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This is a reference hub and showcase for how I run, secure, and document my homelab and daily Linux workflows as well as solutions for problems I have faced (see troubleshooting section).
I previously used Synology devices (DS218j and DS224+), but recently moved my main workload to the Ugreen DXP2800. Main reasons were better hardware value for the price and more flexibility for splitting workloads across HDD and NVMe storage.
Configured Memory & Storage:
- 8GB DDR5 RAM
- 1x 4TB HDD
- 1x 2TB HDD
- 1x 2TB NVMe SSD
Current role:
- Main NAS and service host for always-on workloads
- Storage backend for documents, photos, and media
- Docker/LXC-adjacent services with backup integration into the wider homelab stack
In 2025 I built my first PC ever from the ground up. Normally I am not a big fan of desktop PCs because they tend to take up much space, but I wanted something that I can expand in the future. At first I was looking for some kind of tower case with lots of bays like the THERMALTAKE Level 10 GT. But again my taste is too exotic, so I settled for the Newway NW1. Then in august 2025 I changed my mind again and wanted a smaller case, because I bought an old used Chieftec case I could expand with lots of HDDs and optical drives. I googled for weird and uncommon cases with unique features and immediately fell in love with the first result: the Jonsbo D31 mesh with screen.
For now I am really happy with this case. The builtin screen is perfect for docking messengers or monitoring software or as a backup if my primary monitors aren't working. Currently I have it configured to display btop as a wallpaper (via a KDE plugin).
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G - 6x 3.90 GHz AM4
For the GPU I went with the ASUS Dual Radeon RX 7600 EVO OC Edition 8GB GDDR6 which seemed like a decent middle tier graphics card. It runs even Silent Hill 2 remake pretty well on higher details. As long as you play on Linux of course. On windows the performance was expectedly much worse. It runs smaller LLMs, though not well. For the future I'm planning on getting a GPU with decent vRAM (16GB upwards) to really get good use out of local models.
- Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-PLUS WiFi II
- RAM: Patriot Memory Viper Elite II DDR4 2x32GB
- PSU: Toughpower Gt
- CPU cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120R Digital Black
- Rear fan: Thermalright TL-S12
- USB PCIe 5 slot expansion card with power delivery
- more powerful GPU for better LLM inference and maybe gaming with raytracing
- Top fans, maybe AIO cooler
- CPU with more powerful iGPU
I have two RPis: a Raspberry Pi 3 which is currently not in use and a Raspberry Pi 4b 4GB which I currently use as a BlackArch-based security and lab node. I'm always having trouble finding good use cases, since I can do most stuff with my NAS already. I tried using it as a retro gaming station, but I hardly used it. So for now I have configured it as a server to experiment. I have WiFi antenna with monitor mode plugged in so I can practice a bit of pentesting. It also runs a snowflake proxy.
Case is the awesome GeeekPi Argon One V2 with M.2 expansion and a 240GB NVMe SSD.
I currently run Proxmox on Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q hardware for more demanding services that would otherwise consume too many resources on the NAS.
- Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q (AMD PRO A10-9700E)
- 16GB DDR4 RAM
- 1x 512GB NVMe SSD
- 1x 240GB SATA SSD
Current role:
- Hosts memory-intensive services (for example OPNsense and OpenWebUI/Ollama)
- Runs LXC and containerized workloads depending on use case
- Serves as part of the core homelab compute layer
Lenovo Thinkpad T570. Coming soon.
Pixel 8 with GrapheneOS.
Pixel Tablet with GrapheneOS. Tried to use it as a laptop replacement. Not really useful for that, since it's media tablet with limited RAM and GrapheneOS and smart launcher seem to eat a lot of RAM.
Fritzbox 7590 AX from my ISP. Will upgrade to one with OpenWRT support once I can afford it.
