Hey there! If you’re reading this, you’re about to embark on an adventure with me that I never thought I’d start.
I’m Andrei, and since this is my first blog post, let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m a Romanian expat in Italy; I started my career in civil engineering 20 years ago, working in that field for more than a decade before switching to IT. Today, I’m a Platform Engineer with extensive experience in cloud infrastructure and DevOps. I’m also an ex-professional rowing athlete with enough national titles to impress my daughters when I tell them stories. I’ve built production environments from scratch for financial institutions, architected Kubernetes clusters for different industries, and implemented GitOps workflows.
But here’s the thing: I’ve never built a homelab before and I’ve certainly never written a blog post.
Today, I’m kicking off something terribly exciting for me. I’m starting a homelab from scratch, and I’m going to document every step, every failure, and every “am înțeles!” moment (e.g., Romanian for something like “aha!” in English). Why? Because I want to share my real-world experience in a way that anyone can understand and follow along with. And honestly, I need a new exciting challenge to keep my curiosity alive.
This isn’t just about tinkering with servers. It’s about exploring technology in a hands-on way, learning from mistakes, and maybe inspiring others to try something similar.
Why a homelab? Why now?#
I love technology. I’ve always been fascinated by how things work under the hood. I already have a decent setup at home: some servers running various services, a NAS for storage, an Orange Pi for lightweight experiments, and Jellyfin for media streaming. I’ve worked extensively with containers and cloud infrastructure in production environments.
But I’ve never had the courage to take it to the next level and build a proper homelab. What if it took too much time away from my family? What if I invested time and money only to give up halfway? Those fears held me back.
But today, in the AI era, what pushes me to start writing down my experiences is that I want future proof that what I’m doing is built by human hands, not generated by an AI agent. My unique perspective and real-world lessons deserve to be documented authentically.
Now, I’m challenging myself to push past that. A homelab represents the perfect opportunity to learn deeply, experiment freely, and document the process. It’s a safe space to fail, learn, and grow. And by sharing this process, I hope to show others that it’s okay to start small and build from there.
What will this blog cover?#
Honestly, I’m not entirely sure yet. This is as much an exploration for me as it is for you. But I know for sure it will include:
- My Experience: Drawing from real-world scenarios and problems I face in my job
- Kubernetes Cluster: Definitely want to build and manage a proper K8s setup
- Real-World Scenarios: Simulating production-like challenges and solutions
Not all posts will be deeply technical. Sometimes it might just be a quick “bit” like “Today I solved a big problem in this way” or “Here’s what I learned from this failure.” Let’s see what the future brings … I’m keeping it flexible and following where the path takes me.
The challenge I’m embracing#
This is new territory for me. I’ve never written publicly before, never shared my thought processes, never admitted when I don’t know something. But that’s exactly why I’m doing this. Growth happens outside your comfort zone, right?
I’m not promising perfection. In fact, I guarantee there will be posts about spectacular failures and “lessons learned the hard way.” But that’s the beauty of a homelab … it’s a safe space to break things and learn.
Who’s this for?#
For anyone interested in technology, from beginners to experts, though some posts will dive deep into technical details to keep things concise. Whether you’re:
- A complete beginner curious about what all this cloud stuff is about
- A developer wanting to understand the infrastructure side
- A sysadmin looking to level up your skills
- Someone with some experience who wants to experiment without risk
- Just someone curious about technology
If you’re here, you’re welcome. I’ll explain concepts as clearly as possible, share my reasoning for decisions, and try to make complex topics accessible. But be prepared for some in-depth technical explorations!
What’s next?#
I’m not sure exactly what the next post will be yet; I’m still figuring this out as I go. But it will likely involve starting with my current setup and building from there. Maybe assessing my home network, or choosing some hardware, or just documenting my first attempts at something new.
Whatever it is, I’ll share the process openly, including the uncertainties and learning moments.
If this post has sparked your curiosity, it means my first post was successful. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll join me for the next posts.
Andrei