HomeLab Starter
Page 5 of 11
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IPVS and Keepalived for High Availability in Your Homelab
Set up high availability services with Keepalived and IPVS in your homelab. Covers VRRP virtual IP failover, Linux load balancing with IPVS, health checks, and practical HA configurations for DNS, reverse proxies, and databases.
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Pi-KVM: Affordable BIOS-Level Remote Management for Your Homelab
Build or buy a Pi-KVM for full remote KVM access to any machine — BIOS control, virtual media, keyboard and mouse — without paying for enterprise IPMI licenses. Covers hardware options, setup, networking, and practical use cases.
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Building a Budget Homelab Under $300: A Practical Guide
How to plan and build a functional homelab for under $300. Covers choosing between mini PCs, used enterprise hardware, and Raspberry Pis, with sourcing tips, common mistakes, and a clear upgrade path.
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Incus for Your Homelab: System Containers and VMs Without the Drama
Getting started with Incus, the community-driven LXD fork, for running system containers and virtual machines in your homelab. Installation, networking, storage, and practical migration tips.
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MergerFS + SnapRAID: Flexible Union Storage for Your Homelab
Build a flexible, expandable storage pool with MergerFS and SnapRAID. Mix-and-match drives with parity protection for homelab media and backups.
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PostgreSQL Replication and High Availability in Your Homelab
Set up PostgreSQL streaming replication, Patroni for automatic failover, and pgBouncer for connection pooling. A practical guide to HA Postgres in your homelab.
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Homelab Prometheus and Node Exporter Setup
Deploy Prometheus and node_exporter across your homelab for comprehensive infrastructure monitoring. Covers native installation, PromQL fundamentals, recording rules, alerting rules, and storage retention management.
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Network Flow Monitoring with ntopng and NetFlow
Set up network flow monitoring in your homelab with ntopng, NetFlow, and sFlow. Covers switch configuration, traffic analysis, alerting, and bandwidth forensics.
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Using Caddy as a Reverse Proxy in Your Homelab
Set up Caddy as your homelab reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS, Caddyfile configuration, Docker integration, wildcard certificates via DNS challenge, and practical comparisons with Traefik and Nginx Proxy Manager.
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2.5GbE Networking for Homelabs: The Practical Decision Guide
A focused guide to deciding whether 2.5GbE networking is right for your homelab, with performance benchmarks, gear recommendations, and hands-on testing methodology.
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Backup Testing and Recovery Drills for Your Homelab
Learn how to verify your homelab backups actually work with automated restore testing, checksumming, scheduled drills, and documented recovery procedures.
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Using dnsmasq for Homelab DNS and DHCP
Set up dnsmasq as a lightweight DNS and DHCP server for your homelab. Covers local DNS resolution, static leases, split-horizon DNS, and integration with Pi-hole and existing routers.
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Practical Btrfs Snapshots for Homelab Backups and Rollbacks
Use Btrfs snapshots to protect your homelab data. Covers subvolume layout, manual and automated snapshots with snapper, boot rollbacks, incremental offsite backups with btrfs send, and common pitfalls.
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Proxmox Backup Server: Complete Setup Guide for Homelab VM and Container Backups
Set up Proxmox Backup Server to back up your VMs and containers with deduplication, encryption, and scheduled backup jobs. Covers installation, datastore configuration, PVE integration, and remote sync.
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Self-Hosted Secret Management with HashiCorp Vault
Deploy HashiCorp Vault in your homelab for centralized secret management. Covers Docker setup, KV secrets, PKI certificates, AppRole auth, and service integration.
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MQTT for IoT and Home Automation in Your Homelab
Set up an MQTT broker with Mosquitto for IoT devices and home automation. Covers installation, security, Home Assistant integration, and sensor data.
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NVMe vs SATA SSDs for Your Homelab: A Practical Comparison
When does NVMe actually matter over SATA in a homelab? Real benchmarks and practical guidance for VM storage, containers, NAS builds, and database workloads.
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Intel N100 Mini PC Builds: The Best Value Homelab Servers in 2026
Build a homelab around Intel N100 mini PCs with recommended models, benchmarks, RAM and storage tips, and use cases from Proxmox to NAS.
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Running Unbound as a Recursive DNS Resolver in Your Homelab
Set up Unbound as a recursive DNS resolver in Docker, configure DNSSEC validation, and integrate with Pi-hole or AdGuard Home.
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Homelab Firewall Rules Best Practices
Learn how to design firewall rules for a segmented homelab network. Covers default deny policies, VLAN-based zone design, logging strategies, and common rule patterns for LAN, DMZ, IoT, and management networks.