They say that you learn more from mistakes than when things go successfully. I can definitely attest to that fact. I have had some horrible crash and burns in the…

The post 10 Home Lab Mistakes I Made (So You Don’t Have To) appeared first on Virtualization Howto.

Traefik is one of my favorite reverse proxies and it stands out for a number of reasons, including how easy it is to use it with infrastructure as code and…

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I have been experimenting with SSO lately in the home lab and decided to give Authentik a try. And let me tell you, it is a crazy good self-hosted SSO solution that will likely do anything you need it to do. What’s more, we can install Authentik SSO with Docker Compose easily. Overview of Authentik …

The post I Added Authentik SSO to My Home Lab with Docker-Compose: Logging In Will Never Be the Same appeared first on Virtualization Howto.

The portable SSD market has exploded in recent years. When Terramaster sent over the D1 SSD Plus for me to take a look at, it was an intriguing little device to say the least and one that piqued my interest. This is a specially suited device that is designed for creators and others who may …

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I have been using Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) for quite some time now, a few years from what I remember. It is a great solution and one that I point many to who are just starting out with their Docker learning journey and want to have a quick and easy way to stand up proper …

The post I Replaced Nginx Proxy Manager with Traefik in My Home Lab and It Changed Everything appeared first on Virtualization Howto.

I have been big into documenting my home lab and finding tools that are great for creating documentation for my DevOps processes in the lab and in production. This has led me down a rabbit hole of trying all sorts of documentation tools and tools that can help visualize my docker compose code. If you …

The post Visualize Your Docker-Compose with Mermaid + docker-compose-viz This Weekend appeared first on Virtualization Howto.

Kubernetes is one of the most complex architectures and solutions in modern infrastructure. When it comes to K8s, we need to manage control planes, worker nodes, certificates, upgrades, and lifecycle management. This is where Talos Linux and Omni come in. Talos Linux is gaining traction as a favorite for those that want a secure and …

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Networking is literally the lifeblood of your home lab. If the network is no good, then everything else is going to fall down. Things won’t perform well, and you will spend most of your time troubleshooting the network and other issues related to connectivity. If you are just getting into a home lab or you …

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One of the most important areas to take a look at when you start playing around with automating things in your home lab, is the problem of using secrets and storing them. Let’s look at three unique solutions, including Hashicorp Vault, Doppler, and Sealed Secrets. Each of these has strengths and may be a good …

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Portainer has long been on the lists of best Docker tools that you can use in the home lab and in production environments. REcently, they have announced the new Portainer 2.33 LTS version has been released. It is folding in many of the new features contained in the recent STS builds and bringing these into …

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Storage is one of the coolest projects that you can undertake in your home lab as most apps or services that you want to self-host will have the need to store things. Aside from specific app data, you will likely want to run virtual machines, Docker containers, or other types of resources, your storage makes …

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Proxmox VE 9 is the latest in the release of Proxmox VE Server now that it is generally available. Many are now looking at upgrading their Proxmox VE 8.x instances to 9. However, outside of the new features and capabilities, you want to be sure your Proxmox VE 9 server is secure properly. Out of …

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When you start building a home lab, one of the first things you realize is how important DNS is. Every service you run, including Proxmox, Docker containers, Kubernetes clusters, or even something simple depends on DNS resolving correctly. Many when they get started running a home lab rely on their router’s built-in DNS or their …

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I can tell you that when you are on a consumer power grid, one of the biggest headaches with running a home lab is power outages. When you don’t have your lab setup in the right way to handle power outages or brownouts, these can wreak havoc on your hardware, services, and data. When these …

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