Self-Hosted Services

Media Stack

Jellyfin

• Proficiency: Advanced

• Key Skills:

  • Server setup and configuration
  • Library management
  • Metadata fetching
  • Streaming optimization
  • User management
  • Plugin ecosystem
  • Transcoding configuration
  • Remote access setup

• Use Cases: Self-hosted media center for video streaming

• Integration: Integrated with homelab media.box VM

Calibre / CalibreWeb

• Proficiency: Intermediate

• Key Skills:

  • Ebook library management
  • Metadata editing
  • Format conversion
  • Web interface configuration
  • User access controls

• Use Cases: Self-hosted ebook management and browsing

• Integration: Media stack, S3-backed storage

File Sharing (NFS/Samba)

• Proficiency: Advanced

• Key Skills:

  • NFS setup and configuration
  • Samba/SMB configuration
  • User access control
  • Performance optimization
  • Mounting strategies

• Use Cases: Cross-platform file sharing, media library access

Organization Stack

Bitwarden

• Proficiency: Intermediate

• Key Skills:

  • Server deployment
  • User management
  • Organization management
  • Collection setup
  • Sharing and access control

• Use Cases: Self-hosted password manager for team/personal use

WikiJS

• Proficiency: Intermediate-Advanced

• Key Skills:

  • Wiki setup and configuration
  • User and group management
  • Page hierarchy
  • Markdown support
  • Search functionality
  • API usage
  • Theme customization
  • Storage backend selection

• Projects: Multiple instances (gameswiki, personal wiki)

• Use Cases: Knowledge base, documentation, collaborative notes

Wallabag

• Proficiency: Basic-Intermediate

• Key Skills:

  • Setup and configuration
  • Browser extensions
  • Article tagging
  • Read-later functionality

• Use Cases: Save and archive web articles for later reading

RSS Aggregation

Miniflux

• Lightweight RSS reader
• Feed management
• Read/unread status
• Filtering rules

Feedmixer

• RSS feed aggregation
• Feed composition

Nextcloud (Basic)

• File synchronization
• Collaborative features
• Calendar and contacts
• Task management

Development Stack

Gitea

• Proficiency: Intermediate-Advanced

• Key Skills:

  • Repository management
  • User and team management
  • SSH key setup
  • Web hooks
  • API usage
  • Backup and restore
  • Nginx reverse proxy integration

• Use Cases: Self-hosted Git service for private repositories

• Integration: dev.box VM, part of CI/CD pipeline

Jenkins

• Proficiency: Advanced

• Key Skills:

  • Job configuration
  • Pipeline scripting (Declarative/Groovy)
  • Slave/agent setup
  • Docker integration
  • Credential management
  • Build triggering
  • Artifact management

• Use Cases: Continuous integration and deployment

• Integration: dev.box VM, integrated with Gitea

GitLab CI/CD

• Proficiency: Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • .gitlab-ci.yml configuration
  • Pipeline stages
  • Docker integration
  • Artifact management
  • Cache configuration

n8n (Workflow Automation)

• Proficiency: Intermediate

• Key Skills:

  • Workflow design
  • Node configuration
  • Integration nodes
  • Conditional logic
  • Error handling

• Use Cases: Automation workflows, service integration, task automation

• Integration: dev.box VM

Monitoring & Control Stack

Grafana

• Proficiency: Advanced (See DevOps section)
• Dashboard Creation: Custom dashboards for various metrics
• Data Sources: Prometheus, InfluxDB, etc.
• Alerting: Threshold-based alerts

Prometheus

• Proficiency: Advanced (See DevOps section)
• Metrics Collection: From various services
• Scrape Configuration: Custom targets

Portainer

• Proficiency: Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • Container management UI
  • Image management
  • Network configuration
  • Volume management
  • Stack deployment

Cockpit

• Proficiency: Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • System monitoring
  • User management
  • Service management
  • Log viewing
  • Terminal access

Uptime Kuma

• Proficiency: Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • Monitor setup
  • Status page configuration
  • Notification setup
  • Uptime tracking
  • Incident reporting

Networking Services

PiHole

• Proficiency: Intermediate

• Key Skills:

  • DNS blocking configuration
  • Whitelist/blacklist management
  • Network-wide adblocking
  • Query logging
  • Statistics

• Use Cases: Network-wide ad blocking and DNS resolution

• Setup: Dual PiHole containers for redundancy

DNS Management

• DNS Setup: PowerDNS, BIND basics
• Domain Configuration: Custom domain management
• Reverse DNS: PTR records

Database Services

PostgreSQL Server

• Self-hosted PostgreSQL for applications
• User management
• Backup automation
• Monitoring

Redis

• In-memory caching
• Session storage
• Pub/Sub messaging

Specialized Services

Authentik (SSO/LDAP)

• Proficiency: Basic (Planned)

• Key Skills:

  • Authentication provider setup
  • LDAP/OIDC configuration
  • Application integration
  • User management

• Use Cases: Centralized authentication for multiple services

• Planning: Full homelab SSO integration

Home Assistant

• Proficiency: Basic-Intermediate

• Key Skills:

  • Smart device integration
  • Automation rules
  • UI customization
  • Script creation

• Use Cases: Home automation, smart device management

Minecraft Server

• Proficiency: Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • Server configuration
  • Plugin management
  • World backup
  • Performance tuning
  • Player management

Kestra (Workflow Orchestration)

• Proficiency: Basic (Learning)
• Key Skills:
  • Workflow design
  • Task orchestration
  • Scheduling

Paperless-ngx

• Proficiency: Basic-Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • Document scanning
  • OCR configuration
  • Organization and tagging
  • Search functionality

Web Servers & Proxies

Nginx

• Static file serving
• Reverse proxy configuration
• Load balancing
• SSL/TLS termination

Traefik

• Dynamic service discovery
• Reverse proxy routing
• SSL/TLS automation
• Middleware configuration

Email Services (Mail Infrastructure)

Mail Setup Basics

• SMTP configuration
• Mail forwarding
• Spam filtering basics

Storage Services

S3-Compatible Services

• Wasabi S3: Hot storage for media
• Minio: Self-hosted S3-compatible storage

NFS/Samba

• Network file sharing
• Performance optimization

Deployment & Container Management

Docker Compose for Services

• Multi-service coordination
• Health checks
• Restart policies
• Logging configuration

Health Checks & Monitoring

• Service health endpoints
• Restart policies
• Dependency management

Integration & Automation

Service Integration

• API-based integrations
• Webhook usage
• Service-to-service communication

Configuration Management

• Environment-based configuration
• Secrets management
• Dynamic configuration

Best Practices

• Regular backups of all services
• Clear documentation
• User access control
• Update management
• Security hardening
• Monitoring integration
• Disaster recovery planning
• Performance optimization
• Service interdependency planning

Administration Skills

• Troubleshooting common issues
• Log review and analysis
• Performance optimization
• Capacity planning
• User support and training
• Documentation maintenance