About Me

Hi, I’m Tyler.

I’m passionate about technology and currently work as a Solutions Architect in the IT field.

I'm an experienced IT professional who is skilled in managing complex IT infrastructure, including cloud solutions, networking, systems administration, virtualization, and containerization.

I'm also an avid homelab-er, and run a complex homelab setup serving many different solutions.

Skills

Certifications

Homelab

Background

I started my homelab for the same reason many people do - to build a centralized media server solution. I enjoyed the process so much that I wondered, what other cool things can I do, all within my own network? I also realized that having a home server (or two, or three!) was a great medium for learning technology concepts that help me in my professional career. How often do you get to enjoy training? Not often, so I definitely wanted to continue on this journey.

Early Days

The early days of my homelab journey basically started with an ISP router/firewall/AP/switch combination machine in passthrough mode, a Dell Optiplex running Proxmox hypervisor software, a virtualized instance of PFSense, and a Synology NAS. And for good measure, I threw in a UPS for those unexpected outages. This worked well, but it was fairly cluttered setup (all being right next to my desk in my office) and I had aspirations of having a dedicated firewall appliance and a more official feeling rack-mount setup.

Transition Period

This period was best defined by rapid learning and growth.

Rack:

After extensive research and a growing need for better server organization, I finally invested in a 25U server rack. It was a game-changer - allowing me to consolidate all the machines that had been scattered across my office floor into a clean, vertically stacked setup. It also gave me the opportunity to upgrade some of my Optiplex-style deployments to more powerful, rack-mounted ATX chassis built with standard off-the-shelf components. The rack made proper cable management possible, using a PDU and a passthrough panel to route all my cables to the back side. This at least let me hide the big wad of cables.

Firewall/Security:

This period marked the transition from a virtualized pfSense instance to a physical one. I came across a free Sophos XG appliance that was in great condition and ready for repurposing. Moving to this new hardware gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of networking, firewalls, and security fundamentals — including subnet configuration, private VPN hosting, and firewall rule management.

Virtualization:

One of the first technologies I started experimenting with was virtualization and hypervisors. The ability to rapidly deploy virtual machines for projects is incredibly useful, but my favorite aspect has been the ability to create snapshots and take backups of VM disks. That functionality has saved me more than a few times.

Docker:

I've taken a container-first approach in my homelab, with a few exceptions. I began with simple Docker deployments using Docker Compose stacks directly on the host machines.

Over time, this setup evolved into a more automated and streamlined system. Now, I use a mono-repo codebase that's managed through Git, along with a self-hosted Renovate bot to monitor and manage container image versions. Deployment syncing is handled automatically using Portainer, working in tandem with Docker Compose. This setup allows for a largely hands-off deployment process where my main involvement is reviewing the merge requests created by Renovate for container updates.

Kubernetes:

The natural next step after containerizing workloads is moving to Kubernetes. Once I became comfortable with Docker, I began transitioning some workloads to a Kubernetes instance—most notably, Ingress NGINX for reverse proxy duties.

I use NGINX to proxy services inside the cluster, much like a majority of Kubernetes deployments. However, I also use it to proxy services outside the cluster, including appliances like a firewall and services running in Docker. This setup allows me to use a custom domain with trusted SSL certificates provided by Let's Encrypt.

Current State

Over time the homelab setup has evolved, but the core concepts are mostly all there. Here are some of the big changes:

Favorite Solutions

Over the course of my homelabbing journey, I’ve tried many different solutions, both open source and proprietary. Below are some of my favorites!