Work

Personal Homelab: Self-Hosted Infrastructure Platform

DevOps
Networking
Docker
Security

A production-grade homelab I run as a personal DevOps platform: edge firewalling, containerized services, VPN, and automated TLS.

Network topology diagram of a self-hosted homelab

Overview

A self-hosted infrastructure platform I designed, built, and operate as my personal DevOps lab from the firewall up to deployment.

Edge & Perimeter

  • OPNsense firewall as daily driver (3+ years) with Suricata IDS/IPS and ZenArmor application filtering.
  • WireGuard VPN termination and Cloudflare-tunneled inbound access.

Compute & Services

  • Multi-host Docker Compose topology across Debian and Alpine.
  • Caddy reverse proxy fronting all internal services with automated ACME/Let’s Encrypt certificates.
  • Encrypted DNS resolvers, a media stack, and rclone-backed cloud storage.

Custom Builds

  • Compiled OpenWRT from source for Raspberry Pi-class edge nodes.
  • Introductory Coreboot work on supported hardware.

What I Learned

  • The importance of networking and security in implementation, regardless of the size of a project.
  • The dangers of not having a separate development environment, and how this might upset potential clients.
  • The costs associated with relying more on potential rather than practicality.