Complete guide to building a free VPN using Cloudflare Tunnel, WARP, and Zero Trust. Covers Docker setup, private network routing, split tunneling, and security hardening. Free for up to 50 users.
Category: Homelab
Homelab is the category on orthogonal.info dedicated to building, operating, and securing home server infrastructure. From NAS configuration and network segmentation to Docker-based self-hosting and power management, this collection documents the real decisions and trade-offs involved in running production-grade services at home. If you believe your home network deserves the same engineering rigor as a cloud deployment, you are in the right place.
With 16 hands-on posts, Homelab captures lessons learned from building and maintaining a serious home infrastructure — complete with the mistakes, workarounds, and victories that vendor documentation never mentions.
Key Topics Covered
TrueNAS and network-attached storage — Setting up TrueNAS SCALE and TrueNAS CORE, ZFS pool design, snapshot and replication strategies, and SMB/NFS share configuration for mixed-OS environments.
Self-hosting services — Deploying and maintaining services like Nextcloud, Immich, Jellyfin, Home Assistant, Vaultwarden, and Pi-hole with Docker Compose on home servers.
Network segmentation and firewalls — Designing VLAN architectures with OPNsense or pfSense, isolating IoT devices, configuring WireGuard for secure remote access, and implementing DNS-based ad blocking.
Hardware selection and builds — Choosing server hardware, evaluating mini PCs vs. rack-mount servers, NIC and HBA selection, and balancing performance with power consumption and noise levels.
UPS and power management — Configuring NUT (Network UPS Tools) for graceful shutdowns, monitoring battery health, and designing power-resilient home infrastructure.
Backup and disaster recovery — Implementing 3-2-1 backup strategies with ZFS replication, restic, Borg, and off-site cloud targets, plus documented recovery procedures.
Monitoring and automation — Running Uptime Kuma, Grafana, and Prometheus at home, plus scripting automated maintenance tasks with cron, systemd timers, and Ansible.
Who This Content Is For
This category is for homelab enthusiasts, self-hosting advocates, system administrators who tinker at home, and privacy-conscious engineers who want to own their data and services. Whether you are starting with a single Raspberry Pi or running a multi-node server rack, the guides scale to your ambition. The content assumes basic Linux familiarity and a willingness to learn by doing — no enterprise budget required.
What You Will Learn
By exploring the Homelab category, you will learn how to plan, build, and maintain home infrastructure that is reliable, secure, and genuinely useful. You will understand how to design storage pools that protect your data, segment your network to contain IoT risks, deploy self-hosted services that rival their cloud counterparts, and monitor everything with open-source tools. Each guide shares real configurations, hardware recommendations based on actual use, and honest assessments of what works and what does not.
Check out the posts below to start building your ideal homelab.
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Enterprise Security at Home: Wazuh & Suricata Setup
I run Wazuh and Suricata on my home network. Yes, enterprise SIEM and IDS for a homelab—it’s overkill by any reasonable measure. But after catching an IoT camera phoning home to servers in three different countries, I stopped second-guessing the investment. Here’s why I do it and how you can set it up too. Self-Hosted…
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UPS Battery Backup: Sizing, Setup & NUT on TrueNAS
A half-second power flicker corrupted my ZFS pool mid-scrub. Here's how I picked a UPS, sized it for my homelab, and configured NUT on TrueNAS for automatic graceful shutdown.
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Best Drives for TrueNAS 2026: HDDs, SSDs & My Setup
A practical guide to picking the right HDDs and SSDs for TrueNAS. CMR vs SMR, SLOG and L2ARC explained, plus what I actually run in my homelab.
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Self-Host Ollama: Local LLM Inference on Your Homelab
Run Ollama on your homelab for free local LLM inference. Real benchmarks, hardware recs, and setup guide from Mac Mini to RTX 3090.
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Backup & Recovery: Enterprise Security for Homelabs
Apply enterprise-grade backup and disaster recovery to your homelab. Covers 3-2-1 strategy, automated snapshots, off-site replication, and restore testing.
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Secure Remote Access for Your Homelab
Set up secure remote access for your homelab using enterprise-grade practices. Covers VPN, SSH hardening, reverse proxies, and zero trust architecture.
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Home Network Segmentation with OPNsense: A Complete Guide
Segment your home network with OPNsense for better security. Complete guide to VLANs, firewall rules, IoT isolation, and guest network configuration.
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Set Up Elasticsearch and Kibana on CentOS 7
Install and configure Elasticsearch and Kibana on CentOS 7. Covers Java setup, cluster configuration, index management, and Kibana dashboard basics.
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Expert Guide: Migrating ZVols and Datasets Between ZFS Pools
Move ZFS ZVols and datasets between pools safely. Step-by-step guide covering snapshots, zfs send/receive, verification, and avoiding common data loss.