Homelab — the infrastructure under everything
Hardware, networking, backups, power: the layer below the "Homeserver" that keeps it stable in the first place. Less glamorous, more essential.
Why this exists
Where "Homeserver" is the apps, Homelab is everything underneath: hardware, VLANs, UPS, backup strategy, reverse proxy with SSL, DNS. A server without power backup, without a backup plan, without clean network segmentation is not a homelab — it's a PC with Docker.
I find this layer interesting because it rarely shows up at work. At a company someone else handles it. At home I learn what it means when the power dies mid-Postgres-write.
Time invested
Grew over years. Started with a Raspberry Pi on the desk. Today: dedicated server hardware, VLAN-segmented networks (IoT, servers, clients, guests), a UPS with automatic shutdown, ZFS snapshots to a second machine, off-site backups.
What worked
- VLAN segmentation. IoT can't reach server net, guests can't reach IoT. When a Chinese smart plug does weird things, it doesn't affect me further.
- UPS via NUT (Network UPS Tools). Power outage → controlled shutdown of key machines, no more data corruption.
- ZFS snapshots as a cheap backup mechanism. Hourly snapshots, older ones consolidated, sent to a second box.
- Reverse proxy with Authentik in front. One SSO identity, all internal tools behind it. From outside there is only a login screen.
What didn't
- Several DNS misconfigurations. One took my local network offline for an hour. Family was "delighted".
- SSL via HTTP-01 challenge wasn't reliable enough. Moving to DNS-01 solved it, but switching DNS provider was its own mini project.
- Backups that aren't restored aren't backups. Only after the first successful restore test did it feel actually okay.
- Hardware upgrade chain: sell old, source new, migrate data — every time a weekend project.
Where I am now
It runs so quietly that I rarely notice. That's exactly what infrastructure should do.