Ask HN: Do You Have a Homelab?

15 points by ricardbejarano 73 days ago | 7 comments

I'm Ricard Bejarano, and together with O'Reilly, I'm writing The Homelab Handbook, the definitive guide to homelabbing and self-hosting.

To inspire readers, we want the last chapter to be a series of real world homelab examples, to show there's not one prescription for what a homelab is—a homelab is what you make it. As such, we're looking for homelabbers that would like to have their homelabs featured in the book. We're looking for variety, in hardware, software, and scale—from a single Raspberry Pi, to full-height racks in the basement—so don't be shy to share yours.

If you'd like to submit yours to be featured in the book, please complete the following form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLc16kBFDY3liuEz_a40CF1sYz7yeqPmy1CKVhufHNSzjhIA/viewform

Form submission deadline is Apr 12th, 2026. We will reach out to all submitters shortly after that with a response on whether your homelab was selected or not. If we accept yours, you will be asked to share more details so I can write a proper section about it. Your answers below will not be published, they're only for selection purposes.

ricardbejarano 73 days ago |

(OP) If you'd like to submit yours to be featured in the book, please complete the following form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLc16kBFDY3liuEz_a...

mindcrime 73 days ago |

The main thing I self-host (at home, as opposed to in the cloud) these days is Ollama. I did build a big, beefy server with an AMD RX 7090XTX card a couple of years ago for AI experimenting and the main thing I do with it lately is run Ollama for local models.

I self-host a bunch of other stuff (bugzilla, mediawiki, suitecrm, apache roller, etc) but all that stuff is on VPS's from OVH.

ricardbejarano 73 days ago | |

If you haven't yet, please submit yours if you'd be happy to have it featured in the examples section of the book.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLc16kBFDY3liuEz_a...

ddxv 73 days ago |

Yes, it was probably one of my better decisions and investments in the past years. I run a ton of things I never would have paid to run in the cloud and feel in control. I've even started making money from one of the projects.

Tons of small things feel nice, taking notes and I don't have to use Google Docs if I don't want. Watching a movie from my home media center etc

j_koz 71 days ago |

I hope there is a chapter on security in there. Its really fun building a homeserver but can be daunting to be responsible for your own security, especially if you self host home-assistant or sensitive services.

ricardbejarano 71 days ago | |

There definitely will be! One of my main goals is to bridge that gap.

andyjohnson0 72 days ago |

I've never been very clear what a "homelab" actually is. Anyone care to offer a definitin or description?