Containers for home network

[xiaofan]

Just wondering which Docker Containers related to home networking do the people here run in the home network?

I know there are people running Pi-hole, Smokeping, Adguard, etc. I've also seen people running OpenWRT as a Docker container.

Plan: to use Raspberry Pi 400 (RaspOS) or a J4105 Mini PC (Ubuntu Linux) to run docker

Objective: to know more about Docker networking and some useful docker containers related to home networking.

 

[xiaofan]

This series seem to be interesting,


Ref:
Ref: https://github.com/SelfhostedPro/selfhosted_templates

 

[TanKianW]

This series seem to be interesting,


Ref:
Ref: https://github.com/SelfhostedPro/selfhosted_templates

I think for most homelabers (or maybe just me), will be Nextcloud, Bitwarden, Home Assistant and Plex.

Btw, containers are not exclusive to dockers. "jails" on FreeBSD is earlier and similar to containers.

Recently I more into using Pi4b to run a cluster of Home Assistant:

 

[xiaofan]

Good point, change the title to be more generic. Linux has the lxc container as well.

 

[firesong]

It depends on what you want to achieve. Some other good docker containers are the controller software for Unifi and Omada.

I host my own family's Bitwarden passwords using Vaultwarden, so that's a must have for me. Portainer is also literally the first container I install after Docker, since it's a convenient container manager - though I'm old school enough to rely on the CLI to start all my containers rather than do it all through Portainer - more because I can store the same parameters in the docker-compose.yml for quick restoration when I need to set up the box all over again.

You can have your own private documentation wiki with Wiki.js, receipt storage+search engine with Paperless-ng, quick File drop with pwndrop. I find Healthchecks useful too - a dead man's switch that can be used for cron jobs or script jobs (the online hosted service allows for 20 free switches, but hosting your own allows for unlimited switches. You can combine the use of both creatively to have notifications when scripts fail). If you're hosting it on x86, there is Calibre and related containers to manage/convert your ebooks. There are also some home automation hubs hosted on docker to help manage a smart home.

I wouldn't use Watchtower though it's convenient - it's easy enough to update containers with 2 clicks inside of Portainer, so I'll hold out and check for any trouble before upgrading to the latest version of some critical containers like Vaultwarden.

You can also install the usual LAMP/LEMP stacks on docker rather than bare metal, more for ease of removal than anything else.

Developers also distribute packages via Docker, so there are some containers useful for that demographic.

 

[BradenHeat]

I think for most homelabers (or maybe just me), will be Nextcloud, Bitwarden, Home Assistant and Plex.

Btw, containers are not exclusive to dockers. "jails" on FreeBSD is earlier and similar to containers.

Recently I more into using Pi4b to run a cluster of Home Assistant:

lol Filco sia, just how much typing you need for that haha

not going for the custom kweebs ?

 

[bert64]

Good point, change the title to be more generic. Linux has the lxc container as well.

Goes back further than that, all of these container systems are basically an extension of chroot() which dates back to Version 7 Unix (1979).
Docker is just a management/deployment framework for lxc.

 

[Mach3.2]

I think for most homelabers (or maybe just me), will be Nextcloud, Bitwarden, Home Assistant and Plex.

Btw, containers are not exclusive to dockers. "jails" on FreeBSD is earlier and similar to containers.

Recently I more into using Pi4b to run a cluster of Home Assistant:

No PoE hat?

 

[TanKianW]

lol Filco sia, just how much typing you need for that haha

not going for the custom kweebs ?

Bought many years back when I typed a lot. Very durable kb, Japanese quality. Custom keys only for WASD (gaming).

No PoE hat?

Used up mine at my family member's new place. My own one.........still crossing the ocean.....at the meantime just use USB power.

 

[hairymonster]

I have these

Network:
Adguard
Unbound
Nginx

Automation:
Radarr
Prowlarr
Sonarr
Jackett
Nzbget
Rdt-client
Jdownloader2

Password Security:
Vaultwarden

For fun:
Woogle

Media:
Emby
Plex

 

[xiaofan]

Thanks a lot for the inputs. I am more into playing with docker and the docker containers related to networking. For example I am not interested in media related stuff (eg: Plex) as I have Singtel TV and paid services like QQ Music Tencent Video and Youku Video.

