Substrate
Welcome to Substrate, the project for my HomeLab, an evolving space where I'm dipping my toes into the self-hosted ecosystem. Explore below to learn more about the hardware and network technology, services I'm running, and more.
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The brief
Substrate is my hands-on classroom for self-hosting. After years building software on top of someone else's infrastructure, I wanted to understand the layers underneath; the network, the metal, the services, and the glue that ties them together.
It starts small: a fiber line, one mini server, and a lot to figure out. This page grows with the lab, documenting the hardware, the wiring, the services I run, and the lessons I pick up along the way.
Current focus
Getting the network edge solid and prepping the OptiPlex for Proxmox.
See the live topologyRoadmap
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Network & edge
In progressFiber handoff, gateway, firewall, switch, and VLAN segmentation.
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Compute
Up nextProxmox on the OptiPlex; VMs and containers for everything that follows.
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Services & media
PlannedJellyfin, Minecraft, Portainer, and the *arr stack.
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Storage & backup
PlannedDedicated storage with ZFS and a 3-2-1 backup routine.
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Automation & monitoring
FutureLive health metrics, dashboards, and infrastructure as code.