Homelab

A fully automated, themed homelab built with Proxmox, Terraform, and Docker.

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• 🔧 System Configuration
• 🔑 SSH Key & Certificate Generation
• 🌐 Proxy Configuration (Traefik)
• 📁 NFS Configuration
  • Optional - Share Storage
  • 1. Install NFS Server
  • 2. Add NFS Storage to Proxmox
• 🧱 Base VMs with Packer
• 🚀 VM Deployment with Terraform
• ⚙️ Configuration
  • Transmission and OpenVPN
  • Home Assistant
  • Windows Share with Rclone
• 🔗 References

This homelab infrastructure is centered on Proxmox VE using Terraform and Docker to provision VMs and Dockers (names based in the Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion). Each VM serves a specific purpose like media, storage, or network automation.

🔧 System Configuration

Refer to the table below for an at-a-glance view of each configured and planned virtual machine and its corresponding role.

These steps are tailored specifically to my homelab infrastructure. Some assumptions are made (like Proxmox being pre-installed), and tools are selected based on personal preference and workflow. Your configuration may vary depending on your hardware, network design, and requirements.

• Proxmox VE is already installed and fully configured in this environment.
• Create new SSH Key for setup conectivity.
• Use Proxmox VE Helper Scripts for community-contributed helper scripts for VM management, backups, and more.
• Setup Traefik as a reverse proxy to handle and redirect HTTP/S traffic.

🔑 SSH Key & Certificate Generation

Generate an SSH key for your vm's or other services:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "server"

Use the generated public key in user-data for automatic authentication setup.

🌐 Proxy Configuration (Traefik)

Using traefik-kop, each VM runs an agent that:

• Registers itself with the main Traefik instance
• Sends its routing configuration dynamically

This enables:

• Auto-discovery of services
• Clean URLs and HTTPS support
• Centralized control over routing logic

                       
                      +-------------------------+         +---------------------0----+
                      | +---------------------+ |         | +---------------------+  |
                      | |                     | |         | |                     |  |
+---------+     :443  | |  +---------+        | | :8088   | |  +------------+     |  |
|   WAN   |--------------->| traefik |<-------------------->|  | svc-nginx  |     |  |
+---------+           | |  +---------+        | |         | |  +------------+     |  |
                      | |       |             | |         | |                     |  |
                      | |  +---------+        | |         | |  +-------------+    |  |
                      | |  |  redis  |<-------------------->|  | traefik-kop |    |  |
                      | |  +---------+        | |         | |  +-------------+    |  |
                      | |             docker1 | |         | |             docker2 |  |
                      | +---------------------+ |         | +---------------------+  |
                      |                     vm1 |         |                    vm2   |
                      +-------------------------+         +--------------------------+

📁 NFS Configuration

Optional - Share Storage

Note

⚠️ NTFS support is functional but comes with performance and permission caveats—consider ext4/ZFS for native setups.

To consolidate data across VMs, I export a shared storage path via NFS, backed by an NTFS-formatted disk. While not typical in Linux-first setups, this suits my personal needs.

sudo apt install -y ntfs-3g

List all the devices and select which one you need to mount.

sudo fdisk -l
sudo lsblk -f
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Copy the UUID in /etc/fstab

# edit fstab
vim /etc/fstab
UUID="" /mnt/storage ntfs-3g defaults,auto 0 0
mkdir /mnt/storage
# mount disc
mount -a

• Add disk to VM.

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/
qm set 103 -virtio2 /dev/disk/by-id/<disk-id>

1. Install NFS Server

sudo apt install -y nfs-kernel-server
sudo vim /etc/exports

Example export entry:

/mnt/storage 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

• Replace 192.168.1.0/24 with the subnet of your Proxmox server (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24 allows all IPs in the 192.168.1.x range).
• rw: Allows read and write access.
• sync: Ensures changes are written to disk before the client is notified.
• no_subtree_check: Prevents subtree checking for better performance.

2. Add NFS Storage to Proxmox

1. Login to Proxmox Web UI

2. Navigate to Datacenter > Storage > Add > NFS

3. Fill in:

   • ID: Enter a name for the storage (e.g., nfs-storage).
   • Server: Enter the IP address of the NFS server (e.g., 192.168.1.111).
   • Export: Click Query to list available NFS exports, and select /mnt/storage.
   • Content: Select the types of content you want to store (e.g., Disk image, ISO image, Backup).
   • Nodes: Select the Proxmox nodes that can access this storage.

🧱 Base VMs with Packer

Warning

⚠️ To be able to run packer from WSL2 you need to change the network mode.

All virtual machines are built from a cloud-init Ubuntu 24.04 image using Packer. This ensures consistency across deployments.

Configure variables.auto.pkrvars.hcl file for custom values.

cd packer
packer validate .
packer build .

• The resulting image is uploaded to Proxmox as a VM template.
• Cloud-init is enabled in the build to support dynamic configuration.
• Include Docker installation an other tools.
• This template is later used by Terraform to deploy actual VMs.

🚀 VM Deployment with Terraform

Deploy or destroy VMs using Terraform's targeted apply.

Ensure that your terraform.tfvars and modules are configured per Proxmox Provider standards.

cd terraform
terraform plan
terraform apply
# or 
terraform apply -target='module.vms["ramiel"]'
terraform destroy -target='module.vms["ramiel"]'

📦 VMs

Thumbnail	VM Name	ID	Category	Services/Tools
	Adam	201	Proxmox Host	Proxmox VE
	Lilith	202	Storage	TrueNAS*
	Sachiel	203	Media Server	Plex / Jellyfin / Plextraktsync / Navidrome
	Shamshel	204	Arr Stack	Sonarr / Radarr / Lidarr / Prowlarr / Overseerr
	Ramiel	205	Downloaders	Transmission
	Gaghiel	206	Reverse Proxy and Tunnels	Traefik / CloudflareTunnels
	Israfel	207	NFS Server	NFS*
	Sandalphon	208	Network tools	Gluetun / Flaresolverr
	Matarael	209	Dashboards	Homepage / Homarr / Homer
	Sahaquiel	210	Monitoring	Uptimekuma / Dozzle
	Ireul	211	Utilities	Home Assistant / Immich / Paperless

[*]: Future changes or upgrades.

⚙️ Configuration

Transmission and OpenVPN

• For testing Transmission with OpenVPN add this torrent from TorGuard.

Home Assistant

• Setup HACS
• Setup IKEA Dirigera

Windows Share with Rclone

• Install Rclone

# Installing
winget install --id=Rclone.Rclone -e
# Setup new SFTP connection
rclone config
# Show all volumes
rclone listremotes
# Mount
rclone mount nas:/mnt/storage X: --vfs-cache-mode full --vfs-cache-max-size 2G --vfs-read-chunk-size 64M --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 512M --buffer-size 32M --attr-timeout 1s --no-modtime --network-mode --dir-cache-time 5m --poll-interval 10s --log-level INFO

• Copy files

rclone copy "F:/" nas:"/mnt/storage/backup/" --progress

🔗 References

• Proxmox Packer Templates
• Terraform Cloud-Init VM
• Telmate Terraform Provider
• Proxmox Ubuntu Templates
• Proxmox-VM-Disk-and-NFS-Configuration-Guide
• Evangelion Angel Wiki

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_{✦ Inspired by Evangelion. Built for learning, automation, and chaos. ✦}