Raspberry Pi Homelab

A self-hosted Raspberry Pi 5 homelab project built for learning Linux administration, Docker, DNS filtering, recursive DNS resolution, monitoring, and service hardening.

Project Overview

This project runs on a Raspberry Pi 5 and includes the following services:

• Pi-hole + Unbound for DNS filtering and recursive DNS resolution
• Uptime Kuma for service monitoring
• dashdot for host resource monitoring

The goal of the project was to build a small but practical homelab environment and document the installation, hardening, maintenance, backup, troubleshooting, and deployment process.

Hardware

• Raspberry Pi 5 B, 8 GB RAM
• Official Raspberry Pi 27W USB-C power supply
• Aluminum case / heatsink
• Kingston High Endurance 128 GB microSD card

Software Stack

• Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)
• Docker Engine
• Docker Compose
• Pi-hole + Unbound
• Uptime Kuma
• dashdot

Features

• DNS filtering with Pi-hole
• Recursive DNS resolution with Unbound
• Service uptime monitoring
• Host system monitoring
• SSH hardening with key-based authentication
• Manual backup routine
• Lightweight, low-power self-hosted environment

Network Design

• Raspberry Pi connected to the router with Ethernet
• Management from a Windows laptop over the local network
• No port forwarding enabled
• Internal LAN-only access to services

Architecture

Windows laptop (Wi-Fi)
        |
        v
   Home router / 5G router
        |
        +----------------------+
        |                      |
        v                      v
 Raspberry Pi 5           Other LAN devices
 (Ethernet)

        |
        +-- Pi-hole
        +-- Uptime Kuma
        +-- dashdot

Services

Service	Purpose
Pi-hole + Unbound	DNS filtering and recursive local DNS resolution
Uptime Kuma	Uptime monitoring for internal services
dashdot	Resource dashboard for CPU, memory, storage and network

Security Notes

• SSH key authentication enabled
• Password-based SSH login disabled
• Root login disabled
• Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi disabled, Ethernet only
• No public exposure of services
• No router port forwarding configured

Documentation

Detailed setup and maintenance notes are available in the docs/ folder:

• install.md
• hardening.md
• updates.md
• backup.md
• troubleshooting.md

Project Status

Current version:

• Raspberry Pi base system installed
• Docker configured
• Pi-hole + Unbound deployed and working
• Uptime Kuma working
• dashdot working
• SSH hardened
• Backup routine tested

What I Learned

Through this project, I practiced:

• Raspberry Pi deployment and Linux basics
• Docker and Docker Compose service management
• DNS filtering with Pi-hole
• Recursive DNS resolution with Unbound
• Basic monitoring with Uptime Kuma
• Host monitoring with dashdot
• SSH hardening with key-based authentication
• Backup planning and troubleshooting
• Secure LAN-only service design
• Debugging containerized DNS architectures

Future Improvements

• Add Tailscale for secure remote access
• Improve backup automation
• Evaluate Pi-hole DHCP if router DNS cannot be configured
• Publish a cleaned public portfolio version

Disclaimer

This repository contains documentation and example configuration files only.
Sensitive information such as passwords, private IP planning details, keys, logs, and private service data are intentionally excluded. All Docker Compose files in this repository are example configurations only and do not contain live credentials or private service data.