SYSTEM ONLINENEWMAIN · UNRAID 7.1.2pinging services…

Infrastructure · Self-hosted

The rack that teaches me
the cloud.

My homelab is a living sandbox for cloud engineering, networking and software design. It is the supplemental layer that makes my hardware projects actually work, three nodes quietly running the services I depend on, and the place I break things on purpose to learn how they really work.

3nodes

38services live

24TBusable storage

4VLANs

Explore the system Browse the stack

Why it exists

A sandbox that feeds the hardware.

I build hardware. Rovers, messengers, smart-home rigs. None of it is interesting until it can talk to something. The homelab is where I learn the other half of the craft: the networking, the cloud patterns and the software design that turn a circuit board into a product that works from anywhere.

Cloud engineering

Containers, reverse proxies, storage tiers and backups. Running real services teaches the trade-offs that tutorials skip.

Networking

VLAN segmentation, RADIUS, WPA3-Enterprise and a fleet of UniFi gear. Enterprise patterns, at apartment scale.

Software design

Wiring services together, automating the boring parts, and deploying my own vibe-coded apps to a VM I can SSH into.

Project backbone

coturn and MQTT here are what let Project June stream over cellular and what school ESP32 rigs phone home to.

The hardware

Three machines, three jobs.

Online 24/7

NewMain

Primary node

Storage + compute

The workhorse. Unraid drives a parity-protected array for bulk data plus a ZFS NVMe mirror for anything that needs speed, and it hosts the bulk of the Docker stack. Almost everything you reach on the network ends up here.

OS: Unraid 7.1.2
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X · 16C/32T
Memory: 64 GB DDR4
GPU: GTX 1070 8 GB
Array: 2 parity + 3 data
Fast pool: 2× 2TB NVMe · ZFS mirror

Open the deep dive

Online 24/7

CaCa

Cluster node · always on

Proxmox cluster

A tiny ThinkCentre that used to be my main server. It now runs the always on half of a Proxmox cluster, booting from its own 1TB SSD and hosting the CasaOS and Debian virtual machines that used to live on bare metal.

OS: Proxmox VE
CPU: Core i7-6700T
Memory: 32 GB DDR4
Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD · boot + VMs
Boot: Local NVMe SSD
Hosts: CasaOS + Debian VMs

Open the deep dive

Wakes on demand

Adell

PXE node · on demand

Proxmox PXE cluster

The heavy iron. Twenty Xeon cores and 128 GB of RAM, joined to the same PXE cluster as CaCa. It is hungry, so it stays asleep and only wakes through UpSnap when a job actually needs the muscle.

OS: Proxmox VE
CPU: 2× Xeon E5-2470 v2 · 20C
Memory: 128 GB DDR3
Storage: Perc H710P · IT mode
Power: Wake-on-LAN only

Open the deep dive

The Chiambucket homelab rack, fully assembled

The real thing

All three, in one cabinet.

No render, no diagram. This is the actual rack in the corner of my room: the patch panel and its blue runs up top, the servers behind the mesh door, quietly humming through whatever I throw at them.

How it all connects

The system map.

Everything routes through one segmented UniFi network. Tap any node to read its job, or pick a VLAN to light up its segment and watch the rest of the network fall back.

Hover or tap a VLAN to trace its segment

core network

UDM Pro

gateway · firewall · RADIUS

The UniFi Dream Machine Pro is the brain: gateway, firewall, controller and RADIUS server. It enforces which VLAN can talk to which, and authenticates the WPA3-Enterprise network.

Data & virtualization

Where the bytes live.

Two tiers of storage

Bulk arrayUnraid · parity protected

PPDDD

Two parity plus three data drives. It holds the heavy, cold data: PXE backups, long-term archives and media. Survives a two-drive failure without losing a byte.

Fast poolZFS NVMe mirror

NVMeNVMe

Two 2TB NVMe drives mirrored in ZFS. Docker app-data, VM disks and the PXE ISO library all run from here, where latency matters.

Reached over

SFTPSMB · localNFS · Linux + macOS

The Proxmox cluster

CaCa and Adell form one Proxmox cluster. CaCa boots from its own 1TB SSD and stays on around the clock, while Adell network-boots with no local OS drive and wakes only when something needs its cores.

claudeplaygroundAn Ubuntu VM where I deploy my vibe-coded apps. I let Claude SSH straight in to ship them.
CasaOS + DebianThe VMs that used to run on bare metal, now virtualized in the cluster.
Wake-on-LANUpSnap powers Adell up on demand, so the heavy node only draws power when it earns it.

The software

The stack.

current build

OpenClaw

My current build. An agentic workflow runner I am wiring up so agents can drive real tasks against the lab, the rack teaching itself to run itself. Very much under construction.

In developmentNewMain

self-hosted

Nginx Proxy Manager

The front door. Every container points here. NPM terminates SSL and routes each chiambucket.com subdomain to the right service, now hardened with a CrowdSec bouncer that auto bans hostile traffic.

Very highNewMain

self-hosted

Tailscale

A WireGuard mesh that drops every device onto one private network. It is how I SSH home, edit configs, and get a free personal VPN from anywhere.

HighNewMain

self-hosted

Shadowsocks

A proxy that disguises my traffic as ordinary HTTPS to the server, so a locked down school network still lets me reach the things I need.

HighNewMain

self-hosted

Twingate

A zero trust connector kept around as one more fallback path home, alongside Teleport, WireGuard, and Unraid Connect.

LightNewMain

self-hosted

Pi-hole

Network wide ad and tracker blocking at the DNS layer. Mostly a troubleshooting tool now, but a satisfying one when it kicks in.

On demandNewMain

Always reachable

Six roads home.

If one tunnel breaks I am never locked out. Six independent paths all lead back to the rack, and keeping each one alive is half the fun, half the lesson.

Tailscale

Mesh VPNPrimary

A WireGuard mesh and my everyday path in, one identity across every device.

WireGuard

Raw tunnel

A bare encrypted tunnel straight into the network when I want no middleman.

UniFi Teleport

Built-in VPN

A one tap VPN issued straight from the UDM Pro, with no client to configure.

Twingate

Zero trust

Identity-checked access that leaves no inbound ports open to the internet.

Shadowsocks

Proxy

HTTPS-shaped traffic that slips home past locked-down school and office Wi-Fi.

Unraid Connect

Vendor link

A direct line to the Unraid box itself, straight from my account dashboard.

NewMain

always reachable

Every road ends here. Drop any single path and five others still reach the rack.

It is never really finished.

There is always one more container to break, one more route to harden. Right now I am wiring up OpenClaw so agents can drive the lab themselves.

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