The Sirin homelab project

The Sirin homelab project

Table of Contents

🖥️ Hardware Overview

Everything runs on a compact yet powerful mini PC, protected by a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to guard against power outages and ensure graceful shutdowns.

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8 cores / 16 threads)
  • Memory: 64GB DDR5 RAM @ 4800MHz
  • Storage:
    • 2× 4TB HDDs in RAID 1 for data-heavy apps and redundancy
    • 1× SSD for Proxmox VE OS
    • 1× SSD dedicated to VM disk storage
  • Network: 800 Mbps download / 200 Mbps upload fiber connection
  • Router: Standard consumer router, handling DHCP, NAT, and internet routing for the homelab.

This setup provides a solid balance of performance, power efficiency, and uptime protection.

🧱 Proxmox: The Foundation

At the base of the system is Proxmox VE, an open-source hypervisor. It allows me to run and manage virtual machines and containers with fine-grained control, backups, snapshots, and automation support.

🧩 VM Breakdown by Role

Each VM is purpose-built to keep workloads cleanly separated:

  • 🛰️ Network VM
    Handles internal network services like AdGuard Home, Tailscale, and custom DNS/routing.

  • 🎮 Game VM
    Hosts multiplayer game servers such as Minecraft and Palworld, optimized for performance.

  • 💾 Storage VM
    Runs apps that need high-capacity storage like Nextcloud, Immich, or backup services. Connected to the RAID 1 array.

  • ⚙️ Apps VM
    General-purpose utility server running CasaOS, which provides a GUI for easy Docker container management.

  • 💻 Dev VM
    My testing and development VM. App deployments here are managed with Dokploy.

🧪 Automation with LXC + Ansible

I run a lightweight LXC container that hosts Ansible Semaphore, a web-based frontend for running Ansible playbooks. I use this to automate deployment tasks, container updates, and infrastructure changes.

🐳 Container Management Tools

Each VM runs apps using Docker, with different management layers depending on its role:

  • CasaOS on the Apps VM for easy GUI-based deployment.
  • Dokploy on the Dev VM for Git-driven YAML deployments.
  • Portainer on the other VMs for visual container management and orchestration.

💾 Backup & Sync Strategy

To keep my data safe and recoverable:

  1. I use Proxmox disk snapshots to back up all VMs regularly.
  2. Snapshots are then synced to a remote S3 bucket, giving me offsite protection.

🔐 Why This Setup Works for Me

  • Separation of Concerns: Each VM has a clear purpose, making things easier to manage.
  • Security: App isolation through VMs and containers reduces risk.
  • Automation: Ansible + Dokploy = faster, reproducible deployments.
  • Resilience: RAID 1 storage, snapshots, and S3 backups give peace of mind.
  • Learning-Friendly: Mimics production infrastructure for learning and experimentation.

⚙️ What’s Next?

Eventually, I’d like to:

  • Add centralized logging and alerting
  • Automate snapshot rotation and cleanup
  • Explore lightweight LXC containers for smaller services
  • Maybe experiment with Kubernetes down the line

For now, the setup is stable, fun, and extremely useful.

Thanks for reading! 🚀

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