Patrick Tierney

[ INFRASTRUCTURE ]

Homelab Infrastructure

A central project I maintain is a self-hosted Linux server used to run multiple services in a containerized environment.

Systems Administration & Storage

The server environment is built on Ubuntu Server and utilizes Logical Volume Management (LVM) to provide modularity and data isolation across the physical storage layer. This setup allows for dedicated volumes for different service tiers:

  • NAS Storage: Dedicated drive for general network assets and internal file sharing.
  • Private Vault: An isolated volume specifically allocated for sensitive data synchronization via Nextcloud.

Network & Container Security

Security is managed through a "Least Privilege" model, focusing on reducing the attack surface of the internal network.

  • Firewall Hardening (iptables): I specifically implemented iptables for host-level traffic filtering because Docker ignores UFW. By default, Docker manipulates the kernel's PREROUTING chain, allowing container traffic to bypass standard UFW rules. Using iptables directly ensures firewall policies are enforced at the kernel level.
  • Zero-Trust Remote Access: External access is handled through an encrypted Cloudflare Tunnel rather than NAT port forwarding. This allows services to be accessed through a domain while the host remains inaccessible from the public internet.
  • DNS Filtering: A Pi-hole instance provides network-wide DNS-level filtering to block malicious domains and telemetry.

Current Self-Hosted Services