simlal.dev VPS Homelab

My VPS homelab setup with simple docker-compose stacks and Caddy as a reverse proxy & https cert manager.

Setup

See GUIDE.md for detailed setup instructions and security considerations.

Architecture

Structure of VPS home directory from a non-root but sudo user:

• ~/infra/ - Caddy and Kuma docker-compose stacks
• ~/apps/ - Other apps
• ~/tools/ - Other tools
• ~/actions-runners/ - Self-hosted GitHub Actions runners as a systemd service

Infra

• Caddy as a reverse proxy and cert manager. Create a single caddy network for all containers to share.
• GH Actions runners on VPS for CI/CD (self-hosted runners as systemd services). One runner for infra, one for each app repo.
• Kuma for observability. Accessible via Tailscale net OR kuma.simlal.dev

Apps

• Redirect here: simlal.dev (Recursion!)
• Static healthcheck: healthcheck.simlal.dev
• curl-able CV (Next): curl-cv.simlal.dev
• ...

Observability

Container monitoring

Using Kuma service mesh for observability. Accessible via kuma.simlal.dev reverse proxied by Caddy.

Manually configure Kuma monitors for each app/container on dashboard.

Example:

Caddy static file healthcheck

Caddy serves a static file at healthcheck subdomain: healthcheck.simlal.dev.

Notifications

Configure SMTP alerts in Kuma to send email notifications for each service.

Example email subject when stopping the Caddy container: Homelab (main healthcheck - https://simlal.dev/health): 🔴 Down

GitHub Actions CI/CD

Using self-hosted GitHub Actions runners on the VPS for CI/CD. Push-based model for simplicity (no webhooks or polling).

Runners

Repo level self-hosted runners as systemd services on the VPS.

Caddy + infra monitoring deployment

All stacks are deployed via GitHub Actions workflows in this repo.

Apps deployment

Similar push-based GitHub Actions workflows for each app repo to deploy to VPS.