indero's Tech Thoughts

Leveling up my Homelab

In April of 2025 I decided I wanted to up my game with my homelab. I already had a NAS and a Mini PC at my parents house. This blog post is the first of an intended series. I want to take you the reader on the journey with me as I discover things and make decisions, make mistakes, and iterate over it. I also wanted to start writing again in 2026.

My background is in Linux System Administration, Software Engineering and DevOps. In my current role as a DevOps Engineer I do have to work with what I have. So my home lab can be more of a playground. The intention is also to create an Arc42 Document to have an example for it as a Methodology also for DevOps and not only software architecture.

Initial Idea

The original idea was simple: a bare-metal Kubernetes cluster consisting of three "servers." They should be quiet or silent.

By coincidence, my dad started experimenting with Proxmox around the same time. Watching him struggle through initial setups made one thing clear: if I wanted to help properly, I needed a playground of my own.

That's when I decided against bare metal and went with Proxmox instead. Virtualization gives me faster iteration, easier recovery, and less friction when experimenting. Kubernetes is still on the table—but not as the first step.

Tools I used so far for Documentation

Hardware as of January 2026

The story so far April 2025 till January 2026

April - Discovery

As mentioned in the the background, I saw my dad playing around with Proxmox, trying to set up a paperless-ngx instance. I tried to help him but my thoughts were: "I need a playground for myself to also help him properly". At this point upgrading my homelab had been in my head for some time.
In my first mental sketch it was simple. A cluster consisting of mini pcs. One node for testing, and a three node cluster with k8s/k3s.
The idea then evolved to be based on Proxmox, and hosting some of the services just in Docker containers, and a k8s to experiment.

May - Babysteps

In May I got my first machine, a GMKtec G3, unfortunately only with a US plug to Schuko, but I needed a two pronged European or Swiss plug
I set up my first services with the Proxmox VE Helper Scripts, which I didn't particularly like, but they were good enough to get me started. I played around with sslip.io, and DuckDNS. And decided to go with DuckDNS, because of the possibility with Let's Encrypt.
The idea was and is that most of the cluster is available via Tailscale. So I didn't need to make things public and could connect with most of my devices.

Early on a few recurring questions appeared:

June - Backup and Notification

In June I decided to go with a Hetzner Storage Box, but as of January 2026, I still hadn’t properly put it to use. My Idea was to go with Restic as a backup solution.
In July I found pocket-id, thanks to a video from Alex. I set it up on a DigitalOcean droplet. And I also got my second mini PC. This time a Beelink EQ13 with integrated PSU, so I can use any cable that fits. My test-system is still the GMKtec G3, and the Beelink I just have for the future.
Also I discovered r/minilab and 10" Racks. I also tried some Monitoring with Beszel and Uptime Kuma. And I've backed a JetKVM. Which would work better for the GMKTec PC because you can powercycle it with the barrel plug adapter. I stumbled upon Apprise, Apprise API and ntfy. When looking for methods to get notified.

August - Troubleshooting

In August I had some trouble booting the GMKtec PC, but could not figure out what happened. I discovered Ventoy. And I set up a Docker Host via the Proxmox helper Script. I would love to do this myself, but so far this is good enough. I also installed apprise-api in a docker container.
I briefly looked into cloud-init, but decided it was overkill at this stage. Later that month, I added another machine: a Beelink EQi12 with an i3-1220P, intended as a future production node.

September - Here to Stay

In September I made the server a bit more permanent, so that it is permanently on. I however did a mistake, that it was on my switched outlet. And so after a few minutes would not work again, same with my switch. I moved the SSD in the GMKtec G3 into the Beelink EQ13, with the idea that something might be wrong with the hardware.
As a result, my test Proxmox now lives entirely on the Beelink.

This is also the first time I noticed that sometimes DuckDNS is not available. So I either have to look for an alternative or just buy my own domain.

October till December

Not much happened until December. I wanted to set up the docker containers so I can manage them with systemd. My inspiration was Nick, I did make some changes, that I'll probably write about in a separate post.
I also started thinking about:

Current Vision as of January 2026

But in the end the homelab should be a fun project for myself.

#arc42 #devops #documentation #homelab #kubernetes #proxmox #self-hosting