What this is
The Homelab is my operational infrastructure lab: the place where I run and rebuild virtualization, storage, networking, backup, self-hosted service, and local AI infrastructure work. It is the environment I operate, break, recover, document, and use to test infrastructure, services, and ideas.
The current lab includes Proxmox VE virtualization, Linux VMs and containers, TrueNAS Scale and Synology based networked storage, dedicated Docker host VM, layered segmented networking at an abstract level, Proxmox Backup Server, and service operation across a mix of stable systems, test systemd and active rebuild (physical to virtual migration) work.
Why it exists
As a kid it was game servers and Plex. As an adult it became personal services, agency, and learning. As a professional it is proof of concept, dev workflow testing, and something to point at when words need evidence.
The hardware changes constantly – Theseus’s ship, one component at a time – but the purpose stays the same: build it yourself, for yourself, and learn something every time it breaks.
Implementation layer
homelab-iac serves as the private implementation and recovery layer inside
the Homelab. I use it to turn specifications and operational decisions into
reviewed infrastructure artifacts while keeping the private repository,
inventories, access methods, and topology out of the public site.
The useful public story is the workflow rather than the inventory. The repository holds OpenTofu declarations and virtualization modules, Ansible roles and playbooks, a Packer image/template lane, sanitized service reconstruction bundles, validators and tests, ADRs, runbooks, status records, command-packet workflows, and closeout evidence. Those artifacts support repeatable change, but live infrastructure mutation remains human-governed.
As I transition from manual configuration to a DevOps approach, I build upon Homelab-IAC, and create project or service specific repositories, that are then deployed across the lab’s hosting VM. PBS has jobs configured to backup the lab’s VM and hosted data, and push it to an offsite backup. IaC is mirrored to a private external git host. The overall goal of this layering is resiliency, interoperability, and scalability.
Current evidence
The lab currently supports operating, troubleshooting, documenting, and iterating on self-hosted infrastructure.
The current state of the lab as a whole includes source-control, recovery, protected Git behavior, application restore work, Git based project and source management via a self hosted instance of Forgejo, webhook based notification plane for each infrastructure layer, management of the aforementioned lab layers, and its array of hosted services.
Next work
The next layer is tightening the rebuild path: carrying approved specifications
into homelab-iac, validating recovery and service reconstruction flows,
improving backup and restore discipline, and continuing to separate live
authority from proposal and validation workflows.
Phred remains independently evidenced AI infrastructure work. The Homelab is the broader operating environment around it, and future Phred rebuild work will need its own validation before I present it as managed infrastructure.