Docker, Docker Compose, and Kubernetes covered from first principles through to production patterns. Guides show you how containers actually work under the hood, how to write Dockerfiles that do not bloat, how to structure Compose stacks that survive upgrades, and when Kubernetes is genuinely the right tool versus when it is massive overkill. Every tutorial is built around a running service, not a hello world container that does nothing useful. If you want to understand the difference between an image and a container, why your volume mounts keep breaking, or how to move from Compose to k3s without pain, start here.
A green nightly Docker backup can still fail to restore. How to make databases consistent with dumps, stops or snapshots, and how to run a real restore test.
Docker backups that actually restore: databases, volumes and a restore test Read More »
A self-hosted, European, privacy-focused RMM deployed with Docker Compose: what NetLock RMM is, how I run it, agent rollout with Ansible, the AI/Ollama layer, and the two gotchas that cost me hours.
NetLock RMM: Overview and Deployment with Docker Read More »
Port forwarding is how we exposed home services to the internet ten years ago. Nobody should be doing it in 2026. The single best free upgrade you can make to a self-hosted setup right now is replacing every forwarded port with a Cloudflare Tunnel. This post is the complete step-by-step for getting a tunnel live
How to Set Up Cloudflare Tunnels on Debian (2026) Read More »
The Commands That Actually Matter Docker has over 50 commands. You’ll use about 10 of them regularly. The rest are either for building images, managing swarm clusters, or edge cases you’ll look up once a year. This guide covers the 10 commands I run most frequently across six Docker hosts, with the flags I actually
10 Docker Commands Every Homelab Admin Should Know Read More »
The docker-compose.yml used in this guide (copy-paste ready). What Docker Compose Actually Is (and Isn’t) Docker Compose is a way to define and run multi-container applications using a single YAML file. Instead of typing out long docker run commands with a dozen flags, you describe what you want in a file called docker-compose.yml and run
Docker Compose for Beginners: A Practical Guide Read More »
Debian 13 or Debian 12? Debian 13 (Trixie) has been the stable release since August 2025, and Debian 12 (Bookworm) is now oldstable: its regular security support ended on 12 July 2026, and it is covered by Debian LTS until 30 June 2028. For a new Docker host, install Debian 13. Every command in this
How to Install Docker on Debian 12 (Bookworm) Read More »
Why Docker on a Raspberry Pi Makes Sense I have three Raspberry Pis running Docker in my homelab. One handles DNS and ad blocking, another runs monitoring and a dashboard, and the third runs Listmonk for newsletter management. They draw about 5 watts each, run silently, and cost less than a month of any cloud
How to Install Docker on Raspberry Pi (2026 Guide) Read More »
The docker-compose.yml used in this guide (copy-paste ready). The short answer: run a Minecraft Java Edition server in Docker with the itzg/minecraft-server image. Set EULA=TRUE, publish TCP port 25565, and mount a volume on /data so the world survives the container. The image downloads the server software, picks the right Java version and writes server.properties
How to Run a Minecraft Server in Docker Read More »
How to Run Pi-hole in Docker (DNS Ad Blocking with Docker Compose) If you are already running Docker on your server, putting Pi-hole in a container is the obvious choice. Your DNS service gets the same isolation, portability, and reproducibility as every other service in your stack. You can version control the compose file, blow
How to Run Pi-hole in Docker (Complete Guide) Read More »
Not on Ubuntu 24.04? On Ubuntu 26.04 LTS or 22.04 LTS the steps below are the same. For Debian 13 or Debian 12, see our Install Docker on Debian guide. The docker-compose.yml used in this guide (copy-paste ready). Why Ubuntu 24.04 Is the Docker Host You Want I run Docker across six hosts in my
How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 24.04: Full Setup + Post-Install (2026) Read More »
