📖 Overview
I maintain a personal homelab to host essential services, experiment with different Linux distributions, and provide dedicated hosting for gaming and development projects. This lab serves as my primary environment for learning system administration and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
I am currently in the process of migrating my core services from a traditional Debian-based setup to a fully reproducible NixOS environment to ensure high availability and easier configuration management.
🖥️ The Fleet
I follow a Greek-letter naming convention for my nodes:
| Name | Hardware | OS | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha | Dell Desktop | Linux Mint | Current Primary: Nextcloud, Minecraft & Factorio servers, Coding workspace. |
| Beta | HP G60 Laptop | NixOS | Testing Bed: Used for experimenting with Nix flakes and functional package management. |
| Gamma | Lenovo 720q Tiny | NixOS | Incoming Primary: Future host for all primary services and containerized workloads. |
🚀 Project Goals
- Centralize Services: Move high-uptime services (Nextcloud and Game Servers) from the older Dell hardware to the more efficient Lenovo Tiny.
- Implement Reproducibility: Transition from manual configuration on Mint to declarative configurations on NixOS. This allows me to rebuild my entire server environment from a single configuration file.
- Game Server Optimization: Maintain high-performance instances for Minecraft and Factorio with automated backups and resource monitoring.
🛠️ Tech Stack & Services
- OS: NixOS (Transitioning to a Flake-based setup).
- Cloud Storage: Nextcloud for personal data sovereignty and file syncing.
- Gaming: Dedicated Linux binaries for Factorio and Paper/Fabric for Minecraft.
- Virtualization/Containers: Exploring Docker and Podman for service isolation on Gamma.