SELF-HOSTED INFRASTRUCTURE

Designing a Complete Self-Hosted Business Infrastructure

Building a secure, production-ready infrastructure that combines virtualization, containerization, monitoring, automation, backups, and cloud services into one cohesive ecosystem.

Photo placeholder: Designing a Complete Self-Hosted Business Infrastructure

Project Type

Personal Project

Duration

Ongoing

Environment

On-Premise & Cloud

Role

Solutions Architect

Status

Active & Evolving

Infrastructure Overview

  • High availability with automated failover
  • Secure remote access via VPN & Zero Trust
  • Automated backups and disaster recovery
  • Centralized monitoring and alerting
  • All services containerized using Docker
  • Documentation & infrastructure as code

Core Services

Nextcloud
Vaultwarden
Pi-hole
Grafana
Prometheus
Loki
Portainer
Home Assistant
Immich
Paperless-ngx
Gitea
Jellyfin

+ Bitwarden RS, Uptime Kuma, AdGuard Home, and more

Key Metrics

  • 99.98% uptime
  • 40+ Docker containers
  • 20+ core services
  • 25TB+ usable storage
  • 1Gbps internal network
  • Zero public data loss

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture Overview

Internet → Cloudflare → Firewall (OPNsense)
Reverse Proxy (Nginx Proxy Manager) + VPN Server (WireGuard)
Proxmox VE Cluster · Docker Host · LXC Containers
Primary Storage (ZFS Pool) → Backup Server (Proxmox Backup) → Offsite Backup (Cloud)

TECHNOLOGY STACK

Tools & Platforms Used

Proxmox
Docker
LXC
ZFS
Ceph
Nginx Proxy Manager
Cloudflare
WireGuard
Ansible
Git
Prometheus
Grafana
Loki
Portainer

KEY METRICS

Project Metrics

99.98%

Uptime

45

Docker Containers

12

Virtual Machines

5.6TB

Total Storage Used

28

Services Running

100%

Self-Managed

HARDWARE

Hardware Overview

  • 2 × Dell PowerEdge R4302× Xeon E5-2630 v4 · 128GB RAM
  • 1 × Synology RS1221+8-Bay NAS · 32GB RAM
  • Network GearMikroTik CRS309 · 10G Switch · UniFi APs
  • UPS & PowerAPC Smart-UPS 3000VA
  • Rack & Cooling42U Rack · 2× Exhaust Fans · PDU

LESSONS LEARNED

What Worked Well

Automation, monitoring and documentation made management effortless and reliable.

Challenges Faced

Hardware limitations, power consumption and a constant learning curve.

Future Improvements

Expanding storage, adding 10G networking, and implementing Kubernetes for selected services.

Key Takeaways

Plan ahead, automate everything, and always have a backup strategy.

PROJECT GALLERY

Screenshots & Diagrams

Lab Overview

Proxmox Dashboard

Docker Containers

Network Topology

Grafana Dashboard

Server Rack

Storage (ZFS)

Backup Server

Nextcloud Dashboard

Home Assistant

* Real screenshots go here once available — these are placeholders.

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