This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
A homelab is a host you can reinstall, on a network you operate. The Proxmox builder drafts a command. It does not connect and it does not destroy a guest. One service is enough for the first host.
Do not publish the management port to the internet to reach it from a cafe. Do not scan the public internet from the lab. Do not put production data on a host you intend to wipe. 192.0.2.10 is documentation, not the address you leave on the lab router facing a real network.
Write what you will wipe without asking anyone. If the answer is nothing, it is not the lab.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the host you can wipe.
- Name the one service.
- Draft nothing that destroys a guest.
- Keep management on the network you operate.
- Do not scan the internet.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Homelab Guide for Sysadmins goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- Management published to the internet.
- A scan of the public internet.
- Production data on the wipeable host.
- A destroy command in the draft.
- A network you do not operate.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Homelab Guide for Sysadmins: The host can be wiped. One service. Management stays on your network. No scan was planned. And no destroy is in the draft.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The host is written. The service is written. The management prefix is yours. No destroy is present. And no public scan is in the plan. If one of those fails, stop.
# A host you can wipe.
# Do not publish management.
# Do not scan the internet.
# No qm destroy.Before you leave the host
Homelab Guide for Sysadmins ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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