Homelab

This post covers deploying a GitLab Runner inside a Kubernetes cluster using the Kubernetes executor. Each CI job spawns as a pod, runs its tasks, and is automatically cleaned up. Docker builds use Kaniko (rootless, no privileged containers), and job artifacts/dependencies are cached in MinIO. Architecture ┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ │ GitLab CI Job │────▶│ Runner Manager │────▶│ Job Pod │ │ (push to repo) │ │ (polycephala) │ │ (auto-created) │ └─────────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │ ┌──────────────────┐ │ │ MinIO Cache │◀─────────────┘ │ (shared deps) │ └──────────────────┘ The runner manager pod runs continuously and polls GitLab for jobs. When a job is picked up, it creates a new pod in the gitlab-runner namespace, executes the job, and deletes the pod when complete. ...

Wiki.js was running on a LoadBalancer IP with no TLS. This post covers migrating to HTTPS using a Let’s Encrypt wildcard certificate managed by OPNsense, with automatic synchronization to Kubernetes. The Problem The wiki was accessible at http://192.168.2.204 with: No TLS encryption Direct LoadBalancer service exposure No ingress controller The goal: HTTPS with a publicly trusted certificate, no browser warnings. Architecture ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ OPNsense Firewall │ │ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ACME Client │ │ │ │ - Let's Encrypt account │ │ │ │ - Cloudflare DNS-01 validation │ │ │ │ - Wildcard cert: *.minoko.life │ │ │ │ - Auto-renewal at 60 days │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ OPNsense API (daily sync) ▼ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Kubernetes Cluster │ │ ┌─────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ letsencrypt-sync │ │ ingress-nginx namespace │ │ │ │ CronJob (5 AM) │───▶│ letsencrypt-wildcard secret │ │ │ │ - Fetch from API │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ - Build cert chain │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ - Update secrets │───▶│ wikijs namespace │ │ │ └─────────────────────┘ │ letsencrypt-wildcard secret │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ ▼ │ │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ingress-nginx-controller │ │ │ │ LoadBalancer: 192.168.2.224 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Ingress: wiki.minoko.life ──▶ wikijs:80 │ │ │ │ TLS: letsencrypt-wildcard secret │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Prerequisites OPNsense with ACME plugin configured for Let’s Encrypt Cloudflare (or other DNS provider) for DNS-01 validation Existing wildcard certificate for *.minoko.life Step 1: Install ingress-nginx Controller Create the ingress-nginx infrastructure: ...

I wanted to add comments to this blog without using a third-party service like Disqus. After evaluating options, I chose Comentario - a self-hosted comment system that uses PostgreSQL for storage. This post covers the full deployment on Kubernetes with HAProxy TLS termination and custom theming. Why Comentario When choosing a comment system, I had a few requirements: Self-hosted - No third-party data collection PostgreSQL backend - I already run a shared PostgreSQL instance, so no extra backup infrastructure needed GitHub OAuth - Most of my readers are developers Simple embed - Just a script tag and web component I considered Remark42 (uses BoltDB) and Commento (abandoned), but Comentario hit all the marks. It’s an actively maintained fork of Commento with PostgreSQL support. ...

This post covers exposing an NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti (Blackwell architecture) as a schedulable Kubernetes resource with time-slicing support, allowing multiple pods to share the GPU. Hardware Node GPU Memory Compute Capability polycephala NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB 12.0 (Blackwell, sm_120) The RTX 5070 Ti uses the new Blackwell architecture (GB203 chip) with compute capability sm_120. This creates compatibility challenges with some software that hasn’t been updated yet. ...

OPNsense includes Suricata for intrusion detection, but the built-in alerts page provides limited visibility. This post covers forwarding IDS alerts to Loki via syslog and visualizing them in Grafana alongside firewall logs. Architecture ┌─────────────────┐ UDP/514 ┌──────────────────┐ │ OPNsense │ RFC5424 │ Promtail │ │ ┌───────────┐ │ ───────────────▶ │ (syslog recv) │ │ │ Suricata │ │ │ 192.168.2.221 │ │ │ filterlog │ │ └────────┬─────────┘ │ └───────────┘ │ │ └─────────────────┘ ▼ ┌──────────────────┐ │ Loki │ │ (log storage) │ └────────┬─────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────┐ │ Grafana │ │ (dashboards) │ └──────────────────┘ Prerequisites OPNsense firewall with Suricata IDS enabled Kubernetes cluster with Loki deployed MetalLB or NodePort for exposing the syslog receiver Step 1: Enable Suricata IDS on OPNsense Navigate to Services → Intrusion Detection → Administration. ...

Certificates expire. In a Kubernetes homelab with Linkerd service mesh, this means the identity issuer certificate needs renewal annually. Without automation, this becomes a manual task that’s easy to forget until mTLS breaks across the cluster. This post covers installing cert-manager on a bare-metal kubeadm cluster and configuring it to automatically rotate Linkerd’s identity issuer certificate. The Problem Linkerd uses a two-tier PKI: Certificate Purpose Default Lifetime Trust Anchor Root CA for the mesh 10 years Identity Issuer Signs proxy certificates 1 year The identity issuer expires annually. When it does, new proxy sidecars cannot obtain valid certificates, breaking mTLS. The trust anchor rarely needs rotation, but the identity issuer requires attention. ...

k9s displays CPU and MEM columns for pods and nodes, but on bare-metal kubeadm clusters these show “N/A” by default. This occurs because k9s relies on the Kubernetes Metrics API, which requires metrics-server to be installed. The Problem Without metrics-server: NAME CPU MEM k8s-master01 N/A N/A k8s-worker01 N/A N/A Managed Kubernetes services (EKS, GKE, AKS) typically pre-install metrics-server. Bare-metal kubeadm clusters do not include it. Solution Install metrics-server via Helm with configuration for kubeadm’s self-signed certificates. ...

I was updating my blog’s Hugo version and PaperMod theme when I realized I hadn’t touched these dependencies in months. The Hugo Docker image was 8 versions behind, and the theme had accumulated dozens of commits. Not broken, just stale. I wanted something that would automatically check for updates and create merge requests - something I could review and merge on my own schedule, without having to remember to check. ...

My homelab has a dedicated DMZ network (192.168.4.0/24) that’s physically separated from my main LAN. The only machine currently on this network is minis, a Fedora workstation that also serves as a Kubernetes node for DMZ-facing workloads. I’ve been running a basic router on this segment, but I picked up a faster unit and wanted to document the before/after performance difference. Network Topology ┌─────────────────┐ │ OPNsense │ │ Main Firewall │ └────────┬────────┘ │ ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ │ LAN │ │ WLAN │ │ DMZ │ │192.168.2.x│ │192.168.3.x│ │192.168.4.x│ └─────┬─────┘ └───────────┘ └─────┬─────┘ │ │ K8s Cluster ┌─────┴─────┐ (4 nodes) │DMZ Router │ ← Upgrading this └─────┬─────┘ │ ┌─────┴─────┐ │ minis │ │192.168.4.50│ └───────────┘ Baseline Performance (Before Upgrade) Date: 2025-12-31 Router: Netgear GS110TP (8-port Gigabit Smart Switch with PoE) Test Machine: minis (Fedora 42, connected via ethernet) ...

I’ve been using Claude Code (Anthropic’s CLI coding assistant) for a few months now, and one thing that kept bugging me was being tethered to my desk. What if I wanted to kick off a long-running task while away from my computer? Or review what Claude had done while sitting on the couch? The solution turned out to be surprisingly simple: tmux on a home server + Termius on my phone. ...