The homelab started two years ago with a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant. Today I have a mini PC running Proxmox, 12 self-hosted services, and a fully automated house. Here’s the tour.
The hardware
Main server: Minisforum MS-01
- Intel Core i9-12900H
- 64 GB DDR5
- 2× 2TB NVMe (ZFS mirror)
Network:
- Router: UniFi Dream Machine SE
- Switches: 2× UniFi USW-Lite-8-PoE
- APs: 2× UniFi U6-LR
NAS Storage:
- TrueNAS Scale on a Proxmox VM
- 4× 4TB in RAIDZ1
The software stack
Proxmox as the foundation
Everything runs on Proxmox VE. Split between:
- VMs: For full operating systems (TrueNAS, Windows for remote gaming)
- LXC Containers: For lightweight Linux services (most of my apps)
- HAOS as a VM: Home Assistant needs its own VM for proper USB passthrough
The self-hosted services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Home Assistant | Home automation |
| Vaultwarden | Password manager |
| Nextcloud | Storage and calendars |
| Jellyfin | Media streaming |
| Paperless-ngx | Document management |
| Immich | Photo backup |
| Grafana + InfluxDB | Monitoring and metrics |
| Traefik | Reverse proxy |
| Authentik | SSO and authentication |
External access with Cloudflare Tunnel
I don’t open ports on the router. All external access goes through Cloudflare Tunnel, which establishes an outbound encrypted connection from my server to Cloudflare’s edge nodes.
# cloudflared config
tunnel: my-tunnel-id
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/credentials.json
ingress:
- hostname: ha.ferllini.com
service: http://homeassistant:8123
- hostname: cloud.ferllini.com
service: http://nextcloud:443
originRequest:
noTLSVerify: true
- service: http_status:404Centralized authentication with Authentik
All external services are behind Authentik for SSO. One login, centralized policies, and mandatory 2FA for everything.
Home Automation
42 devices in Home Assistant. The mix:
- Zigbee: Aqara devices (sensors, switches)
- WiFi: Sonoff plugs with ESPHome (custom firmware)
- Matter: Some newer devices
- Integrations: Bambu Lab P2S, UniFi, Plex, and more
An automation I love
# When I arrive home
alias: "Arrival home"
trigger:
- platform: zone
entity_id: person.fran
zone: zone.home
event: enter
action:
- service: light.turn_on
target:
area_id: living_room
data:
brightness_pct: 80
- service: climate.set_hvac_mode
entity_id: climate.ac_living_room
data:
hvac_mode: cool
- service: notify.telegram
data:
message: "Welcome home 🏠"Lessons learned
1. Backups first, always. I lost data once due to no VM backup. Now I follow 3-2-1: 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite (Backblaze B2).
2. Document everything. I have an Obsidian Vault with docs for each service — how it’s configured and why. A lifesaver when something breaks at 2am.
3. Don’t overcomplicate what works. I was tempted to migrate to Kubernetes. I didn’t. Docker Compose + Proxmox LXC is perfectly fine at homelab scale.
4. Monitoring from day one. Grafana + Prometheus from the start. Knowing the server was at 90% RAM saved me from an outage.
Where to start?
If you’re just beginning, my recommendation:
- A Raspberry Pi 5 or cheap mini PC
- Home Assistant OS
- Vaultwarden for passwords
- Nextcloud for files
That gives you real value without complexity. You can add more later.
Questions about a specific service? Reach out — happy to help.