Homelab Infrastructure

A working homelab is the cheapest possible production environment. This one runs Kubernetes on Proxmox/Talos with two-loop GitOps, 30+ Docker services, and the nginx that's serving you this page.

You are reading this page because of this stack. The nginx config that routes anthonyr.com is one of the conf files in the same git repo this HTML lives in. A cron runs git pull every 5 minutes and reloads nginx — deploy-by-commit.

By the numbers

30+

Docker Compose services

GitOps reconciliation loops (OpenTofu + Flux)

git

is the deploy

5min

cron pull cadence with config-test gating

Kubernetes layer

Data-driven K8s infrastructure on Proxmox/Talos Linux with two-loop reconciliation:

OpenTofu — provisions VMs on Proxmox and bootstraps Talos. Infrastructure layer.
Flux CD — reconciles application manifests from git. Application layer.
MetalLB — L2/L3 load balancing on bare metal.
Traefik — ingress routing with automatic TLS.
NFS storage — shared persistent volumes across the cluster.
SOPS encryption — secrets live in git, decrypted in-cluster.

Docker Compose layer (Dockge-managed)

Services that don't need to live in K8s run as Docker Compose stacks orchestrated by Dockge. A sample of what's running:

AnythingLLMDocument Q&A

n8nWorkflow automation + scheduled AI

Prometheus + GrafanaMetrics + dashboards

LokiLog aggregation

ELK StackBuild/release/test metrics

GuacamoleBrowser-based remote access

HeimdallService dashboard

Speedtest trackerISP performance over time

TailscaleMesh VPN

Plex / *arrMedia

Uptime KumaSynthetic monitoring

Proxmox metricsHypervisor exporter

Nginx + this site's deploy loop

The whole /etc/nginx/ directory on the public-facing nginx host is a git working tree. A cron job (syncAndRestart.sh) runs every 5 minutes:

git fetch && git pull
nginx -t — config syntax check (gates everything below)
nginx -s reload — only if the test passes
ntfy push notification on success or failure (to topic 3legdoghomelab)

The site you're reading is colocated in the same repo as the nginx config. Commit, push, wait up to 5 minutes — it's live. The same pattern handles a dozen other vhosts (proxmox, plex, kasm, uptime-kuma, casaos, doom, wolf, fieldy, n8n, visitors, vintage, tygerrobinson, cherrycrest, …).

Ansible (the boring part)

Playbooks for system patching, reboot management, hardware inventory, and historical data collection across the homelab fleet. Not glamorous; the kind of automation you only notice when it's missing.

Why it matters (the wedge)

I run my own infrastructure the way real infrastructure runs: idempotent provisioning, declarative reconciliation, encrypted secrets in source control, observable failures with paging. The homelab is not a toy — it's the reproducibility lab for the patterns that ship at SanMar.

Repos at c:\git\github\anthonyrobinson\{nginx,dockge,k8s,...} are private (live config + secrets even with SOPS). Architecture walkthrough available on request: [email protected].