Homelabber overhauls backup, monitoring, and config management
A homelabber who started a few months earlier with a low-cost mini PC (NUC) later added a second node: a used NUC with 16GB of RAM already installed, bought for about the same price as a single new 16GB RAM stick, at a time when RAM prices had spiked. The setup then shifted from simply installing apps ad hoc on Proxmox (PVE) to a more structured, modular approach. Backup and restore steps were written down in markdown documentation.
All s and scripts across the homelab and personal devices were centralized into a . A full monitoring, diagnostics, and notification pipeline was built. Renovate was set up to automatically detect available updates for Docker images, alongside a written playbook for updating the whole — Proxmox, , NAS, and UniFi .
A separate test environment was created to try out new tools before deploying them into the main setup, and the person also began experimenting with and related smart-home devices.
Key points
- Bought a used mini PC (NUC) with 16GB RAM pre-installed for about the price of a single new RAM stick, adding it as a second node
- Documented backup and restore steps in markdown
- Centralized all homelab and personal device configs/scripts into git
- Set up Renovate to auto-detect Docker image updates, plus a written playbook for full updates
- Built a separate test environment to vet tools before production use