>_Cole StephensLab Journal

LAB JOURNAL

Projects, problems,
and lessons learned.

A running record of what I'm building, troubleshooting, researching, and learning across my homelab and infrastructure projects.

Lab Note

Short entries documenting active work, troubleshooting, and discoveries.

Project Write-up

Longer case studies covering completed projects from planning through results.

FEATURED

Project Write-ups

Project Write-up

Self-Hosting NetBird for Remote Homelab Access

Deploying a self-hosted NetBird environment to evaluate an open-source alternative for secure remote access to my homelab.

NetBirdVPNNetworkingLinuxDNSNginx
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Project Write-up

Building a Raspberry Pi Homelab Rack Dashboard

Turning an unused monitor and Raspberry Pi into a dedicated kiosk display for real-time homelab information.

Raspberry PiLinuxChromiumHomelab
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Project Write-up

Designing a Segmented Homelab Network with OPNsense

Designing a segmented homelab network using OPNsense, VLANs, firewall policy, internal DNS, DHCP, and secure remote administration.

OPNsenseNetworkingVLANsFirewallDNSDHCP
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Project Write-up

Building a TrueNAS and ZFS Storage Platform

Building centralized homelab storage with TrueNAS, ZFS RAIDZ1, NFS, Proxmox integration, and backup workflows.

TrueNASZFSStorageNFSProxmoxBackups
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LATEST ENTRIES

From the Lab

18 published entries

Project Write-up

Building a Native Qt App for My ColeTech Survey Workflow

How I turned a command-line Kismet Wi-Fi survey workflow into a native PySide6 and Qt desktop application with live status, hardware autodetection, Toolkit integration, uploads, and update support.

PythonQtPySide6LinuxKismetWi-FiAutomationGitHub
Project Write-up

Building Self-Hosted Link Tracking and Analytics with Shlink and Umami

Deploying Shlink and Umami to add branded short links, click tracking, visitor analytics, and engagement visibility across my public technical portfolio.

ShlinkUmamiAnalyticsDockerCloudflareLinkStackSelf-Hosting
Project Write-up

Building a NetBox Source of Truth for My Homelab

Deploying NetBox and using it to document physical devices, Proxmox virtualization, network interfaces, IPAM, and cabling as a structured source of truth for my homelab.

NetBoxProxmoxNetworkingIPAMDCIMInfrastructureDockerSelf-Hosting
Lab Note

Adding Homelabel to Visualize My Homelab Infrastructure

Deploying Homelabel, connecting it to Proxmox, and building cleaner visual documentation for the infrastructure running throughout my homelab.

HomelabelProxmoxInfrastructureDocumentationSelf-HostingDocker
Project Write-up

Experimenting with Ollama and Local LLMs in My Homelab

What I learned running Ollama and Open WebUI on CPU-only homelab hardware, comparing local models against an RTX 4080 desktop, and planning a dedicated GPU-backed AI platform.

OllamaOpen WebUILocal AILinuxProxmoxGPUSelf-Hosting
Lab Note

Self-Hosting LinkStack for My Social and Professional Links

Deploying LinkStack with Docker and Cloudflare Tunnel to create a self-hosted landing page for my professional profiles, technical projects, resume, and Technical Lab Journal.

LinkStackDockerCloudflareSelf-HostingNetworking
Lab Note

Troubleshooting Split DNS with Cloudflare Pages

Diagnosing an SSL failure that only occurred on my home network and VPN after moving a public site to Cloudflare Pages.

DNSPi-holeCloudflareNginx Proxy ManagerTLSTroubleshooting
Lab Note

Building Out My Homelab Monitoring Stack

Notes from deploying Prometheus and Grafana and beginning to centralize monitoring across my Proxmox environment.

GrafanaPrometheusProxmoxMonitoring
Project Write-up

Building a Docker-Based Self-Hosted Application Platform

Building and maintaining a Docker Compose environment for self-hosted applications, infrastructure utilities, monitoring, and internal services.

DockerDocker ComposeLinuxSelf-HostingReverse ProxyMonitoring
Project Write-up

Using Home Assistant for Homelab Monitoring and Automation

Extending Home Assistant beyond smart-home control to monitor server infrastructure, track environmental conditions, provide alerts, and automate remote homelab operations.

Home AssistantProxmoxMonitoringAutomationSensorsInfrastructure
Project Write-up

Building Backup and Recovery Infrastructure with Proxmox Backup Server

Building centralized VM and container backup infrastructure with Proxmox Backup Server, NAS-backed storage, retention, verification, and recovery workflows.

Proxmox Backup ServerProxmoxBackupsStorageLinuxRecovery
Project Write-up

Building a Multi-Node Proxmox Homelab

Building a multi-node Proxmox VE environment for virtualization, Linux containers, storage integration, backups, and self-hosted infrastructure.

ProxmoxVirtualizationLinuxLXCClusteringInfrastructure
Project Write-up

Building an Internal Reverse Proxy Platform with Nginx Proxy Manager

Deploying Nginx Proxy Manager as a centralized reverse proxy for self-hosted applications, then expanding it with internal DNS, HTTPS, and Cloudflare DNS validation.

Nginx Proxy ManagerReverse ProxyDNSHTTPSTLSCloudflare
Project Write-up

Building Redundant DNS Infrastructure for My Homelab

Building a redundant internal DNS environment using Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, internal records, VPN DNS, and later recursive resolution with Unbound.

Pi-holeAdGuard HomeUnboundDNSNetworkingVPN