Build a homelab on a KVM server

Your first step into self-hosting: learn how to set up Docker, a management interface and monitoring on your own server.

What is a homelab?

A homelab is your personal server environment for experimenting and learning. With a KVM server in a data center, you get the benefits of a homelab – without the noise, power bills or hardware failures at home.

Step 1: Prepare the server

# Update the system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install useful tools
sudo apt install -y curl git htop net-tools

Step 2: Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
# Log out and back in for the group change to take effect

Step 3: Install Portainer

Portainer gives you a web interface for managing all your Docker containers:

docker volume create portainer_data

docker run -d \
  -p 9443:9443 \
  --name portainer \
  --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v portainer_data:/data \
  portainer/portainer-ce:latest

Access it at https://YOUR-IP:9443 – on first visit, you create an admin account.

Step 4: Uptime Kuma for monitoring

docker run -d \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  --name uptime-kuma \
  --restart=always \
  -v uptime-kuma:/app/data \
  louislam/uptime-kuma:latest

At http://YOUR-IP:3001 you can monitor websites, APIs and services – with notifications via Telegram, Discord or email.

Next steps

• Set up an Nginx reverse proxy for HTTPS access
• More services: Nextcloud, Gitea, Vaultwarden, Immich
• Automated backups with restic or borgbackup