Home Lab

How it works

The story

1. An old laptop, a new NAS

   The first step was turning it into a proper NAS with OpenMediaVault: users, permissions and, above all, a folder structure that keeps personal data, backups and Docker volumes apart. That way I can tinker with containers without fear of breaking my photos or documents.

2. Security first

   Before exposing anything to the internet I had to close doors: my own user with admin rights for everyday work, controlled SSH access and really understanding what every open port means. It was my first hands-on cybersecurity lesson.

3. From network drive to app server

   With a stable base came Docker, and Portainer let me manage containers, read their logs in real time and see at a glance what was running. That's when the laptop stopped being a network drive and became a server.

4. Automating with n8n

   I wanted workflows that connect services and APIs, so I set up n8n with its database on an internal Docker network: only n8n can talk to it and nothing is exposed without reason.

5. Wrestling with the network

   This is where I hit the reality of home networks: internal and external ports, router forwarding and a public IP that changes whenever it likes. I solved it with dynamic DNS: a timer updates DuckDNS every five minutes, so the domains always point home.

6. September 2026

   The day I lost the server

   The server everything ran on was gone, and with it GestionBarber, VeoVeo, n8n and the portfolio. Instead of reinstalling in a rush, I first wrote a plan by layers (network, system, access, containers, proxy, backups and monitoring) and then rebuilt everything on this laptop in two days: a clean install, a fixed IP reserved on the router, the laptop set not to sleep when the lid closes, every service described in Docker Compose and Caddy in front with automatic HTTPS.

7. Today

   The base for everything I publish

   That laptop serves this site, the Café Jardón demo, GestionBarber, the VeoVeo API and n8n, each with its own domain and certificate. And it's all documented step by step, so next time rebuilding it is a matter of hours.

Problems I solved

• The problem

  The OpenMediaVault panel was using port 80, so Caddy couldn't obtain HTTPS certificates.

  How I solved it

  I moved the panel to another port, reachable only from home, and left 80 and 443 to Caddy.

• The problem

  My home public IP changes without warning, and the domains stopped pointing to the server.

  How I solved it

  A systemd timer updates DuckDNS every five minutes and at boot.

• The problem

  Being a laptop, it went to sleep when the lid closed and dropped the connection.

  How I solved it

  I disabled lid and idle suspend: it now works closed, like a server.

• The problem

  At first every service was installed “as it came”, which made it hard to rebuild.

  How I solved it

  Now everything lives in Docker Compose: a few files describe the whole server and rebuilding it is repeatable.