Recently, I ran into an interesting situation that led me to enhance my home lab setup. As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention." Let me share how I both created and solved a problem. In my previous post about hardware transcoding and file shares, I…
From the inception of my home lab I’ve had a host called ‘nas.doma.in’, however it has always just had usb drives plugged in and ran the *arr stack and my media share apps locally on the host. However, when I started looking into HW transcoding, I realised…
What's wrong with the simple stuff? When it comes to monitoring solutions, there are countless options, each one claiming to be the ultimate answer to all your infrastructure problems. Let's start with the basics: Glances and Dozzle. These tools are the reliable workhorses of monitoring simplicity.…
Running bare Operating systems—the digital playground where the magic happens and the occasional gremlin likes to wreak havoc, just for kicks. So, picture this: I'm diving headfirst into the world of operating systems, armed with nothing but a can-do attitude and a healthy dose of skepticism. My…
The delightful rollercoaster ride of hardware hunting in South Africa—a journey filled with the occasional "are you kidding me?" moment. Picture this: I'm on a quest to assemble the ultimate homelab, armed with nothing but determination and a questionable sense of direction. My initial plan?…
The joys of electricity management in a South African homelab—where every watt counts, and every blackout feels like a personal challenge from the universe. While the expense of electricity is a factor, the real kicker is the constant power draw. When you consider that a homelab, especially one comprised…
Welcome to my digital playground, where Infrastructure as Code (IAC) reigns supreme, self-signed certificates have been banished to the depths of history, and the virtualization-first approach is more than just a preference—it's a religion. Whether you're casually browsing my online footprint, a seasoned tech aficionado,…