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68 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
68 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "What to do with a homelab"
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date: 2021-09-06T01:12:54-04:00
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lastmod: 2021-09-06T01:12:54-04:00
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draft: false
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comments: true
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author: "Dave Gallant"
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tags: ["self-hosted", "proxmox", "tailscale"]
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---
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A homelab can be an inexpensive way to host a multitude of internal/external services and learn _a lot_ in the process.
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Do you want host your own media server? ad blocker? reverse proxy?
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Are you interested in learning more about Linux? Virtualization? Networking? Security?
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A homelab can be a playground to enhance your computer skills, without worrying about breaking anything important.
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One of the best parts about building a homelab is that it doesn't have to be a large investment in terms of hardware. One of the simplest ways to build a homelab is out of a [refurbished computer](https://ca.refurb.io/products/hp-800-g1-usff-intel-core-i5-4570s-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-wifi-windows-10-pro?variant=33049503825943).
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Having multiple machines/nodes provides the advantage of increased redundancy, but starting out with a single node is enough to reap many of the benefits of having a homelab.
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## Virtualization
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Virtualizing your hardware is an organized way of dividing up your machine's resources. This can be done with something such as a _Virtual Machine_ or something lighter like a container using _LXC_ or _runC_.
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Containers have much less overhead in terms of boot time and storage allocation. This [Stack Overflow answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16047306/how-is-docker-different-from-a-virtual-machine) sums it up nicely.
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A hypervisor such as [Proxmox](https://www.proxmox.com/en/proxmox-ve/get-started) can be installed in minutes on a new machine. It provides a web interface and a straight-forward way to spin up new VMs and containers. Even if your plan is to run mostly docker containers, Proxmox can be a useful abstraction for managing VMs, disks and running scheduled backups. You can even run docker within an LXC container by enabling nested virtualization. You'll want to ensure that VT-d and VT-x are enabled in the BIOS if you decide to install a hypervisor to manage your virtualization.
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## Services
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Here is a list of some useful services to consider:
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- [Jellyfin](https://jellyfin.org/) or [Plex](https://www.plex.tv/) - a common gateway to self-hosting that enables a "self-hosted Netflix" experience that puts you in control of the content (guaranteed to make your partner and kids happy)
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- [changedetection](https://github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io) - is a self-hosted equivalent to something like [visualping.io](https://visualping.io/) that can notify you when a webpage changes and keep track of the diffs
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- [Adguard](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome) or [Pihole](https://pi-hole.net/) - can block a list of known trackers for all clients on your local network with the added benefit of speeding up web page load times
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- [gitea](https://gitea.io/) - A lightweight git server that can be used to mirror git repos and host private content
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- [miniflux](https://github.com/miniflux/v2) - a minimalist RSS reader
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- [gethomepage](https://github.com/gethomepage/homepage) - A customizable landing page for quick access to services with many supported widgets that can query APIs and display information
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- [Uptime Kuma](https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma) - A tool for monitoring the uptime of services, with notification support
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- [Speedtest Tracker](https://github.com/alexjustesen/speedtest-tracker) - a way to monitor the performance of your internet connection and/or vpn connection
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- [Stirling-PDF](https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF) - a self-hosted PDF manipulation tool that will keep your data private
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There is a large number of services you can self-host, including your own applications that you might be developing. Homelabbing allows you to have control over your data and services, and gives you the opportunity to be a software, network, and infrastructure engineer all at once.
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## VPN
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[Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/) is a quick way to create a flat network for all of your services. With its [MagicDNS](https://tailscale.com/kb/1081/magicdns/), your can reference the names of machines like `changedetection` rather than using an IP address, or managing DNS yourself. By using this mesh-like VPN, you can easily create a secure tunnel to your homelab from anywhere.
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## Monitoring
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Monitoring can become an important aspect of your homelab after it starts to become something that is relied upon. One of the simplest ways to setup some monitoring is using [netdata](https://www.netdata.cloud/). It can be installed on individual containers, VMs, and also a hypervisor (such as Proxmox). All of the monitoring works out of the box by detecting disks, memory, network interfaces, etc.
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Additionally, agents installed on different machines can all be centrally viewed in netdata, and it can alert you when some of your infrastructure is down or in a degraded state. Adding additional nodes to netdata is as simple as a 1-line shell command.
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As mentioned above, [Uptime Kuma](https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma) is a convenient way to track uptime and monitor the availability of your services.
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## In Summary
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Building out a homelab can be a rewarding experience and it doesn't require buying a rack full of expensive servers to get a significant amount of utility. There are many services that you can run that require very minimal setup, making it possible to get a server up and running in a short period of time, with monitoring, and that can be securely connected to remotely.
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If you're looking for a steady stream of ideas for your homelab, check out [selfhosted.show](https://selfhosted.show/).
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