Blog
Using Docker Compose on a Proxmox VM
Before getting deeper in my Kubernetes studies, I took some time to get back into the container fundamentals with Docker and Docker Compose. Since I have a Proxmox setup I made a dedicated VM for this process. Here’s what I had to do, from start to finish.
Create a new Proxmox VM
After setting up the vm, the first step was to install Ubuntu Server. I already have the ISO on Proxmox, and it’s an easy install. After that I had to make it accessible through ssh which is 2 main steps: adding the QEMU agent, then adding my ssh key.
Homelab: Proxmox or Kubernetes?
TLDR: I will use both tools to combine virtualization and containers.
As I have been restarting my homelab project, I have a lot of choices to make. I will try to document them here, as it might be useful for some, and definitely useful for future me (hello, future me!).
Last iteration, I wanted to have few beefy and well isolated applications, so Proxmox was the ideal choice on just one machine. Now the goal is slightly different. I mostly want a place to self host many smaller tools and websites, and I want to use that as a place to practice my devops knowledge.
My Past in Devops
I started learning some modern devops tools and practices recently. I heard someone say that it’s important to not just learn the “how” but also the “why” of technology. That’s something I can relate to, learning something just because it’s shiny is fun, but hard to sustain if there’s no compelling case for using it. Since devops is not my first tech work I have some pain points I already know I want to solve. After more than a decade in software engineering, I want to explore new skills and challenge myself. While doing that I’ve been thinking about my past experience in devops adjacent tasks. Why not have a little retrospective?