/tags/homelab/ Recent content in Homelab on My Blogs Hugo en-us Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/zabbix-homelab-monitoring/ Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/zabbix-homelab-monitoring/ <h2 id="-problem">🧩 Problem</h2> <p>I wanted a centralized monitoring platform for my homelab that could monitor:</p> <ul> <li>On-premises VMware ESXi hosts</li> <li>Linux virtual machines</li> <li>Windows systems</li> <li>HPE iLO hardware management</li> <li>Cloud-hosted workloads</li> </ul> <p>The challenge was that most of my infrastructure lives behind NAT at home, and I did not want to expose services publicly or configure complex port forwarding.</p> <hr> <h2 id="-solution-overview">🛠️ Solution Overview</h2> <p>I built a <strong>hybrid monitoring architecture</strong> using:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Zabbix 7.0 LTS</strong> hosted in Azure</li> <li><strong>ZeroTier</strong> for secure private connectivity</li> <li><strong>Zabbix Proxy</strong> running locally in my homelab</li> <li><strong>VMware API monitoring</strong> for ESXi</li> <li><strong>SNMP monitoring</strong> for HPE iLO</li> </ul> <p>This design allows cloud-hosted monitoring while keeping home infrastructure private.</p> /posts/adguard-setup-for-blocking-ads/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/adguard-setup-for-blocking-ads/ <p>Network-wide ad blocking using AdGuard Home deployed as a VM on ESXi. Blocks ads, trackers, and malicious domains at the DNS level — before they reach any device on the network.</p> <hr> <h2 id="-environment">🖥️ Environment</h2> <ul> <li><strong>Hypervisor:</strong> VMware ESXi</li> <li><strong>VM OS:</strong> Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS</li> <li><strong>VM Specs:</strong> 3 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60GB disk</li> <li><strong>AdGuard Home Version:</strong> Latest stable</li> </ul> <hr> <h2 id="-step-1-create-the-vm-on-esxi">🚀 Step 1: Create the VM on ESXi</h2> <p>Created a new VM in the ESXi web UI with the following settings:</p> /posts/setup-esxi-8-in-an-optiplex/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/setup-esxi-8-in-an-optiplex/ <h2 id="-problem">🧩 Problem</h2> <p>I attempted to install ESXi 8 on my Dell OptiPlex homelab machine, but during boot, I encountered a <strong>Pink Screen of Death (PSOD)</strong> with errors like:</p> <ul> <li>Fatal CPU mismatch on feature</li> <li>HW feature incompatibility detected</li> </ul> <h2 id="image-description">This prevented ESXi from installing or booting successfully. !<img alt="Image Description" loading="lazy" src="/images/Pasted%20image%2020260320194350.png"></h2> <h2 id="-root-cause">🛠️ Root Cause</h2> <p>The issue is caused by modern Intel CPUs (12th Gen and newer) using a <strong>hybrid architecture</strong> with:</p> <ul> <li>Performance cores (P-cores)</li> <li>Efficiency cores (E-cores)</li> </ul> <p>ESXi expects uniform CPU cores, so it crashes when it detects different core types.</p> /posts/setting-up-cloudflare-ddns-on-ubuntu-for-dynamic-home-ip/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/setting-up-cloudflare-ddns-on-ubuntu-for-dynamic-home-ip/ <hr> <p>title: Setting up Cloudflare DDNS on Ubuntu using cloudflare-ddns-updater date: 2026-03-20 draft: false tags:</p> <ul> <li>cloudflare</li> <li>ddns</li> <li>homelab</li> <li>ubuntu</li> <li>automation</li> </ul> <hr> <h2 id="-problem">🧩 Problem</h2> <p>My home network uses a dynamic public IP address, which changes periodically. This breaks remote access to my self-hosted services.</p> <hr> <h2 id="-solution-overview">🛠️ Solution Overview</h2> <p>I used an open-source tool (cloudflare-ddns-updater) to automatically update my Cloudflare DNS records whenever my public IP changes.</p> <hr> <h2 id="-environment">🔧 Environment</h2> <ul> <li>Ubuntu Server (DDNS host)</li> <li>Cloudflare domain</li> <li>API Token with DNS edit permissions</li> <li>Git installed</li> </ul> <hr> <h2 id="-step-1-create-cloudflare-api-token">🚀 Step 1: Create Cloudflare API Token</h2> <ol> <li>Log in to Cloudflare</li> <li>Go to <strong>My Profile → API Tokens</strong></li> <li>Create a token with: <ul> <li>Zone → DNS → Edit</li> <li>Zone Resources → Specific Zone (your domain)</li> </ul> </li> </ol> <p>Save the token securely.</p> /posts/wazuh-siem-+-ssh-attack-mitigation/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 /posts/wazuh-siem-+-ssh-attack-mitigation/ <h2 id="-problem">🧩 Problem</h2> <p>I wanted to simulate a real-world security environment in my homelab where I could detect and respond to SSH brute-force attacks and at the same time monitor my devices</p> <hr> <h2 id="-solution-overview">🛠️ Solution Overview</h2> <p>I deployed Wazuh as a SIEM solution and configured it to detect SSH login attempts and automatically block malicious IPs.</p> <hr> <h2 id="-environment">🔧 Environment</h2> <ul> <li>Ubuntu Server (Wazuh Manager)</li> <li>Linux target machine (with SSH enabled)</li> <li>Public exposure via port forwarding</li> </ul> <hr> <h2 id="-step-1-install-wazuh">🚀 Step 1: Install Wazuh</h2> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-bash" data-lang="bash"><span style="display:flex;"><span>curl -sO https://packages.wazuh.com/4.14/wazuh-install.sh <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;&amp;</span> sudo bash ./wazuh-install.sh -a </span></span></code></pre></div><p>After installation, accessed dashboard:</p>