I can get some helpful emails every now and then.
- Active Directory and DNS
- I used AD for central authentication of course and playing around. It is nice to have a test realm always running. I am moving away from this as I reduce homeprod and will be relying on local accounts on the few servers I plan to keep.
- Tailscale
- I use a Raspberry Pi as an endpoint inside my network so I do not have to have agents on all of my servers, I also run an endpoint in DigitalOcean for when I need to change
Previous services I have run
- Windows DHCP
- Windows Enterprise CA
- I ran a local CA to allow the use of smart cards on my machines, so I could sign my scripts and to generally test out ideas or tasks for work. It is a easy thing to stand up but incredibly frustrating when it breaks.
- Various webservers
- Basic homepage for https://dev0.sh
- Ran via Docker/Podman or baremetal
- 3CX
- I ran a “work line” over this when we all went WFH and I didn’t want to give out my cell to users. It is a great solution and I still have my handsets. If I every start working from home part time again I plan to stand it back up.
- voip.ms was my DID provider
- Nextcloud
- I used this for years, it was my file storage, calendar and contacts solution. It worked great and I do recommend it for anyone wanting to be fully contained. I migrated from Nextcloud to my 365 tenant and have been very happy.
- OpenVPN
- Along with OwnCloud, my first foray into hosting. It works well and I would recommend it over WireGuard for most purposes. I find it much easier to comprehend, setup, and troubleshoot.
- Jenkins
- I have this test server running to play with pipelines. I originally had rTS_Debian being built on it, but someone very quickly turned that into a Github Action.
- WireGuard
- I don’t particularly care for WireGuard. It is way too complex to setup manually, which is why most methods are scripts. I got it working on my OPNSense firewall with some help, but likely could not do it again.
- TrueNas
- For basic shares and backups
- Gitea
- My first effort in hosting repos, I moved to Azure DevOps when I reduced my home footprint in the past.
- Azure DevOps
- I used this hosting most of my personal repos, anything public I left on Github, before moving to Forgejo