Homelab

My homelab is where I learn by doing. What started as a single server has grown into a full rack of enterprise-grade hardware running everything from game servers to CI/CD pipelines. It’s my playground for testing new technologies and architectural patterns before I need them in production.

What’s Running:

• Web apps I’ve built: Monopoly Simulator, YT Clips
• Home Assistant for local home automation
• Game servers for friends and family
• Media and chat servers
• File backups
• Family tree software
• Development tools
• Local AI
• Document management
• Gitea for git hosting and CI/CD
• Mealie for recipe management (which I made a cookbook generator for)
• Wishlist management for family gift-giving
• An OAuth IDP for family access to everything
• Whatever else I’m experimenting with at the moment

Why I Do This: There’s no substitute for hands-on experience. Reading about Kubernetes is one thing; actually running it, breaking it, and fixing it is how you really learn. The skills I develop here—virtualization, containerization, networking, security—translate directly to production systems. Plus, it’s a lot more fun than just reading documentation.

I’ve even given talks at developer conferences about why more engineers should build homelabs. It’s one of the best investments you can make in your technical growth.