Homelab

After setting up a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 VPS, the first priority is hardening it before hosting anything public. In this guide, I’ll walk through the essential steps: securing access with SSH keys, disabling password login, creating a non-root sudo user, enabling automatic updates, setting up a firewall, and adding brute-force protection with Fail2Ban. I’ve always wanted to own a VPS as a small corner of the internet where I could run web apps, test scripts, and learn by doing. But I could never quite justify the monthly cost or find the time to manage one. Instead, I stayed busy with virtual machines on my PC and laptop, which kept my curiosity satisfied for a while. ...

In this article, I will cover the steps I took in OpenMediaVault to export all the data from Firefly-III to Unraid on my new server, EVE 6, a ZimaBlade powered by Unraid . As I transition to this new setup, I document my process and progress to facilitate future improvements and enhancements. I also hope this article will inspire others to tackle similar projects. ...

Learn to assemble a high‑performance Unraid NAS on a ZimaBlade board, with detailed hardware setup, OS install, Tailscale VPN and share configuration. The Evolution of EVE: Lessons from a Home Lab Enthusiast In an era where data drives everything from work to leisure, the Network-Attached Storage (NAS) concept has moved from corporate server rooms to the homes of tech enthusiasts. My story of starting with OpenMediaVault on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ in 2019 and evolving through a series of hardware upgrades and software experiments to my current ZimaBlade powered by Unraid EVE 6.0 is a testament to the power of curiosity, adaptability, and the never-ending quest for optimization. ...