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In development · Two-year roadmap

Building GHDC: A Staged Heterogeneous Home Datacenter

GHDC is my private project-hosting, demonstration and test-cloud platform. It is evolving from an operational home lab into a secure, modular and heterogeneous datacenter through measured, independently validated stages.

Proxmox • Linux • Windows • Docker • Tailscale

Phase 0 — Network stabilisation

Project status

Status
In development
Current phase
Phase 0 — Network stabilisation
Next milestone
NAS storage foundation
Time horizon
Two-year staged build
Primary objective
Securely host, protect, test and demonstrate authorised projects

Project mission

The GVI Heterogeneous Home Datacenter, or GHDC, is being developed as my private project-hosting, demonstration and test-cloud platform.

The project begins with equipment and capabilities already available, including an Intel NUC running Proxmox, Windows and Linux virtual environments, Docker services, secure private access through Tailscale and a MacBook Air used as the operator console.

Rather than replacing everything at once, GHDC follows a staged and evidence-led approach. Existing equipment is reused wherever practical, each new component must address a demonstrated constraint, and every expansion is tested before the next stage begins.

What GHDC is designed to provide

  • Secure access to my development environment from anywhere.
  • A dependable platform for hosting and demonstrating authorised projects.
  • A private environment for testing ideas before moving them to a public cloud.
  • Centralised storage for virtual machines, project data and backups.
  • Practical experience with virtualisation, networking, storage, cybersecurity, automation and observability.
  • A heterogeneous environment combining x86, ARM64, Windows, Linux and macOS capabilities over time.
  • A platform that grows according to workload demand and available resources.

Operational foundation

Operational now

Every capability listed in this section is operational now.

  • Intel NUC running Proxmox VE.
  • Windows and Linux virtual environments.
  • Linux containers and Docker workloads.
  • Portainer and Nginx Proxy Manager.
  • Tailscale private remote access.
  • MacBook Air administration and demonstration workstation.
  • Existing private development and project-hosting services.

This operational home-lab foundation is the starting point for GHDC. The current engineering priority is stabilising the Proxmox host’s network connection before centralised storage is introduced.

Current milestone

Phase 0 — Network stabilisation

The immediate milestone is to improve the reliability of the Proxmox host’s network connection and validate it through sustained file transfers, virtual-machine activity and network-performance testing.

Storage expansion will begin only after the network foundation is demonstrated to be stable.

Target architecture

GHDC is being designed as a modular environment in which operator access, networking, compute, storage, workloads, protection and observability can evolve independently.

  1. Logical component 1

    Authorised operator devices

    Operational now
  2. Logical component 2

    Tailscale private access

    Operational now
  3. Logical component 3

    Security and network layer

    Planned
  4. Logical component 4

    Heterogeneous compute

    Planned
  5. Logical component 5

    Centralised storage

    Planned
  6. Logical component 6

    Virtual machines and containers

    Operational now
  7. Logical component 7

    Backup and recovery

    Planned
  8. Logical component 8

    Monitoring and automation

    Planned

The numbered sequence communicates the conceptual path; status text identifies whether each component is operational or planned.

Two-year roadmap

  1. Phase 0 — Stabilise

    Status: In progress

    Stabilise the Proxmox host’s network connection and validate it through sustained transfers, virtual-machine activity and network-performance testing.

  2. Phase 1 — Storage and remote demonstrations

    Status: Planned

    Introduce a Synology NAS with NAS-grade drives for central project storage, backups and selected virtual-machine storage. Migrate and validate one workload at a time, then test secure project demonstrations from outside the home network.

  3. Phase 2 — Protection and recovery

    Status: Planned

    Introduce Proxmox Backup Server, versioned and deduplicated backups, regular recovery testing, service-health monitoring and an independent or off-site copy of irreplaceable data.

    Storage redundancy will not be treated as a substitute for an independent backup strategy.

  4. Phase 3 — Network and security

    Status: Planned

    Introduce managed multi-gigabit networking, separated management and storage traffic, VLAN segmentation, a dedicated OPNsense firewall and gateway, central identity, stronger monitoring and more deliberate access controls.

  5. Phase 4 — Automation and heterogeneous computing

    Status: Planned

    Explore observability, infrastructure automation and additional heterogeneous compute using technologies such as Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Loki, Ansible, OpenTofu and a future K3s container environment.

  6. Phase 5 — Continued evolution

    Status: Future

    Continue evolving GHDC after the initial roadmap, selecting improvements according to measured workload requirements and useful learning outcomes rather than technology trends alone.

Engineering principles

Reuse before replacement

Existing equipment should continue providing value wherever it remains suitable.

Modular architecture

Networking, storage, compute, security and operator devices should remain independently replaceable.

Secure remote access

Management systems should use private authenticated access rather than direct exposure to the public internet.

Incremental validation

One service or workload should be migrated and tested before the next.

Backup independence

Storage redundancy is useful, but it is not a complete backup strategy.

Open standards and portability

Projects should remain portable enough to move between GHDC and commercial cloud platforms.

Technology with purpose

New technology should be introduced when it removes a measured constraint or creates a useful learning opportunity.

From enterprise support to platform engineering

GHDC represents the next stage of more than 20 years of professional IT experience. My background in service desk consulting, end-user computing, Windows administration, virtualisation and enterprise support is being extended into designing, building and operating an independent technology platform.

  • Datacenter architecture
  • Linux and container operations
  • Network design and segmentation
  • Private-cloud storage
  • Cybersecurity
  • Infrastructure automation
  • Application hosting
  • Monitoring and observability
  • Disaster recovery
  • Heterogeneous computing

The project demonstrates a deliberate transition from supporting enterprise technology to designing, building and operating a platform of my own.

Current capability

Operational now

  • Proxmox
  • Linux
  • Windows
  • Docker
  • Portainer
  • Nginx Proxy Manager
  • Tailscale

Future capability

Planned or under evaluation

  • Synology
  • iSCSI
  • Proxmox Backup Server
  • OPNsense
  • VLANs
  • Multi-gigabit networking
  • Infrastructure as Code
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Loki
  • ARM64
  • Apple Silicon
  • K3s
  • Disaster recovery

Built to grow with purpose

GHDC is more than a home lab. It is a long-term investment in practical engineering capability—a privately operated environment where authorised projects can be built, protected, demonstrated and validated before graduating to the public cloud.

The platform will grow alongside my technical knowledge, businesses and future software products.

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