What I Run on My Homelab

I run most of my digital life from a single server at home. Photos, passwords, media, personal finance — it all lives at my place instead of in someone else’s data center. The reasons are control and cost. I’d rather own my data than rent it from Google, Apple, or whoever else. And I’m tired of subscriptions — iCloud, Netflix, password managers, cloud storage. Homelabbing lets me replace most of that with a one-time setup plus a bit of maintenance.

Here’s how it’s set up.

Hardware

The server is a PC rebuilt from old parts. I bought a NAS-style case so it has multiple drive bays in a compact form factor. Total cost was low, mostly parts I already had. It sits in a corner and runs 24/7. I forget it’s there most of the time.

Infrastructure

Everything runs on Proxmox. One host, LXC containers for each service, a couple VMs. WireGuard runs on the host — when I’m away I VPN in and hit the same domains. Nothing’s exposed to the internet; local network or VPN only. Nginx Proxy Manager handles the reverse proxy so I type immich.local or jellyfin.local instead of remembering ports. A UPS keeps it running through power blips — it’s saved me a couple times.

For backups, Proxmox Backup Server handles the stack. For the stuff I care about most — photos, finance, configs — I follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, two storage types, one off-site. Primary on the server, second on another drive, third somewhere else. A friend’s place, safe deposit box, or encrypted cloud.

Prometheus and Grafana for metrics. When something breaks, I can usually see why before I start guessing.

Services

Photos go to Immich — my phone backs up automatically, no iCloud. Passwords in Vaultwarden — it syncs over VPN when I’m away.

Firefly III for personal finance. Homebox for inventory, which is useful when I need to find that cable I swore I had.

Media: Jellyfin plus the *arr stack. I add something I want to watch, a few hours later it’s there. qBittorrent, FlareSolverr, MeTube, and Bazarr handle the rest. It was a rabbit hole to set up, but now I rarely touch it.

Privacy layer: AdGuard for network-wide ad blocking. SearXNG when I don’t want to hit Google directly. RedLib for Reddit without the tracking.

Home Assistant for smart home stuff — lights, sensors, automations. Stirling-PDF when I need to merge or split a PDF without uploading to some random site.

What I’ve learned

Running this has made me think about what actually matters with AI. Everyone can chat with a model now. But the skill I’m trying to build is managing it — running models, allocating compute, orchestrating systems that work for you. The homelab is where I practice that. Containers, VMs, networking, backups — it’s all resource management.

I’ve been thinking about the one-person company: someone who can run everything because they know how to manage AI, infrastructure, and their own stack.

What’s next

I’m looking at running an AI agent locally — a model I can experiment with without sending everything to the cloud. Proxmox is perfect for this. Spin up a dedicated VM or container, give it its own resources — if something goes wrong, it’s isolated. Won’t mess with the rest.

Sometimes something breaks and I spend an evening fixing it. Sometimes I add a service and realize I didn’t need it. I’m okay with that. A few hours a month is cheaper than the subscriptions. I enjoy the tinkering, I learn from it, and it’s a practical skill that pays off. Plus I get to keep my data.

If you’re curious about homelabbing, start with one thing — a password manager or photo backup. You don’t need new hardware — an old PC or laptop works fine.