Ben Richards

Home Server Docker/Linux

GPU-accelerated media, DNS/ad-blocking, game servers, uptime monitoring, and automated backups running on a single homelab stack.

  • OwnerRole
  • 2023 – PresentYears
  • On-premEnvironment

Context

Consolidated home services for media, networking, and automation. Focus: reliability, observability, and low-touch operations using containerized apps with health checks and clean rollback.

Capabilities

Media

  • Plex with GPU transcoding.
  • Radarr/Sonarr/qBittorrent pipeline.
  • Tdarr for re-encoding.

Network

  • AdGuard Home DNS + filtering.
  • LAN-wide device rules and logs.
  • DoH/DoT upstreams.

Automation

  • Scheduled backups and prune jobs.
  • Watchtower or tagged updates.
  • Healthchecks and alerts.

Gaming

  • Private servers (e.g., Valheim/Factorio).
  • Profiled CPU/memory limits.
  • Rolling restart windows.

Observability

  • Uptime monitoring.
  • Container health endpoints.
  • Log exports for audits.

Storage

  • Merged 16TB media pool (e.g., MergerFS).
  • Cold and warm backup tiers.
  • Checksum verification.

My Contribution

Design

  • Compose-based architecture with isolated networks.
  • GPU passthrough configuration and codec policy.

Build

  • Container images, env templating, and secrets layout.
  • Traefik-style routing or direct ports based on risk.

Operate

  • Runbooks for updates, restores, and incident steps.
  • Alert thresholds and periodic test restores.

Tech Stack

  • Core: Docker, Compose, Linux
  • Media: Plex, Tdarr, Radarr, Sonarr, qBittorrent
  • Network: AdGuard Home
  • Monitoring: Uptime checks, container health
  • Backup: Scheduled jobs, checksum verify
  • Hardware: Intel i7 9700k, Nvidia 1660 Super 6Gb, 32GB DDR4 Ram @ 3200MHz, 16TB Storage

Gallery

Home Dashboard Monitoring Basic CPU Monitoring