As a first post, I thought describing my basic homelab would be a good start. I really started out with just the bare requirements to get my gaming PC working the way I wanted. I needed the PC and a good router and switch. Then, of course, I needed wifi to support the 20+ IOT devices scattered around the house. I went through a couple different routers, settling (so far) on an EdgeX and a Ubiquity AP access point. That took some time to get working, with the needed configs to support a Digital Combat Simulators (DCS) server for flight simming. But I was spinning along nicely.
Then I discovered the Raspberry Pi.
It all went downhill from there (or uphill)! I keep adding Pi servers. So far, RPi3’s and RPi4’s. But I’m planning a Pi Zero in the near future. I keep finding projects to require new Pi’s and I’m enjoying the learning experience. I’m self-hosting timhubbard.net. Right now I’m only hosting this site and a DCS server to the outside world. Mail is on the short list to add soon. So I’m currently relying on my old email address hosted through gmail.
Unfortunately, having to work for a living severely eats into my homelab time. The vast majority of my discretionary time (10pm-3am) is split between flight simming and homelab tinkering. The ratio between the two swings back and forth between 80/20 each way from time to time as I get spooled up on a learning project or get involved in a bush flight to relax.
I’ll be posting my projects on here in case what I’ve done helps someone else through the process. As I’ve worked through various projects, I’ve found great help in others’ blogs and Github entries. I hope to be able to help others in the same way on occasion.
Tim