this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023

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125

What do you use to document your home lab? (lemmy.procrastinati.org)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by SeeJayEmm@lemmy.procrastinati.org to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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My home lab has a mild amount of complexity and I'd like practice some good habits about documenting it. Stuff like, what each system does, the OS, any notable software installed and, most importantly, any documentation around configuration or troubleshooting.

i.e. I have an internal SMTP relay that uses a letsencrypt SSL cert that I need to use the DNS challenge to renew. I've got the steps around that sitting in a Google Doc. I've got a couple more google docs like that.

I don't want to get super complicated but I'd like something a bit more structured than a folder full of google docs. I'd also like to pull it in-house.

Thanks

Edit: I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten on this post so far. There have been a lot of tools suggested and some great discussion about methods. This will probably be my weekend now.

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[–] ChrislyBear@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm defining my service containers via GitLab and I deploy them via tagged and dockerized GitLab Runners.

If something fails, I change the runner tags for a service and it will be deployed on a different machine.

Incl case of a critical failiure, I just need to setup a Debian, install docker, load and run the GL runner image, maybe change some pipelines and rerun the deployment jobs.

Some things aren't documented well, yet. Like VPN config...

Ah yes, my router is able to access GitLab as well and pull the list of static routes etc. from it.

[–] Gutless2615@ttrpg.network 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As someone not super familiar working in Git I’d love more details about your documentation for your setup. I have most of my containers organized in compose stacks that make sense (eg all the Arrs are in a single compose with the download client) but actually documenting the structure is … well nonexistent.

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[–] dr_robot@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I deploy as much as I possibly can via Ansible. Then the Ansible code serves as the documentation. I also keep the underlying OS the same on all machines to avoid different OS conventions. All my machines run Debian. The few things I cannot express in Ansible, such as network topology, I draw a diagram for in draw.io, but that's it.

Also, why not automate the certificate renewal with certbot? I have two reverse proxies and they renew their certificates themselves.

[–] ttk@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is the way

[–] Janis@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

psssst. ansible is red hat.

red hat bad.

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[–] Johnny5@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I run a local MediaWiki appliance from turnkeylinux, super easy to spin up in proxmox.

[–] happyhippo@feddit.it 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I have a git repo for it, needless to say. And so README.md plus a network diagram from https://app.diagrams.net/

[–] jackoneill@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I made myself a wiki in my helpdesk system - I use osticket to send me various email alerts to so I can track issues I need to fix, and they have a little wiki option.

Then one day that host was down and I needed some info and I was very irritated. Now all of those notes are in my Apple notes backed up in iCloud and searchable on whatever I’ve got handy so if I need info I can get the info

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[–] Omripresent@leddit.social 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I use a combination of netbox for the physical/logical network and server connectivity, and outline for text documentation of the different components.

[–] SeeJayEmm@lemmy.procrastinati.org 2 points 2 years ago

I think I looked at netbox a while back. I may circle back to it for the actual physical layer. If I remember the ipam didn't include network scanning tho.

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[–] gobbling871@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Comments inside the docker-compose.yml files?

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[–] Kcg@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Hackmd.io for simple markdown docs.

[–] markr@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use bookstack. Simple selfhosted wiki.

[–] kurotora@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

+1 for bookstack. I also selfhost a kanban with the services basic info and it's related status (pilot/test, production and to be decommissioned). At the beginning I used Planka, but now switched to Nextcloud Deck.

[–] ludw@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I'm using anytype.io, it's been pretty neat so far.

[–] haasie_237@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Capacities

[–] huojtkeg@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

The only thing I save in Google Drive are my notes just in case of disaster.

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[–] ComptitiveSubset@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I write down everything I built so for plus future plans in OneNote. This kind of defeats the purpose of self hosting but I want to keep a written copy complete off site in case if a complete loss. Plus I like OneNote. It’s actually a well designed product. Scripts, docker compose files and such are in GitHub.

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