3.7 KiB
External resources
WIP documents
These resources are optional, the homelab still works without them but will lack some features like trusted certificates and offsite backup
Although I try to keep the amount of external resources to the minimum, there's still need for a few of them. Below is a list of external resources and why we need them (also see some alternatives below).
| Provider | Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Terraform Cloud | Workspace | Terraform state backend |
| Cloudflare | DNS | DNS and DNS-01 challenge for certificates |
| Cloudflare | Tunnel | Public services to the internet without port-forwarding |
| Minio | Bucket | Onsite backup |
| AWS | S3 Glacier | Offsite backup |
This layer will:
- Create external resources
- Add external secrets to namespaces
Prerequisites
Create Terraform workspace
Terraform is stateful, which means it needs somewhere to store its state. Terraform Cloud is one option for a state backend with a generous free tier, perfect for a homelab.
- Sign up for a Terraform Cloud account
- Create a workspace named
homelab-external, this is the workspace where your homelab state will be stored. - Change the "Execution Mode" from "Remote" to "Local". This will ensure your local machine, which can access your lab, is the one executing the terraform plan rather than the cloud runners.
If you decide to use a different Terraform backend, you'll need to edit the external/versions.tf file as required.
Cloudflare
- Buy a domain and transfer it to Cloudflare if you haven't already
- Get Cloudflare email and account ID
- Global API key: https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens
Create Minio keys
TODO: skip this for now
Create AWS API key
TODO: skip this for now
Deploy
Apply Terraform (you will be prompted to log in to Terraform Cloud and enter API keys from the previous steps):
# From the project root
make external
Alternatives
- Terraform Cloud: any other Terraform backends
- Cloudflare Tunnel: you can create a small VPS in the cloud and utilize Wireguard and HAProxy to route traffic via it, or just use simple port-forwarding if it's available (see also awesome tunneling)
- Minio and S3 Glacier: any S3 compatible object storage, such as Backblaze B2, Minio...