> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.jacobpevans.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Homelab

> Proxmox cluster, UniFi networking, Home Assistant, Splunk, Cribl — all managed with OpenTofu, Ansible, and Nix.

> The goal: fault-tolerant infrastructure I can rebuild from a single `nix build`.

The homelab is a real production environment, just for one person. Proxmox cluster on bare metal, UniFi networking, Splunk indexers, Cribl Edge collectors, Home Assistant, a docker-host VM for the necessary evil of vendor-locked containers.

## Hardware footprint

| Layer           | What's there                                                                                         | Notes                                                                                                               |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Compute         | 3-node Proxmox cluster: `pve1`, `pve2`, `pve3`                                                       | Heterogeneous mix — single-engineer homelab, parts opportunistically combined; 3 nodes give natural majority quorum |
| Local LLM       | Dedicated bare-metal NixOS box with discrete GPU and a large local model library                     | Outside the Proxmox cluster — GPU-bound workload kept off hypervisor to avoid passthrough overhead                  |
| Storage         | ZFS on Proxmox hosts; SAS backplane on one node for cluster bulk storage; NVMe for hot tiers         | Mixed-tier by accident, kept by design — bulk on SAS, working sets on NVMe                                          |
| Networking      | UniFi end-to-end: gateway, switches (with 10G SFP+ uplinks), APs                                     | Single-pane management; 10G fiber backbone where it matters                                                         |
| Power           | Rack UPS for servers; separate UPS for the Home Assistant Pi                                         | Active NUT monitoring planned once the LLM box is built                                                             |
| Rack management | Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant; iDRAC vKVM jump VM in cluster for Java Web Start console access | Old BMC firmware needs a Java Web Start client; the jump VM keeps Java off the laptop                               |

## Network topology

The UniFi gateway sits at the centre of the LAN; the Proxmox cluster, personal devices, and the bare-metal LLM box all hang off it. WireGuard tunnels traverse the Internet → UniFi edge. Per-service VLANs encode workload tier. Diagram and the network-as-code that defines it: [`tofu-unifi`](/infrastructure/repos/tofu-unifi).

## Data flow

UniFi gear and host telemetry feed HAProxy → Cribl Edge → Splunk → AWS DR. Full log and NetFlow pipelines: [Data pipelines](/architecture/data-pipelines).

## Container philosophy

LXC is the default for production homelab services; Docker is the exception, fenced off to a dedicated `docker-host` VM whenever a vendor ships Docker-only images. The four-question decision tree: [LXC vs Docker](/infrastructure/lxc-vs-docker).

## What runs where

Most workloads run as LXC on the Proxmox cluster — HAProxy, Cribl Edge, Home Assistant, Qdrant. Splunk Enterprise gets a bare-metal-ish VM for network volume. Docker is fenced off to a single `docker-host` VM. Local LLM inference runs bare-metal on NixOS to dodge passthrough overhead. Full per-workload inventory: [Infrastructure overview](/infrastructure/overview).

## Provisioning + configuration

[`tofu-proxmox`](/infrastructure/repos/tofu-proxmox) builds VMs and LXCs. [`ansible-proxmox`](/infrastructure/repos/ansible-proxmox) configures the host. [`ansible-proxmox-apps`](/infrastructure/repos/ansible-proxmox-apps) layers the apps on top. The macOS counterpart that runs the monitoring stack as Kubernetes is [`orbstack-kubernetes`](/infrastructure/repos/orbstack-kubernetes).

## DR plan

[`tofu-aws`](https://github.com/JacobPEvans/terraform-aws) defines a cold AWS footprint sized to take a Splunk failover. Cribl Edge routes can be flipped to the AWS HEC endpoint via config change. Details: [tf-splunk-aws](/observability/repos/tf-splunk-aws).