Stop guessing your way through Home Assistant, Frigate & Proxmox.
Six focused guides that take you from "where do I even start" to a working, backed-up, hardened self-hosted stack — written from a homelab that actually runs these services every day. Real commands, real configuration files, and the pitfalls that cost the author weeks to find.
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$ pveperf # benchmark before you virtualize
$ vzdump 100 --mode snapshot --compress zstd
$ rsync -avz --delete /mnt/zfs/backup admin@offsite:/pool/backup
$ ufw default deny incoming && ufw allow 22/tcp
$ fail2ban-client status sshd
→ concrete steps, not vague advice.
Most homelab content is an hour of video for one command.
These are written references: problem → solution → exact steps → pitfalls → how to verify it worked.
Real commands, pasted verbatim
No "then configure your firewall" hand-waving. You get the actual vzdump, rsync, and ufw lines — with the flags explained.
The pitfalls are the product
Coral TPU not showing up in a VM. fail2ban locking you out of your own box. A "successful" backup that never restores. These are documented so you skip the pain.
Copy-paste templates included
Dashboard YAML, automation blueprints, docker-compose files, UFW rulesets, and backup hook scripts you can drop into your own stack and adapt.
Six guides, each a self-contained deep dive
Buy them individually, or get all six in the bundle below. Every guide includes its companion templates.
Home Assistant — Complete Setup Guide
From a blank box to a dashboard you actually use.
- Install, first boot, and a sane
configuration.yamlstructure with packages - Device integration: Zigbee/Z-Wave, ESPHome, and the REST API for custom devices
- Automations done right — triggers, conditions, and the YAML indentation trap that breaks them silently
- Lovelace dashboard layout that survives an entity rename
Frigate NVR — Cameras, AI Detection & Coral TPU
Reliable camera streams with real object detection.
- RTSP/ffmpeg stream setup that stops eating your CPU
- Coral TPU passthrough — PCIe and USB, including the driver pitfalls in LXC/VM
- Tuning
detectors,zones, andmin_scoreso you stop missing events - MQTT events into Home Assistant, and the hidden-data cleanup under NFS mounts
Proxmox — Backups & Disaster Recovery
A backup you've never restored is a hope, not a plan.
- Scheduled
vzdumpsnapshots with sane retention so the disk doesn't fill up - Off-site sync that actually verifies, not just copies
- The temperature cascade — auto-shutdown before your hardware cooks itself
- A real restore drill: recovering a VM in under 30 minutes
Homelab Security — Hardening Your Self-Hosted Stack
Lock down what you've exposed to the internet.
- UFW rules that allowlist your own IP before you enable the firewall
fail2ban+ CrowdSec: catch brute-force attempts, don't lock yourself out- SSH hardening — key-only auth, no root login, a non-default port
- ModSecurity for exposed web apps, plus a security dashboard to watch it all
pfSense — Firewall & Network Defense
Your network's front door, done properly.
- Initial setup and VLAN segmentation for IoT vs. trusted devices
- Firewall rules in the right order — the top-down trap that silently blocks everything
- A lightweight DDoS-watch loop and centralised log collection
- NAT and port-forwarding without exposing your management interface
NAS & Off-Site Backup — TrueNAS/FreeNAS + rsync
Your data survives a fire, a drive failure, and a typo.
- SMB/NFS shares with permissions that don't turn into a free-for-all
- ZFS pools, snapshots, and a scrub schedule you'll actually keep
rsync/dumpoff-site with retention that fits your disks- The 3-2-1 strategy — and why RAID is not a backup
The Complete Homelab Blueprint
All six guides, every template, and the Starter Checklist — the full stack from blank metal to hardened, backed-up infrastructure.
- Home Assistant — Complete Setup Guide (€19)
- Frigate NVR — Cameras, AI Detection & Coral TPU (€24)
- Proxmox — Backups & Disaster Recovery (€19)
- Homelab Security — Hardening Your Stack (€24)
- pfSense — Firewall & Network Defense (€19)
- NAS & Off-Site Backup — TrueNAS + rsync (€19)
Loved the Starter Checklist first? Great — start free below.
Copy-paste configs you'd otherwise write from scratch
Each guide ships with its working files. No placeholders, no <insert-your-setup>.
Home Assistant config structured for growth, not spaghetti.
Reusable automation blueprints for lights, alerts, and presence.
Compose stacks for Frigate, monitoring, and helper services.
A firewall ruleset that doesn't lock you out of your own box.
Web-app protection tuned for self-hosted apps, not false positives.
Post-backup hooks that verify and notify instead of hoping.
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The Homelab Starter Checklist
A free PDF that walks you through your first build in the right order — so you don't discover "I should have planned backups" three months in.
- The 10 decisions to make before you buy hardware
- A network & VLAN plan sketched out on one page
- Backup & restore as step one, not an afterthought
- Which service to set up first (and why)
- No email spam — occasional genuinely useful updates, unsubscribe anytime
Free PDF, delivered by email. No credit card. Unsubscribe anytime.
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Questions, answered straight
Are these guides for beginners?
If you're comfortable with a terminal and have installed an operating system before, you're ready. The guides assume basic Linux familiarity but explain every command and flag — you won't be left to decode a block of unexplained configuration.
What hardware do I need?
Most guides run on a single used desktop or a small NUC-class machine. The Frigate guide covers both a CPU-only setup and the Coral TPU (PCIe or USB) for offloading detection. Nothing here requires enterprise hardware — the author's own stack runs on modest consumer gear.
Do the guides include copy-paste configuration files?
Yes. Each guide ships with its working templates — Home Assistant YAML, docker-compose files, UFW rulesets,
ModSecurity config, and Proxmox backup hook scripts. They're written for a real setup (with example IPs like
10.0.0.x), so you adapt a few values instead of writing from a blank page.
How are the guides delivered?
As downloadable PDFs (plus the template files), available immediately after checkout. You get lifetime updates — when a guide is revised for a new release or a better approach, you get the new version for free.
What's in the free Starter Checklist?
A short PDF that front-loads the decisions that are painful to change later: hardware, network/VLAN layout, storage and backup strategy, and the order to set up your first services. It's genuinely free — no card, no trial — and it's a good taste of how the paid guides are written.
What if a guide isn't right for me?
If a guide doesn't help you, email within 14 days for a full refund — no hoops. The goal is a working homelab, not a refund-window game.