It started with a YouTube video. Someone showing off their homelab setup - multiple services running seamlessly, all managed through a sleek dashboard. The video was by Mischa Vandenburg, whose content inspired me to take on this journey (Mischa's channel). As a developer, I'm no stranger to running local services, but this was different. This was a full-fledged, professional-grade infrastructure running from home. I was hooked.
The Spark
Having an old computer gathering dust and a programming background gave me just enough confidence to take the plunge. The plan seemed straightforward: install Ubuntu Server, set up some containers, and I'd be on my way. If only I knew how deep this rabbit hole would go.
First Steps: More Like Baby Steps
My journey began with installing Ubuntu Server. The first real decision came when choosing a container orchestrator. While the tutorial I was following suggested k3s, I ended up going with microk8s. This turned out to be my first lesson in homelab building: there's rarely a "right" choice, only what works best for your needs.
The Game Changer: Cloudflare Tunnels
The real breakthrough came when I set up Cloudflare tunnels. Before this, I had vague concerns about exposing ports and securing access to my services. Cloudflare tunnels solved this elegantly - no open ports, secure access from anywhere, and proper SSL certificates out of the box.
Seeing my first service accessible through my custom domain (jmartinn.net) was a moment of pure satisfaction. It felt like crossing a threshold from "playing around with servers" to "running actual infrastructure."
GitOps: When Git Meets Ops
Enter Flux - a tool that would completely change how I managed my homelab. The concept was beautiful in its simplicity: describe your desired state in Git, and Flux ensures your cluster matches it. Push a change, and watch as your infrastructure updates itself.
This wasn't just about automation; it was about bringing software development best practices to infrastructure management:
- Version control for my entire setup
- Changes tracked through commit history
- Easy rollbacks if something goes wrong
- Documentation living alongside code
Monitoring: The Eyes and Ears
Setting up Prometheus and Grafana was like turning on the lights in a dark room. Suddenly, I could see everything:
- Real-time CPU and memory usage
- Network traffic patterns
- Service health metrics
- Even my Cloudflare tunnel statistics
But more than just collecting metrics, I learned the value of proper monitoring. It's one thing to run services; it's another to understand how they're performing.
The Inevitable Struggles
Of course, there were challenges. Plenty of them:
- Learning that hardcoding IP addresses in Kubernetes is a recipe for disaster (they change!)
- Understanding why proper secret management is crucial (commits with passwords are forever)
- Debugging network issues only to find it was a DNS problem (it's always DNS)
- Realizing that documentation isn't just nice to have - it's essential
Each issue taught me something valuable. More importantly, they taught me how to think about infrastructure problems systematically.
The Current State
Today, my homelab is more than just a collection of services. It's a complete platform:
- Automated deployments through Flux GitOps
- Secure access via Cloudflare tunnels
- Comprehensive monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana
- A custom homepage giving me a quick overview of everything
- And most importantly, room to grow
Everything is documented, version controlled, and automated. Changes are as simple as pushing to a Git repository. It feels professional because, well, it is professional - just on a smaller scale.
Looking Forward
This journey has changed how I think about infrastructure. It's shown me that concepts like GitOps, monitoring, and automation aren't just enterprise buzzwords - they're practical tools that make sense even for a home setup.
The beauty of a homelab is that it's never finished. There's always something new to learn, another service to add, or a better way to do things. My GitHub repository has a growing list of ideas and improvements, and I couldn't be more excited about implementing them.
Starting Your Own Journey
If you're considering building a homelab, here's my advice: do it. Yes, you'll face challenges. Yes, you'll spend late nights debugging weird issues. But the learning experience is invaluable.
Start small, document everything, and don't be afraid to break things. After all, that's how we learn best.
All my configurations and documentation are available on GitHub (jmartinn/homelab). Feel free to use them as inspiration for your own homelab journey. Just remember - the goal isn't to copy someone else's setup, but to build something that works for you.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke