Yeah. And Netbird/Pangolin go a long way these days.

Have a look at Layer7,btw. They are more than decent and you can easily install Proxmox on them as a Hypervisor.

Just a theory: There is a good chance that your provider does CG-NAT and that was the issue with OpenVPN. These would persist with wireguard,sadly, unless you solve them properly. (Which can be tricky). But just for the book: Running an Wireguard Container behind your router and have a port forwarded to it is an option. (But still needs CG NAT adressed)

Thaft leaves you with a few options:

• Cloudflare: Imho a bad idea - it’s evil, it’s monopolistic and while it’s “an easy way” it has its technical downsides. As you said a domain is still required.

• Use a small VPS and run a wireguard tunnel and maybe pangolin as a reverse proxy on it.It has the benefit of being very flexible and once configured is fairly stable and it puts the security part outside your network. But it costs money unless you maybe make it work on oracle’s free tier. I would still recommend using a cheap domain,though)

• As others have mentioned: Tailscale/Zerotier/Netbird absolutely are an option if it’s just for you. But they get nasty if it’s for more people or larger deployments with tailscale and while netbird is far better it’s less common and does require a domain as well. (Which,again,is not a bad idea to have)

Netbox,especially when combinded with Plugins is so incredibly good and might,that’s it’s almost funny how good it is. What I do Plugin wise:

• Documents: not implemented yet by me,but one could store manuals,etc. directly within netbox.

• Lifecycle and Inventory: While it’s not as good as snipe-it (tbh, inventory is imho one of the worst plugins) it does the job for my small deployment

• Slurp it to scan automatically

• QR Code for obvious reasons

• Floorplan as well

Of course that sounds overkill for a small deployment, but I simply forget too many things after a few months otherwise and it’s something my family (wife is in IT and far more qualified than me) would need if something happens to me,so a proper documentation would be essential for that as well.

Just saying:

There are alternatives for LE,not for all things, but for a lot. Afaik not all of them do follow suit.

Yeah,Netbox is also my main solution, combined with forgejo repo.

Works very well.

So far that’s not working to much,but development is fast it seems

Basically a book downloader that connects to various sources, mainly Annas archive, and then hands the downloads over to CWA(or booklore). While still heavily under development it works.

https://github.com/OrwellianEpilogue/ephemera

Calibre Web Automated and Ephemera. But looking to switch to Booklore some day,just haven’t had the time.

Mealie is far superior to Tandoor,imho.

Thanks a lot. I expanded it a little bit.

Basically:

• Small proxmox node (Zimablade) that basically does only operate a Proxmox Backup Server for local clients and fast backup.

• Offsite ZFS send to a VPS I operate for that purpose. As well as Proxmox Backup Server for VMs,etc. Basically meant as a fast recovery option. (Layer7)

• Offsite S3 storage backup to a different provider from above. Meant for a medium term backup. (Hetzner and IONOS)

• Portable HD: I have two different portable HDs. One is hooked up to the Backup server, the other one is in a lock box in my banks safe. The “connected one” does a weekly backup (and is switched off in between). Once in a while (around 6 to 12 weeks, with 12 weeks being the hard maximum) I take the active one to the bank and both drives switch places. That provides a full backup. (WD My Book and Seagate Expansion - the differrnt manufacturers are intentional)

• Last line of defence: The real real important things (photos of life events-weddings,etc.- important documents,Password DBs) etc.) get burned on a M-disc Archive blue ray. They are also in the bank safe and at a secure third location. They are more meant for “shit hit the fan and I might not be there anymore,but maybe the kids want these”. Additionally they provide a defence against encryption viruses - write once reas many (WORM) has it’s advantages here.

This is another thing to consider: Have detailed descriptions for others how to retrieve your data in case something happens. I operate a private wiki (on an external server) that also gets saved into the M-Discs that has step by step instructions, as they might need to be followed by someone not that tech adept. (Like my In-Laws in case both my wife and I perish.), have notes in my password DB (Vaultwarden, which has a digital heritage/emergency access function and is also exported), in the vault, and a note in my will notifying people about this.

