My homelab

My Daily Companions

I strive to use resources sustainably and consciously, opting to repair rather than replace items whenever possible. This philosophy is reflected in the list of my daily companions. The only exception is my iPhone, which is provided by my employer and replaced approximately every three years.

  • Apple iPhone XR (6.1", 2018), 128 GB
  • Apple iPad Pro (10.5", 2017), 256 GB
  • Apple MacBook Pro (2021), M1 Pro, 1 TB, 16 GB RAM
  • Samsung 4K Display
  • Logitech MX Keys for Mac
  • Logitech MX Master 3 for Mac

As a computer scientist, I don't just use my PC for browsing the web or writing letters only. I've been self-hosting smaller services, such as my password manager, for several years to keep my data secure. Last autumn, I took a significant step by replacing all possible services with self-hosted alternatives, including my own social media services and mail server.

Proxmox Cluster

Below you will find a few photos of my old “home lab” (29.05.2024). As you can see, there was still room for improvement in terms of professionalization at the time.

my grown homelab within an IKEA sideboard

In the meantime (28.07.2024) something has happened, and the current status is as follows.

nearly current state

Hardware (last update: 18.11.2024)

  • 1x Lenovo ThinkCentre M920Q Tiny, Intel i5-8500T CPU, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD storage
  • 1x Lenovo ThinkCentre M920Q Tiny, Intel i5-8500T CPU, 40 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD storage
  • 1x Lenovo ThinkCentre M920Q Tiny, Intel i5-8500T CPU, 16 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD storage
  • 2x Beelink EQ12, Intel N100 CPU, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD storage
  • 1x Dell Wyse 5070, Intel J4105, 16 GB RAM, 256GB SSD

Software (last update: 18.11.2024)

Proxmox Backup Server

“Hardware”

  • LXC Container with a mounted NFS shared storage from my Synology NAS

Software

Monitoring Dashboard

Hardware

  • 1x Venoen Mini PC, Intel N100 CPU, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD storage
  • 1x Fujitsu B24-8 TS 24" Display (vertical orientation)

Software

Synology DS223J 2 Bay Desktop NAS

Storage

  • 2x 12 TB Seagate Enterprise NAS HDD

Purpose

  • Backup storage for Proxmox Cluster applications
  • Time Machine server for all Mac computers in our home

External Hosts

1. Netcup

While I love self-hosting applications, I prefer to ensure reliability for communication services. Thus, I host my mail server on a VPS in Netcups data center in Nuremberg.

Hardware

  • VPS 1000 ARM G11, 6 vCore, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage

Software

  • Dockerized Mailcow (mail server, web mailer, contacts & calendar)

2. Oracle

Hardware

  • Oracle Standard A1.Flex, 4 OCPU, 24 GB RAM, 200 GB storage

Software

Currently more or less my playground for testing new software or automation solutions.

Network

Additional Stuff