Homelab
A constrained environment to practice upgrades, rollback plans, and operational hygiene before ideas touch real work.
Why it exists
- Validate automation patterns safely
- Observe failure modes directly
- Practice upgrades, rollbacks, and recovery
- Remove ideas that don’t hold up
Rule: if a service has no operational value, it doesn’t stay.
Bias: minimal moving parts beat “full-stack” setups.
What runs (representative)
Core services
- Proxmox VE hosting small VMs and containers
- DNS filtering via AdGuard Home
- Latency monitoring via SmokePing
Operational discipline
- Health endpoints and dependency checks
- Backups and restore drills
- Constrained scope: fewer services, better uptime
What I avoid
- Running services “just because I can”
- Tool sprawl without a reason
- Constant rebuilds and churn
- Complexity that can’t be removed cleanly