So I will short list the following first on my J4105 mini PC running Ubuntu 21.10.
1) Portainer (installed),
2) Homer (installed),
3) Pi-hole (not successful so far -- issue sorted out with macvlan)
4) AdguardHome (not yet tried)
5) OpenWRT (installed an unofficial version and do not quite like it as it does not use official repo)
6) Nginx (installed but need to learn how to use the basic)
7) MariaDB (installed but need to learn how to use the basics, not going to learn too much about this)
8) Nextcloud (not yet tried)
9) Smokeping (installed)
10) librespeed (installed)
11) netshoot (installed) seems to be interesting as well. https://hub.docker.com/r/nicolaka/netshoot

mcuee@ubuntu64:~$ docker images
REPOSITORY                               TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
archlinux                                latest    1ee4060b8876   2 days ago     385MB
linuxserver/librespeed                   latest    7282bb478f9c   2 days ago     84.8MB
linuxserver/nextcloud                    latest    1a5bd85ad3ba   3 days ago     439MB
nginx                                    latest    f652ca386ed1   6 days ago     141MB
pihole/pihole                            latest    80aaf2c8cb2f   12 days ago    300MB
alpine                                   latest    c059bfaa849c   2 weeks ago    5.59MB
linuxserver/smokeping                    latest    f0fa1b09db78   2 weeks ago    221MB
linuxserver/mariadb                      latest    63e06d6ec645   2 weeks ago    292MB
nicolaka/netshoot                        latest    f4c8dceca780   2 weeks ago    432MB
cr.portainer.io/portainer/portainer-ce   2.9.3     ad0ecf974589   3 weeks ago    252MB
b4bz/homer                               latest    5993469330f6   6 weeks ago    11MB
portainer/portainer-ce                   latest    bc46de77a3ff   8 weeks ago    252MB
sulinggg/openwrt                         x86_64    6cea2164081b   2 months ago   479MB
adguard/adguardhome                      latest    b3975ff9ab9c   6 months ago   51.4MB

 

[TanKianW]

Just want to highlight the point that install can install a lot of apps. Containers are easy to use, convenient to distribute/run/maintain/manage/backup, and to scale up/duplicate/orchestrate (Kubernetes). These are the main reasons the adoption rate of Docker containers has accelerated this few years.

But to actually run multiple apps (with heavier, actual or enterprise workload environment), it will require more hardware power. RasPi will be more suited for a homelab environment, for training/experimentation/testing and light weight applications. Nothing critical.

Heavier workload and enterprise environment deployment should lean towards server hardware for stability and redundancy.​

 

[xiaofan]

Indeed. Raspberry Pi 4 or a mini J4105 PC are more meant for the home environment.

For those who have better HW at home, maybe it is better to use a virtualized platform like ESXi or Proxmox. I will probably do that with my Chuwi Herobox Pro mini PC later (Intel Jasper Lake N4500 CPU, 8GB, 256GB) which is probably underpowered but should be okay with a few Linux vitutal machines and containers.

Here are some interesting videos for the base home server setup.

1) Low end: using Raspberry Pi 4/400, less than S$200 for the setup with a USB SSD drive.



2) Using an Intel machine running Linux server, with Webmin, Virtualbox and Docker. He is using Dell OptiPlex 3040 USFF Micro PC i5-6500T, with upgraded 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD drive.



3) Using the above Intel machine with Proxvox and virtual machine and LXC containers. He has Virtual OpenWRT router, a few Linux and Windows virtual machines, and a few LXC containers.




4) Migration a physical server to the virtual machine is a big task though.

 

[xiaofan]

Just watched this video and I think it helps me to understand more about docker networking.

 

[bert64]

You can get something like an intel nuc or asus pn50 series etc, some of these will support 64gb ram and 8 core cpus which is pretty decent for home use. I have a PN50 with 8 core ryzen and 64gb ram here. Lots of shops in SLS are selling these type of machines.

Some vendors such as HP and Dell also offer a "microserver" line, which are somewhat bigger but they offer things like hardware raid with bbwc, ecc memory and lights out management while not being too big or noisy for home use.

Proper rackmount servers are more at home in a data centre, they are big, noisy and often power hungry. If you run them at home, you probably want to keep them in another room where you can't hear them for your own sanity.

There are also more powerful alternatives to the raspberry pi, for instance the odroid series - still using ARM processors but more powerful (and expensive) than the pi.

A mac mini is another (albeit expensive) option, older ones are intel and newer ones are ARM.

 

[firesong]

You can get something like an intel nuc or asus pn50 series etc, some of these will support 64gb ram and 8 core cpus which is pretty decent for home use. I have a PN50 with 8 core ryzen and 64gb ram here. Lots of shops in SLS are selling these type of machines.

