Updated on Jan 23, 2026Building a Homelab on a Budget, Part 2: Storage Buying GuidePart 2 is a storage buying guide: what SSDs and HDDs to purchase, how to choose CMR drives, when to mirror, and how to back up cheaply.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Homelab on a Budget Part 3: Network GearPart 3 is a network buying guide: what router, switch, and access point to buy, when to upgrade to 2.5GbE, and how to plan VLANs without overspending.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Building a Homelab on a Budget: Series IntroductionIntroduction to the Building a Homelab on a Budget series, with goals, scope, and a practical roadmap.
Updated on Jan 23, 20262026 Homelab Storage: NAS vs DAS vs DIYA condensed, practical guide to 2026 homelab storage strategy: NAS vs DAS vs DIY, low-power hardware ecosystems, software stacks, and build patterns - with a clear warning about unreliable consumer DAS enclosures.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Don't Build Your Blog From ScratchOne line summary: I spent too much time rebuilding what Ghost already provides, and the opportunity cost was higher than I expected. Context As of 2025 01 11, I consider this blog about 50% complete. The core works, but I am still closing gaps that a mature platform already solve
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Homelab K8s Part 5: ECK Stack (Elastic Cloud)Part 5: Deploy Elastic Stack with ECK, sizing guidance, storage class, and ILM retention.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Homelab K8s Part 1: Architecture & Control PlanePart 1: Bootstrap a 3-master/2-worker RHEL Kubespray-based cluster and define core architecture.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Cybersecurity Lab Part 2: Single-Node ProxmoxStand up a pfSense + Security Onion stack on one Proxmox node using OVS, VLANs, and port mirroring to get SIEM-grade visibility without a full cluster.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Cybersecurity Lab Part 1: Build the FoundationCompare the most common software options and commit to a clean, repeatable stack for cybersecurity study.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Homelab K8s Part 3: Rook Ceph + Local PathPart 3: Implement Rook Ceph and Local Path storage with RBD/CephFS classes and tiers.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Homelab K8s Part 4: Velero & ToolingPart 4: Day-2 tooling—Velero backups, Hubble UI, Jaeger/Kiali, Tailscale, K9s, and ops.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Homelab K8s Part 2: Cilium + Istio + ExternalDNSPart 2: Configure Cilium L2LB, Istio ingress, and ExternalDNS for bare-metal routing.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026Kubernetes on VMs vs Raspberry Pi: Is It Efficient?One line summary: I built a Proxmox VM based cluster and learned that resource overhead, storage bottlenecks, and daemonset baselines make small hardware far less efficient than it looks on paper. Context About a year ago, while I was in the military, I tried to build a Kubernete
Updated on Jan 23, 2026K8s Ops with Minecraft Part 2: Network ControllerPart 2 explains MinecraftNetwork reconciliation, velocity.toml rendering, backend resolution, and RCON addon wiring.
Updated on Jan 23, 2026K8s Ops with Minecraft Part 1: Domain ModelPart 1 consolidates the mc-platform architecture, v1beta1 CRDs, and the first MinecraftServer controller loop.
