Repository: github.com/funkybooboo/homelab

A self-hosted infrastructure platform I operate as a 5-node Proxmox VE cluster, backed by TrueNAS Scale and fronted by a Tailscale mesh VPN. The cluster runs around 19 LXC workloads under high-availability management.

Architecture

  • Compute: 5-node Proxmox VE cluster — four x86_64 nodes (pve-framework, pve-thermaltake, pve-aspires, pve-aspiree15) plus a Raspberry Pi running PxVirt (the ARM port of Proxmox VE) as a quorum-only witness, giving a 5-vote majority across mixed x86/ARM hardware.
  • Storage backend: TrueNAS Scale (tnas) exporting NFS for shared container rootdisks and nightly vzdump backups, with per-node local-lvm for node-local storage.
  • Workload model: LXC containers for density, managed as HA resources via ha-manager so the cluster automatically restarts a failed guest on a surviving node.
  • Networking: Tailscale mesh VPN with tailscale serve --bg --https 443 giving each service automatic TLS-terminated HTTPS ingress on its *.ts.net hostname — no exposed public ports.

Operations

Real-world cluster work performed across the deployment:

  • NFS kernel-thread recovery and nfsd tuning
  • Stale backup-lock clearing following NFS outages
  • HA service failover and recovery via ha-manager
  • Version-skew management across mixed x86/ARM nodes (PVE vs PxVirt)

Technology Stack

  • Hypervisor: Proxmox VE, PxVirt (ARM)
  • Storage: TrueNAS Scale, NFS, LVM-thin (local-lvm), btrfs snapshots
  • Networking: Tailscale (mesh VPN, Serve, HTTPS termination)
  • Containers: LXC, pct, ha-manager