Some vendors such as HP and Dell also offer a "microserver" line, which are somewhat bigger but they offer things like hardware raid with bbwc, ecc memory and lights out management while not being too big or noisy for home use.

Proper rackmount servers are more at home in a data centre, they are big, noisy and often power hungry. If you run them at home, you probably want to keep them in another room where you can't hear them for your own sanity.

There are also more powerful alternatives to the raspberry pi, for instance the odroid series - still using ARM processors but more powerful (and expensive) than the pi.

A mac mini is another (albeit expensive) option, older ones are intel and newer ones are ARM.

"for your own sanity" is right. I got to know someone who had a really noisy rack at home. And his wife raised hell - even more noise than the rack - until he had to "downgrade" his equipment at home.

I went with a Khadas VIM3L as it's a more powerful and much cooler ARM SBC than my former Raspberry Pi 3b. Apparently the Pi4 has throttling issues too, so that's a consideration. It was an accidental deployment, since the VIM3L was bought to be a media box for the TV in my parents room. When that died, I got them an Android TV and repurposed the box as my little Ubuntu server. It's been running decently well with a spare 128GB mSD card I had left over from moving to a Pixel 4a (which has no mSD card slot). Gave my RPi3b to my cousin for his mini projects too.

I find that the Lenovo Tiny PC or Dell/HP equivalents are a pretty good value proposition for this kind of usage too. These are usually for corporate deployments, so their QC is often much higher than normal. I think buying a Mac Mini isn't as good value. QC is high, but the price is correspondingly higher.

 

[xiaofan]

I use my Mac Mini M1 (8GB/256GB SSD) as my main home computer. At S$979, it is a great value to me. My previous main home computer (dead in 2019) was Mac Mini 2011 (8GB, 512GB HDD). It was a great machine too. I do not want to run services on the Mac Mini though.

I am reluctant to use more powerful machine as of now since I am just learning and experimenting with the stuffs, nothing critical for family use.

I actually choose to pay for "critical services" for family members. For example SingTel TV service and paid Chinese streaming services (not Plex or Kodi), Google One and probably low tier iCloud Drive soon (not NAS).

Therefore I will stick to my second Raspberry Pi 400 (first one is running OpenWRT as a router) and my Intel J4105 mini PC and probably the N4500 mini PC.

Raspberry Pi 400 is the easy way as it has very good cooling system and the keyboard. The only downside is that it has only 4GB configuration and not 8GB.

I attach the J4105 mini PC (with 4 Intel NIC) to my two home routers (Asus RT-AX82U and the Raspberry Pi 400 OpenWRT) so that I can access it from either network. Then I use xrdp or SSH to access it from my Mac Mini M1 or Windows laptop.

For now it will be good enough for me. But I do want to explore proxvox as well with my Intel N4500 mini PC (only one Intel NIC).

Now it is a good time for me to learn something now that I have the long year end leave.

 

[xiaofan]

But I know people can really run lots of stuff in home lab.

This guy really runs lots of stuff (including lots of containers) at home. Interestingly he moved away from pfSense to UDM Pro. But he is providing some services to the public.

 

[firesong]

But I know people can really run lots of stuff in home lab.

This guy really runs lots of stuff (including lots of containers) at home. Interestingly he moved away from pfSense to UDM Pro. But he is providing some services to the public.

Perhaps he favoured the integrated management of the entire ecosystem.

There's a lot to be said for convenience - as long as you can afford it, it's not a bad proposition to go with the entire ecosystem.

 

[xiaofan]

This seems to sort our my Pi-hole issue. By using macvlan, I do not to deal with the Port 53 being used by the Ubuntu host problem.
https://blog.ivansmirnov.name/set-up-pihole-using-docker-macvlan-network/
Some how the official guide does not work for my Ubuntu 21.10 host.
https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole#installing-on-ubuntu

mcuee@ubuntu64:~$ sudo lsof -i :53
[sudo] password for mcuee:
COMMAND    PID            USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
systemd-r  614 systemd-resolve   13u  IPv4  22089      0t0  UDP 127.0.0.53:domain
systemd-r  614 systemd-resolve   14u  IPv4  22090      0t0  TCP 127.0.0.53:domain (LISTEN)
dnsmasq   1216 libvirt-dnsmasq    5u  IPv4  26142      0t0  UDP 192.168.122.1:domain
dnsmasq   1216 libvirt-dnsmasq    6u  IPv4  26143      0t0  TCP 192.168.122.1:domain (LISTEN)

With the official docummentation I can deal with the systemd-resolve but not the libvirt-dnsmasq thingy.