Edit: And: Test your recovery. Almost every data loss I have witnessed in the last years was a recovery problem. Missing encryption keys, data structure issues, etc. I have seen them all. Personally I try to recover a random file (as in: A script tells me which one) twice a year from every method and try a full recovery of each method at least once six month after introduction. Thst being said: It’s nice to have encrypted backups,but that doesn’t help if you can’t find the keys/the software does no longer exist,etc. Currently a LOT of my clients have the same problem: They use Tandberg RDX for backup, including WORM. Now, Tandberg has gone bust and it’s not that unlikely that yhey won’t be able get another RDX drive in 5 or 10 years. Or 20. Which is the legal requirement for some official files here. Well,fuck. They needed to get additional drives asap when the bankruptcy became official.

Friends have used ancient LTOs and now face the same issues - LTOs are not downwards compatible. (That’s why I use “common” technology. It’s extremely likely that I will be able to find a spare BD drive in 20 years,etc.)

Cyberpower OR600ERM1U or similar are nice - or the OL1000ERTXL2U if you want a online usv.

Not that the Eatons are bad,they are a little bit nicer in a few things, but often also more expensive.

Privileged or unprivileged LXC?

Just like Cloudron.

Tbh, I have given up on Proxmox Helper Scripts for more demanding things recently as I had similar issues.

You can use the fully packed VM appliance or iso as well. Or Docker.

Or,tbh,try the manual install,it’s somewhat straight forward. If you need help let me know.

Another option: Zabbix.

Sounds like overkill initially, but works fine and can be automated fairly well. Once installed (as a LXC/VM or on a seperats device if you want independent monitoring), you can setup a API acess for monitoring Proxmox (which will monitor all LXCs,etc. automatically) and then add the agent on top to monitor the underlying machine. There are dozens of ways to monitor Zabbix hosts temps, HDDs,etc. available online.

In theory you could also let a zabbixproxy collect all your hosts data (e.g. your Proxmox Host, your switch,etc.) in your network and then send it to a VPS outside your network so you monitor offsite and can be alerted when not at home.

ZeroSSL has unpaid plans (for non wildcards) that have a few advantages that LE doesn’t:

• No Ratelimits,
• A WebDashboard
• More ways to validate
• They have a RestAPI

And, first and foremost, they are European and it’s always good tk have an alternative ready.

But as said before, I totally missed the wildcard issue, as I haven’t touched these for a long time and recently had more to do with my public services (which get a ACME single domain cert via zeroSSL)

Sorry, then proceed with LE. Got that part mixed up, you are totally rjght.

It is absolutly possible, but oersonally I would highly recommend getting yourself a proper public domain for that,even if you won’t use it otherwise (it’s even somewhat saver if you use a designated one for it).

To make it really easy get the domain with someome who also provides DNS with it (Hetzner is a solid choice, so are others, has to have an API). (E.g. “mydomain.casa”.)

Now get an internal DNS server that can handle it’s own zones. I always recommend technitium, but there are other choices. Pihole is not a good choice here.

Next thing is a reverse proxy,as you mentioned. If you want it easy, NginxProxyManager is a good choice, but limits what one can do later. But it kind of works out of the box. Traefik and caddy are both often named,but I found none of them as “fire and forget” as NPM is - and caddy can’t do a lot of things either. Traefik is what I currently use,but even using Manatrae or similar GUIs it’s sometimes a pain. But it’s absolutely powerful especially when you run a lot of docker container on the same host. Tbh, if I had not some special requirements I would still use NPM.

Now, what to do? (Not a full manual, more like a ovrview that it’s not that complicated)

1. Install all of the above on docker.
2. Setup NPM with a wildcard certificate, register with zerossl.com (has advantages over LetsEncrypt), add them as a provider and get a wildcard(!) certificate. (*.yourdomain.casa).
3. Setup a proxy host. You simply add the domainname (nextcloud.mydomain.casa),point it to the actual container ("192.168.1.10:3000) and choose the wildcard certificate as a SSL and switch on “force SSL”.
4. Go to the DNS server, create a DNS zone “mydomain.casa” and then simply add “nextcloud.mydomain.casa” and point it to the Reverse proxy IP. Done.

For good practice I would recommend to also keep a zone that links directly to the services so you can use that whenever necessary. (mydomain.internal)

I would avoid a Raspi/ARM at all costs. But there is a third alternative: A x86 SBC like a Zima Board or blade might be exactly what you are looking for. Small, powerful enough and far easier than an ARM to maintain.