Homelab

Homelab

2026 Update:

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A lot has changed since 2022 - new hardware, a new virtualisation platform, a fully declarative Kubernetes stack, and everything managed as code. Full write-up: Homelab 2026: Rebuilding the Stack from Bare Metal Up

Hardware & Virtualisation

  • New Server: Lenovo SR655 with a 3rd-gen AMD EPYC (64 cores) and 256GB RAM, replacing the HPE DL360 G9. Single-socket design eliminates cross-NUMA latency; significant improvement across all workloads.
  • Proxmox VE: Replaced ESXi on both nodes following VMware’s licensing changes. Running ZFS for storage - transparent compression, checksumming, and no hardware RAID controller required.

Kubernetes

  • Talos Linux: Migrated Kubernetes nodes from Ubuntu + kubeadm to Talos - a minimal, immutable, SSH-less OS managed entirely through a declarative API. Eliminated an entire class of configuration drift and kernel upgrade fragility.
  • Cilium + eBPF: Replaced kube-proxy and Flannel with Cilium as the CNI. eBPF-based datapath does O(1) service lookups via kernel hash maps, removing the IPTables rule-chain overhead that grows linearly with service count.
  • BGP peering: Cilium’s BGP control plane peers directly with VyOS, advertising LoadBalancer IPs across the network. No MetalLB required; node failure triggers automatic route withdrawal and instant failover.
  • GitOps with ArgoCD: All workloads managed via Helm charts and ArgoCD. Cluster state is fully reproducible from Git - blowing up a namespace and reconciling back takes minutes.
  • Service consolidation: Home automation, media, game servers, dev tooling, and infrastructure services all running on Kubernetes, managed uniformly via Helm and ArgoCD.

Routing & Automation

  • VyOS: Replaced OPNsense. Ansible-native CLI, Linux-based forwarding plane, and measurably lower CPU utilisation (20–30% on OPNsense → low single digits on VyOS).
  • Full IaC: Packer builds golden VM images, Terraform provisions VMs and bootstraps the Talos cluster, Ansible handles post-provision config and VyOS management. Everything is version-controlled and reproducible.

Changelog - 2023-2026

Added to JD Site

  • JD-proxmox-01 (LENOVO-SR655 - Proxmox VE 9.1.4)
  • JS-VyOS-01 (VyOS 1.5 rolling)
  • talos-cp-01 (Talos OS)
  • talos-worker-01 (Talos OS)
  • talos-worker-02 (Talos OS)
  • talos-worker-03 (Talos OS)
  • USW-Enterprise-24-PoE (Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Enterprise 24 PoE)
  • USW-Enterprise-8-PoE (Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Enterprise 8 PoE)
  • 2x Unifi-7-Pro-AP (Ubiquiti UniFi 7 Pro Access Point)
  • 3x Unifi G5 Flex Camera
  • 1x Unifi G6 Turrent Camera
  • Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus

Added to LINDS Site

  • LINDS-proxmox-01 (Dell T630 - Proxmox VE 9.1.4)
  • LINDS-VyOS-01 (VyOS 1.5 rolling)
  • talos-linds-worker-01 (Talos OS)
  • talos-linds-worker-02 (Talos OS)
  • 2x Unifi-6-AP (Ubiquiti UniFi 6 Access Point)
  • 3x Unifi G5 Flex Camera
  • Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus

2022 Half Year Update:

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There is a number of changes here, upgraded server, Dell R710 -> Dell T630, a new physical server, HPE DL360 G9, in a new location.

Changelog - 2022 H2

Added >

  • LINDS-OPNSense-01 (OPNSense 22.1)
  • HPE OfficeConnect 1920s
  • LINDS-ESXi-02 (Dell T630)
  • JD-ESXi-01 (HPE DL360 G9)
  • > JD-DC-01 (Windows Server 2019)
  • > JD-Dev-01 (CentOS 9 Stream)
  • > JD-Zabbix-01 (CentOS 8 Stream)
  • > JD-Plex-01 (CentOS 9 Stream)
  • > JD-Docker-01 (CentOS 9 Stream)
  • > JD-Torrent-01 (CentOS 8 Stream)
  • > JD-VSCA-01 (vSphere Photon OS)
  • > JD-Docker-01 (CentOS 9 Stream)
  • > JD-OPNSense-01 (OPNSense 22.1)
  • > JD-GitLab-01 (CentOS 8 Stream)
  • > JD-GitLab-R01 (CentOS 8 Stream)
  • > KUBE-ADM (CentOS 8 Stream)
  • > KUBE-01 (CentOS 8 Stream)
  • > KUBE-02 (CentOS 8 Stream)

Removed <

  • < LINDS-PiHole
  • < LINDS-ERx (UBIQUITI EDGEROUTER X)
  • < LINDS-Plex (Windows Server 2019)
  • < LINDS-Veeam (Windows Server 2019)
  • < LINDS-Web (Windows Server 2019)
  • < LINDS-MineOS (Turnkey MineOS)
  • < Dell PowerConnect 6248
  • < LINDS-VSCA (vSphere Photon OS)

2020 Update:

Virtual Machines

homelab

LINDS-DC - Domain Controller, DNS, File Shares, Certificate Authority - Server 2016
LINDS-DC2 - Domain Controller, DNS, Windows Deployment Services - Server 2019
LINDS-PLEX - Plex Server - Server 2019
LINDS-PiHole - DNS, Adblocking - CentOS 7
LINDS-Backup - Backblaze client to backup the 12TB stored on LINDS-DC - Windows 10
LINDS-MineOS - 4 Minecraft servers- Turnkey Linux
LINDS-WEB - IIS (hosting this website) - Server 2019
LINDS-Docker - Docker host that runs around 20 containers, which include UniFi controller, UNMS, Monolithic LanCache, PostgreSQL server - Red Hat Enterprise Linux
LINDS-VEEAM - Veeam server, backups all servers except LINDS-DC due to RDM (Raw Device Mapping) being utilised
VCSA - vCenter Server Appliance 6.7