Guides

Step-by-step walkthroughs for building and maintaining your own infrastructure.

These guides are written to be complete: they start from a clean install, explain why each step is necessary, and include the commands you actually need to run. We test everything against Debian stable and note where Ubuntu LTS differs. Configuration files are given in full, not as fragments that leave you guessing at the surrounding context.

If a guide is out of date or contains an error, please let us know via the contact page. We revise and update as distributions change and note every significant revision at the top of the affected page.

Getting started

Foundations

Setting Up a Homelab from Scratch

Hardware selection, network topology planning, OS install, and initial hardening for a first homelab node.

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Networking

DNS

Self-Hosted DNS with Unbound and Pi-hole

Run your own recursive resolver with DNSSEC validation and network-wide ad filtering.

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VPN

WireGuard VPN Server and Multi-peer Configs

Set up a WireGuard server on Debian or Ubuntu, configure multiple clients, and enable split-tunneling for road-warrior use.

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Services and storage

Containers

Self-Hosted Services with Docker Compose

Practical patterns for running multiple services with proper isolation, persistent volumes, and reverse proxy configuration.

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Backups

3-2-1 Backups with restic and borgbackup

Implement an automated backup strategy that covers local, off-site, and tested restore procedures.

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