Homelab

My passion project is my homelab. Started in 2020 with TrueNAS Core on an old laptop, it has now turned into a multi-node setup. It serves as a playground for me to learn about various technologies, as well as hosting my personal services.

My homelab has allowed me to learn and experiment with virtualization, containerization, networking, storage solutions, backups, automation, security practices, monitoring, infrastructure as code, ...

Setup

Currently, the core of my homelab consists of:

• TrueNAS SCALE (now called TrueNAS Community Edition)
• Proxmox VE
• A simple backup server

The written configuration of (part of) my homelab is available on Bos55/nix-config.

Self-hosted services

My homelab is used to self-host several critical and non-critical services. They consist of services that I and/or my family and friends use on a daily basis. Others are just for fun, are nice-to-haves, to learn new things, or to experiment with.

The most used services are:

• Nextcloud as a Microsoft 365/Google Drive alternative
• Forgejo as a GitHub alternative, including actions runners for CI/CD and Renovate bot for dependency updates
• Vaultwarden as a password manager
• Home Assistant for home automation
• Jellyfin for media streaming

History

• 2020

  TrueNAS Core (FreeBSD) on an old laptop, dual drive. TrueNAS apps running in jails.

• 2021

  Upgrading to TrueNAS SCALE (Debian), adding external drives. TrueNAS apps running in K3s.

• 2022

  Migrating from TrueNAS apps to TrueCharts (no longer maintained for TrueNAS). Focus on reverse proxying and VPN. Adding a simple backup server. Automated backups using TrueNAS with custom script to send ZFS snapshots to a non-ZFS system.

• 2023

  Building a custom enclosure for the homelab hardware, so the disk aren't just sitting on a shelf anymore, they are cooled better and better cable management.

• 2024

  Adding a Proxmox VE node, migrating (all) my services to it. Most important ones run in their own dedicated VM. Focus on Infrastructure as Code. Increased stability.

• 2025

  Automating deployment of VMs and containers. Moving towards platform engineering to streamline development.