You probably use a password manager, but relying on a cloud-only service means your vault lives on someone else’s infrastructure. A self-hosted password manager puts that vault on your own hardware, under your control, while still giving you the same autofill, browser extension, and mobile app experience. Why Self-Host a Password Manager Cloud password managers … Read more
Self-hosted backups only work if you can actually restore them. Many homelab setups skip restore testing because it feels tedious, but that is exactly how silent data loss happens. A backup job can report success every day and still fail when you need it most. Restoring backups regularly is the only way to confirm your … Read more
If you manage more than one server or container in your homelab, manual configuration stops scaling quickly. Ansible fixes this by turning your infrastructure into code. You write a playbook once, and it configures every node — packages, users, firewalls, Docker, and system settings — without logging into each machine individually. Why Ansible for a … Read more
If your homelab already runs Proxmox, Docker, and network services, the next logical step is home automation. Home Assistant brings every smart device under one local-first dashboard — lights, thermostats, cameras, sensors, and media players — without relying on vendor clouds or proprietary apps. Why Home Assistant for a Homelab Most smart home platforms lock … Read more
If your homelab stores media, VM disks, backups, and datasets across a mix of USB drives and random disks, you’ve probably already experienced the pain of rebuilding after a drive failure. TrueNAS Scale consolidates all of that into one ZFS-based storage appliance with a web UI, SMB/NFS/iSCSI shares, and built-in snapshot replication. Why TrueNAS Scale … Read more
If you run multiple services in your homelab, you’ve probably faced the hassle of remembering ports like 192.168.1.10:8080 or 192.168.1.20:3000. Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) solves this by giving every service a clean domain name, automatic HTTPS, and a single web UI to manage it all — no hand-editing config files required. What Nginx Proxy Manager … Read more
Remote access to your homelab shouldn’t require opening ports, configuring port forwarding on your ISP router, or exposing management interfaces to the internet. A WireGuard VPN setup gives every device on your phone, laptop, or remote network a secure tunnel back into your home lab as if you were sitting in front of it. Why … Read more
If you’re managing code, infrastructure, or even personal projects, keeping everything on GitHub or GitLab eventually raises questions about access control, privacy, and vendor lock-in. A self-hosted Git server with Gitea gives you full control over repositories, users, and permissions on your own hardware. Why Gitea Instead of GitHub Gitea is a lightweight, open-source Git … Read more
If you run a Proxmox homelab, the biggest risk isn’t hardware failure — it’s data loss. One misconfigured zfs destroy or failed VM update can wipe months of work. A Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) protects every VM, container, and dataset with efficient deduplication, compression, and incremental backups. Why PBS Instead of rsync or snapshots Proxmox … Read more
If you’ve ever wanted to deploy multiple self-hosted apps without fighting dependencies, Docker Compose is the answer. Instead of installing each service manually, you define your entire stack in one YAML file and bring it up with a single command. Why Docker Compose for a Homelab Most homelab guides scatter configuration across VMs, LXC containers, … Read more