More than a box of containers.
The lab is a home infrastructure stack for ideas that need real storage, switching, Wi-Fi, DNS, automation, and recovery paths. It is where infrastructure code leaves the laptop and has to survive normal operations.
02 // SELF HOSTED
Home infrastructure
with intent.
A public map of the home infrastructure: Unraid storage, TP-Link Omada networking, containerized services, automation, and recovery practice.
ARRAY CAPACITY
52TB
Unraid parity-protected storage
PLATFORM
UNRAID
Flexible storage + virtualization
NETWORK
OMADA
TP-Link gateway, switching, Wi-Fi, and controller visibility
StorageNetworkingContainersAutomationObservabilityRecovery
Useful first, experimental second.
Core services stay boring. Experiments get isolated, documented, and removed when they stop teaching something. The network and storage foundation matter as much as the applications running on top.
03 // ENVIRONMENT
The infrastructure underneath.
The interesting part is not the container count. It is how storage, wired switching, Wi-Fi, routing, automation, and observability interact when small changes ripple across a real home network.
Storage and compute
Unraid provides parity-protected bulk storage, Docker workloads, and room for short-lived virtual machines when an experiment needs a full operating system.
Omada routing and Wi-Fi
A TP-Link Omada stack anchors the network: ER707-M2 security gateway, EAP660 HD access point, and controller visibility for clients, VLANs, and service access.
2.5G and 10G paths
TP-Link switching provides the wired backbone, including TL-SG3210XHP-M2 and ES220GMP gear for faster links, PoE capacity, and room to test segmentation.
Backups and recovery
Backup and disaster recovery are handled with Veeam, reflecting the same VMCE-backed recovery discipline used in larger production environments.
Visibility over vibes
Performance history, logs, and service behavior are used to explain changes. Public pages describe patterns, not live state or sensitive inventory.
04 // SERVICE EXAMPLES
Common and useful workloads.
A curated public view of service categories in the lab. It intentionally avoids container names, runtime state, networks, ports, paths, and anything that would turn a website into an inventory report.
- Shown
- 10
- Scope
- Public
Development
Git hosting
Private repositories, mirrors, and project notes
Useful for testing deployment flows without depending on a third-party forge.Network
Network controller
TP-Link Omada gateway, switching, Wi-Fi, and client visibility
Built around ER707-M2 routing, TL-SG3210XHP-M2 and ES220GMP switching, and EAP660 HD wireless.Network
Local DNS
Internal naming and resolver behavior
A safe place to test split-horizon records, caching, and service naming.Productivity
Document archive
Searchable records and scanned paperwork
A practical workload for storage, indexing, backup, and retention tests.Utilities
Technical utilities
Browser-based tools for encoding, hashing, parsing, and inspection
Small services that are useful often enough to keep close.Observability
Performance history
WAN and LAN measurement over time
Trend data makes network changes easier to evaluate after the fact.Data
Relational databases
Application backing stores and migration testing
Used for realistic app experiments without exposing production data.Data
Cache and queues
Ephemeral data, task coordination, and app prototyping
Helps test failure modes that do not show up in static demos.Media
Media automation
Request, catalog, and library workflows
A common homelab workload that exercises storage, scheduling, and permissions.Recovery
Backup and disaster recovery
Veeam-backed protection, restore checks, and recovery practice
Reflects VMCE-backed backup design, verification, and recoverability discipline.