- 2in1 LightBar from 4smarts - Webcam and monitor lamp combined
- Cherry secure board 1.0 - haven't figured out how to configure the certificate for keylogger blocking, but I love the card reader
This is a list of services I host at the moment:
| Status | Service | Type | Description | Host | Exposure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✅ | CalibreWeb | 🐳 | E-book library. Uses the calibre library on the NAS as backend, so I can maintain it via the desktop app but also have a nice web interface to share with others. |
NAS/PC | 🌐 |
| ✅ | DigiKam | 📦 | Photo management application running on desktop PC. Photos are stored on the NAS. I use the MariaDB on the NAS for more persistent and portable storage. |
PC/NAS | 🔒 |
| ✅ | Gitea | 📦 | Lightweight Git service for self-hosted repositories. I like to mirror repos there that run the risk of being censored, like VPN and encryption protocols. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ❌ | Glance | 🐳 | Personal dashboard. Has currently a broken yaml config, so offline for now. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | Gramps | 🐳 | Genealogy software. Didn't want to be too reliant on MyHeritage, but also wanted the ability to access the family tree from anywhere. Since the desktop app has an extension for websync, I can use both. |
NAS | 🔒 |
| ❌ | Home Assistant Core | 📦 | Home automation and IoT control platform. Don't have the hardware or the need to make use of it at the moment, but will in the future. I'm especially interested in sensor readings, power consumption metrics and security cam feeds. |
NAS | 🔒 |
| ✅ | Jellyfin | 📦 | Free media system for streaming music, movies, and TV shows. Currently rather empty library, at least in regards to actual movies and shows. As soon as I have a big SSD and my Proxmox ripping station up and running, I will rip my whole bluray collection though. I also have a plugin for ebooks installed. So I have all kinds of media in one app, which is very cool. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | MariaDB 10 | 📦 | Open-source relational database server | NAS | 🔒 |
| ❌ | OpenObserve | 🐳 | NAS | 🔒 | |
| ✅ | OpenWebUI/Ollama | 🐳 | AI chat interface with local and remote LLMs. Very nice to finally have central gateway/interface to use all my LLM providers with. Had a problem getting answers from the models in the beginning, but that's resolved now. See Issue #2. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | Portainer | 🐳 | Docker management UI. I have a free business license, which means I can use GitHub as SSO. Haven't gotten it to work yet though. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | portainer-agent | 🐳 | Portainer agent for remote host management. Connected to portainer instance on the NAS. | Raspi | 🔒 |
| ✅ | Readeck | 🐳 | Web content clipper. Just found this recently. Very useful app to save webpages. It even converts them to epubs! And it has an Android app, which I always appreciate. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | snowflake-proxy | 🐳 | Donates bandwidth and helps Tor users circumvent censorship. Highly recommend to install the browser extension wherever possible. |
Raspi | n.A. |
| ✅ | SSO Server | 📦 | Single Sign-On server for unified authentication | NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | Synology Directory Server | 📦 | LDAP/Active Directory service for centralized user management. Rather overkill for me as a single person, but I was hoping to connect it to different services I host so I don't have to create credentials for every new service. But it's much easier and faster to do the latter, so I am not really using it at the moment. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | Synology Drive | 📦 | Cloud storage and synchronization service. Love it. Use it for all my documents and as a central sync hub, e.g. for the download folders of different devices. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | Synology Photos | 📦 | Photo management and sharing application. Features are meh, but at least it's private. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| ❌ | Vaultwarden | 🐳 | Password manager - currently unused. | NAS | 🌐 |
| ✅ | WebDAV Calendar & Contacts | 📦 | CalDAV/CardDAV service for calendar and contact synchronization. The webapps themselves are decent, but somehow I always have problems with syncing. Be it missing contacts, unreachable server, pixelated contact photos or mangled formats. I will probably replace it with NextCloud or Baikal at some point. For contacts at least I would also like to use Protonmail, if their app would integrate into Androids contact storage. For calendar though I'm reliant on CalDAV due to the integration into widgets and launchers on Linux and Android. |
NAS | 🌐 |
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ✅ | Currently in use and running |
| ❌ | Not in use |
| 🐳 | Docker container |
| 📦 | Local package/service |
| 💻 | Desktop application |
| NAS | Network Attached Storage |
| PC | Desktop PC |
| Raspi | Raspberry Pi |
| 🌐 | Publicly accessible |
| 🔒 | Private/locally accessible |