Rusty's Homelab Docs
About Me
Section titled “About Me”I got started in homelab all because of an HDD that shorted my main PC back in Sept 2025 - I lost well over 15 years’ worth of data/memories. That kick started me into self-hosting. And at the same time I was a long-time Windows user having experimented in dual booting Linux OS throughout the years. It was only this year I fully switched to Linux due to Windows’ forcing my PC to update to Windows 11 along with Copilot enabled. I later found out the term for this: “Enshittification”.
Along with my main computer running on CachyOS, my server runs on Ubuntu Server, it has given me a lot of sense of control back in my life reminding me why I love IT and technology: being able to mess about, configure, strip it all down & rebuild back up to how exactly I wanted it to be. This is why I like going forward into Linux Sysadmin path.
Purpose of this site
Section titled “Purpose of this site”Because I found myself forgetting commands when I was using the server, it made sense for me to create documentation. Otherwise I will forget any command I don’t use regularly.
It is also a motivation for me to look back, see how far I’ve come and what new skills I’ve developed. I really like the idea of automating processes and always constantly tweaking by configuring stuff. This led me to discovering new technologies like learning the concept of containerisation through Docker, encrypted backups and reverse proxy.
Cosplaying as sysadmin is great fun!
My Daily Driver
Section titled “My Daily Driver”After HDD shorted my main computer, I tested out the components and salvaged what I could get from it. An upgrade was needed anyway as my old daily driver was built in around 2015.
| Component | Spec |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X |
| RAM | 32GB DDR5 |
| GPU | Intel Arc A380 |
| Storage | 228GB SSD (OS) + 2TB M.2 NVMe |
| OS | CachyOS |
Server
Section titled “Server”An old PC that was collecting dust in the garage. This was originally bought around in 2010 for my mother as she was doing her art degree and needed to use photoshop. I’ve repurposed into a backup server, although it is currently being used as a server for now.
| Component | Spec |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Storage | 1TB |
| OS | Ubuntu Server |