Homelab

Using GitOps principals and workflow to manage a lightweight k3s cluster.

Infrastructure

I've used Techno Tim's k3s-ansible playbook to deploy a 3 node (1 master & 2 workers) cluster on 3 Proxmox VMs.

Servers

1. Proxmox

Description	Spec
Server	Acer Nitro 5
RAM	32GB
CPU	Intel i7 11th gen
HDD	1TB
SSD	256GB

2. TrueNAS Scale

Description	Spec
Server	SONY VAIO - SVE14126CXB (2012)
RAM	8GB (maxed out)
CPU	Intel i5-3210M
SSD (os)	256GB
SDD	1TB

Proxmox & Truenas(bottom) servers

Setting it up

1. Create flux namespace and the necessary sops secret

export SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE='<path-to-key.txt>'

make bootstrap0

2. Flux installation

export GITHUB_TOKEN='ghp_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'

make bootstrap

Backup Strategy

This homelab implements a comprehensive three-tier backup strategy covering databases, application data, and file systems.

Database Backups

PostgreSQL (Daily Dumps)

• Tool: prodrigestivill/postgres-backup-local:17 via Kubernetes CronJob
• Schedule: Daily at midnight
• Retention: 60 days daily, 8 weeks weekly, 6 months monthly
• Storage: 50GB NFS persistent volume
• Covers: Immich, Movary, Fresh RSS, Vikunja, Speedtest Tracker

SQLite (Real-time Replication)

• Tool: Litestream → Cloudflare R2
• Schedule: Real-time continuous replication
• Covers: Navidrome, Jellyfin, Jellyseerr, Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Actual Budget

File System Backups

Local & External Storage

• Tool: Restic
• Schedule: Daily at 03:00 AM
• Retention: 90 days local
• Storage: External HDD (/home/admin/seagate/backups)

Cloud Sync

• Tool: Rclone → Backblaze B2
• Schedule: Every 2 days at 04:30 AM
• Sources: Personal files (/mnt/mega/aditya), Photos (/mnt/mega/photos)

Backup Locations

Type	Primary	Secondary	Cloud
PostgreSQL	NFS Storage	-	-
SQLite	Local SQLite	-	Cloudflare R2
File System	TrueNAS	External HDD	Backblaze B2

Recovery

All backup credentials are encrypted with SOPS/Age and managed through GitOps. Recovery procedures involve:

1. Database restores from daily dumps or real-time replicas
2. File system restores using restic restore from local or cloud repositories
3. Application data persistence through NFS storage class

Requirements

• sops (secrets management)
• age (encryption)
• precommit

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Resources

• Proxmox Cloud init Template - https://technotim.live/posts/cloud-init-cloud-image/