[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":101},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-en-/blog/homelab":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"date":91,"description":92,"extension":93,"image":94,"meta":95,"navigation":96,"path":97,"seo":98,"stem":99,"__hash__":100},"content_en/blog/homelab.md","Building a Home Lab: How I Turned an Old PC Into a Learning Machine",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":83},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,25,28,63,67,70,73,77,80],[10,11,12],"p",{},"In my search to learn more than just the web tech I picked up in school, I decided to build a home lab from an old computer I had lying around. I wanted a place to explore servers, Docker, CI/CD, and all the infrastructure stuff that rarely comes up in a classroom. A place to experiment without worrying about breaking anything that matters.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"the-hardware","The Hardware",[10,19,20],{},"The machine I used is an old Dell with an Intel Core i7, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Not the most powerful setup, but more than enough for what I needed.",[14,22,24],{"id":23},"what-i-use-it-for","What I Use It For",[10,26,27],{},"I installed Ubuntu Server and set up a few services. Currently running:",[29,30,31,39,45,51,57],"ul",{},[32,33,34,38],"li",{},[35,36,37],"strong",{},"Docker"," — the foundation for everything else",[32,40,41,44],{},[35,42,43],{},"Prometheus + Grafana"," — to monitor hardware and container metrics",[32,46,47,50],{},[35,48,49],{},"Portainer"," — to manage containers without touching the CLI every time",[32,52,53,56],{},[35,54,55],{},"Nginx"," — as a reverse proxy so I'm working with domain names instead of IP addresses",[32,58,59,62],{},[35,60,61],{},"Tailscale"," — so I can access my home lab from anywhere without port forwarding or exposing services to the internet",[14,64,66],{"id":65},"my-first-project","My First Project",[10,68,69],{},"My first idea was a docs app where I write everything about the server what's running, how it's configured, why I made certain decisions. Useful as a reference, but also as a record of what I'm learning.",[10,71,72],{},"The interesting part came with GitHub Actions. I set up a pipeline that automatically builds and deploys the docs app to my home lab every time I push to main. It's a basic CI/CD setup, but building it myself made the concept click in a way that reading about it never did. Understanding how automation fits into a real workflow is something I'll carry into every project going forward.",[14,74,76],{"id":75},"whats-next","What's Next",[10,78,79],{},"I want to dig into Kubernetes, understand what it actually solves and when it's worth the complexity. Beyond that, I'm curious about infrastructure-as-code with Terraform: managing servers and resources through config files instead of manual setup.",[10,81,82],{},"The home lab isn't a side project. It's how I stay sharp outside of work and school, and it keeps pushing me toward becoming a better developer.",{"title":84,"searchDepth":85,"depth":85,"links":86},"",2,[87,88,89,90],{"id":16,"depth":85,"text":17},{"id":23,"depth":85,"text":24},{"id":65,"depth":85,"text":66},{"id":75,"depth":85,"text":76},"2026-05-07","How I built a home lab to learn about servers, Docker, CI/CD, and everything in between.","md",null,{},true,"/blog/homelab",{"title":5,"description":92},"blog/homelab","bJNBMGSkgUthNjctmJkSf3-V2-jsNGCUI2Pb-VwmVDQ",1778180701394]