Objective

I want to give first my public website a more professional look and feel.

Next, I want to better organize my documentation and manage my knowledge.

I also want to start by creating an application development and deployment server environment on my home server (called “nas-devdepserver”).
For now, I only want to provide a source code Git repository manager, a build server, and a binary registry as central tools.

Result

1 - Upgrade public website to a professional look and feel

I started by examining and comparing the layouts of many existing websites on the internet.
I also read numerous reviews discussing and comparing website layouts,
and learned about the presentation standards used for public-facing websites on PCs and mobile devices.
In my opinion, the two most important qualities for public-facing layouts are:

easy-to-use functionality
visual appeal

I opted for a layout similar to that of the VRT NWS 👆 website.
This layout has a fresh, uncluttered look and is also easy to use on both desktop and mobile devices.

Next, I searched for information to implement this look and feel.
I still had a lot to learn, especially in the area of visual appeal:

more advanced use of CSS and Tailwind CSS:
responsive positioning and sizing of elements,
use of absolute, relative, and flexbox layouts,
dynamic styling with calc() in CSS,
use of clipping, overflow, and aspect ratio for images and videos
access to royalty-free videos, photos, illustrations, and backgrounds:
I now have a list of free sites that collect these useful elements
better organization options for Hugo layouts and shortcodes
(this made maintaining my site much easier)

Finally, I also explored available services for analyzing and tracking website traffic.
“Google Analytics” or “Umami” are often chosen as free solutions.
Because I already hosted my website on Cloudflare, I ultimately chose Cloudflare’s free “Web Analytics” service.
After configuring this service, I can now easily track the following metrics via a dashboard:
page view history, device OS, and browser used by visitors, etc.

2 - Simplify knowledge and documentation management for HomeLab technology

While carrying out my computer projects, I learned a great deal about computer technology.
I found most of my information through Google search and YouTube videos.
I maintainzd all the references for good information sources and created my own documentation using Markdown files.
Because the volume of information is becoming very large and difficult to structure in files,
maintaining/expanding it and retrieving information has become very difficult.

Therefore, I sought a different approach with software support to simplify knowledge management and documentation creation.
I brought all the information already available together in categories and this took me a lot of time and effort.

After thorough research, I opted for the “Obsidian” software (versus Notion, Capacities).
The most commonly used standard approach by researchers is the “Zettelkasten” method.
However, developers and devops tend to use a more personalized approach with their own structure in Obsidian.
This knowledge management is completely new to me, and I choose to start with my own approach.
That’s why I created two Obsidian knowledge bases or “vaults” (abbreviated “OV”):

“OV-ComputerTech”:
Contains general information about computer technology that I can share with others.
“OV-MyHomeLab”:
Contains specific information about my own software, computers, and network configurations that only I can access.

To make these Obsidian Vaults accessible everywhere and to maintain backups,
I created git repositories for these vaults.
New knowledge will henceforth be stored in these Obsidian vaults,
and existing information will gradually be incorporated into these vaults as well.

3 - Simplify the installation of server software

In previous projects, I manually installed Proxmox as OS on my NAS/Home server.
Afterward, I also installed the LXC container “nas-fileserver” and the virtual machine “LinuxMint” on this “proxmox01” node.
In this project, I want to install several new LXC containers (with software installed)
which will be used for the development and deployment of custom applications:
“home-pvehelper”, “home-utilityserver”, “home-devdepserver”, “home-testappserver”, and “home-prodappserver”.
Later, I will also reorganize the existing “proxmox01”, “nas-fileserver”, and “LinuxMint”, reinstall them, and rename them
to “pve”, “home-fileserver”, and “demo-LinuxMint”.
This is the beginning of Platform Engineering which I will further elaborate in the following posts.
See Architecture of my home server 👆 for the final situation of this project.

Because this is very repetitive work, I looked for a way to automate software installation.
First, I implemented an improved LXC Container Template “templ-ubuntu”.
To this end, I first learned the posibilities of “Bash Scripting” in much more detail.
I created bash scripts to create, destroy and cloned a lxc container using proxmox “pct” command.
Next, I needed to find a way to install additional software more easily.
In “templ-ubuntu,” I installed “Curl”, “Docker”, “Stow”, “Git”, and “Zsh” via new bash install scripts.

??? TODO???

4 - Simplify referencing services and applications on home network

First, I wanted to give servers in my home network a logical hostname so I could easily refer to them.
Because I didn’t want to host my own DNS server, I used subdomains of my registered public domain name.
For my registered domain name “robertthecoder.org,” I linked subdomains as logical hostnames to private IP addresses.
Since these are private IP addresses, they are only accessible within my local network.
To easily distinguish these subdomains for private IP addresses from other subdomains, I always prefix them with “home-”.

To easily access all my services and applications,
I created my own home dashboard/portal with links organized into groups.
For the implementation, I chose the popular and free “Homarr” software
(versus Homer, Heimdall, Glance, Homepage, Dashy).
I also gave this server the DNS name “home-utilityserver.robertthecoder.org”.
I also gave the “proxmox01” node an internal DNS name “home-pve.robertthecoder.org”.

Most services and applications require a password for access.
To manage these passwords, I’ve been using the free version of “Bitwarden” (vs. “KeePassXC”).
However, I’m now switching entirely to the free community version of “Passbolt”.
I installed Passbolt on my home server in my home network.

So in this section I installed software Homarr and Passbolt on “home-utilityserver”.

5 - Server tools for developing and deploying web apps

My Windows development PC already had “Git,” “VSCode” with “Git Graph,” and “MSEdit” installed.
I also installed “Docker,” “Podman,” and “Portainer” on my Windows PC.

In previous projects, I’ve used the public github.com site.
For the development and deployment of my own applications, I want to use the Git repository manager.
Because I want to host this Git repository manager myself on my home server,
I compared popular software: “GitLab - Community Edition” and “Gitea - Free Edition”.

I first learned the basics of GitLab on the public gitlab.com site.
There, I learned not only the basic Git commands but also the additional GitLab functionality.
A simple HelloWorld application was created and saved using a GitLab CI pipeline.
A container image was created for this example application using Docker,
which was then stored in the Gitlab Container Registry.

Because this GitLab software is resource-intensive and offers too extensive functionality for my needs,
I ultimately opted for the “Gitea” software.
Gitea is a lightweight GitHub alternative, specifically designed for self-hosting and includes:

“Gitea” (vs. “GitLab”, “GitHub”) as a source code repository
“Gitea Actions” (“GitHub Actions” alternative, vs. “Gitlab CI & Runners”, “Jenkins”) as a build server
“Gitea Package Registry” (vs. “Gitlab Registry”, “Nexus”) as a registry for binaries and OCI images

In my “nas-devdepserver” environment on my home server I have installed “MSEdit”, “Docker”, “Podman” and “Portainer”.
I now also installed the latest free version of Gitea.
On the local Gitea server, I first created one group “robertthecoder” (my “company”) on the root level.
In this top group, I created 3 sub-groups: “app,” “util,” and “example”.
From now on, projects will always be created in one of these subgroups.

So in this section I installed the Gitea software alongside Ansible and Semaphore on “home-devdepserver”. I also gave this server the internal DNS name “home-devdepserver.robertthecoder.org”.

6 - Installation JetKVM

The IP-based KVM from JetKVM was recently delivered (see blog post from October 1, 2025).
This KVM was connected to my home server and tested.
I will use this JetKVM later to completely reinstall the existing “proxmox01” and “nas-fileserver” as “pve"and “home-fileserver” using script files.