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Homelab Platform

Summary

A self-hosted bare-metal platform used to run internal services, development workloads, AI experiments, backups, and network-integrated automation in a controlled home environment.

Role
Platform / DevOps Engineer
Timeline
Ongoing
Tags
PodmanLinuxSelf-hostingAutomation

Goal

  • The homelab runs at home on a dedicated Intel NUC and is used as a controlled environment for self-hosted services, development workloads, infrastructure experiments, and operational practice.
  • The setup is intentionally kept practical: Rocky Linux runs headless on bare metal, while services are containerized with Podman instead of introducing Kubernetes before it is needed.
  • The platform is integrated with a broader home network setup, including VLANs, internal DNS, NAS-based storage, and VPN-only remote access.

Contribution

  • Designed and maintained the base platform on an Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit with 64 GB RAM, local storage, and an RTX 2060 for AI-related workloads.
  • Containerized and operated internal services with Podman, including GitLab, a wiki, Nexus, Ollama with a web UI, test applications, databases, and temporary development workloads.
  • Set up backup flows from the homelab server to a Synology DS423+ NAS using systemd timers and rsync.
  • Built Bash scripts and later on switched to Python scripts to support operational tasks such as backups, maintenance, service handling, and internal automation.

Planning

  • Kept the platform simple and maintainable by using bare-metal Rocky Linux with Podman as the main runtime.
  • Used macvlan networking for selected containers so services can receive their own IP addresses on the local network.
  • Separated home network traffic through VLANs for main, guest, storage, IoT, and secure use cases.
  • Kept services internal-only and accessed remotely through VPN instead of exposing them publicly.

Results

  • A practical self-hosted platform for running private development tools, internal services, AI experiments, and temporary test applications.
  • A repeatable backup routine to a Synology NAS, executed every three hours during the day through systemd and rsync within Python based software.
  • A controlled environment to test infrastructure ideas before applying similar concepts in professional or larger environments.
  • A clear growth path towards a future single-node OKD setup for deeper Kubernetes/OpenShift practice outside work.
Technology stack
Rocky LinuxPodmansystemdrsyncBashPythonGitLabNexusOllamamacvlanSynology NAS

Media

Physical homelab setup used for local services, experiments, and backups.
Intel NUC bare-metal server running Rocky Linux and Podman workloads.
Synology NAS used as a separate backup target for the homelab platform.