From Bare Metal to CI/CD Pipeline: Building a Full DevOps Homelab with Proxmox VE

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🚀 Introduction

If you've ever wanted a complete DevOps lab at home, you're in the right place. With just a single bare-metal PC, you can simulate an enterprise-grade infrastructure using Proxmox VE, a few VMs or containers, and some powerful automation tools like Ansible and Jenkins.

In this post, I’ll show you how to build a scalable, flexible lab environment with multiple Linux distros, CI/CD pipelines, cloud integrations, and separate environments for Dev, Staging, and Production.

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🧱 Hardware and Lab Setup

🖥️ Host Machine Specs

• CPU: Quad-Core Intel
• RAM: 32 GB DDR4
• Storage: 512 GB SSD (you can scale as needed)
• OS: Proxmox VE (latest version)

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🛠️ Step 1: Install Proxmox VE

1. Download Proxmox VE ISO:
   https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads
2. Create bootable USB: Use Balena Etcher or Rufus.
3. Install on bare metal: During install, dedicate at least 50% of RAM for VM use.
4. Access the web UI:
   https://your-proxmox-ip:8006

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🧱 Step 2: Proxmox Networking & Storage Setup

• Create Linux Bridge (vmbr0) for internet access
• Optional: Add internal-only bridge (vmbr1) for secure intra-VM traffic
• Use ZFS or LVM for better VM snapshot support

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🧪 Step 3: Spin Up VMs/CTs (Linux Distributions)

Name	OS	Role	Notes
mgmt-node	Ubuntu 22	Ansible, Jenkins	Central Control Host
web-dev	Ubuntu 22	Web Dev Env	Runs dev apps via Docker
web-stage	RHEL 9	Staging Env	Test builds here
web-prod	RHEL 9	Production	Load-balanced, secure
db-server	Ubuntu 22	DB Server	PostgreSQL or MySQL
proxy-lb	Ubuntu 22	NGINX Load Balancer	SSL + reverse proxy

You can use cloud-init templates for rapid provisioning.

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🤖 Step 4: Automation with Ansible

Install Ansible on mgmt-node:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ansible -y

Inventory Example:

[web]
web-dev ansible_host=192.168.1.101
web-stage ansible_host=192.168.1.102
web-prod ansible_host=192.168.1.103

[db]
db-server ansible_host=192.168.1.104

Playbook Example:

- name: Install NGINX on web servers
  hosts: web
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install NGINX
      apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present

Run It:

ansible-playbook install-nginx.yml

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Install Jenkins on mgmt-node:

curl -fsSL https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian/jenkins.io-2023.key | \
  sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc > /dev/null

echo deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc] \
  https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian binary/ | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update
sudo apt install jenkins -y

Access Jenkins UI:
http://mgmt-node-ip:8080

Create Pipelines:

• Build app
• Run tests
• Push Docker image to private registry
• Deploy using Ansible

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🐳 Step 6: Containerize Your App

Dockerfile Example (Node.js):

FROM node:18
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN npm install
CMD ["npm", "start"]

Push to Docker Registry (or set up your own on Proxmox)

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☁️ Optional: Cloud Integration

• Use Terraform to spin up AWS EC2 or Azure VMs
• Use Ansible to provision and configure
• Set up Jenkins to deploy app from Proxmox to AWS staging or prod

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🌐 Step 7: Load Balancing with NGINX

upstream webapp {
    server 192.168.1.101;
    server 192.168.1.102;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://webapp;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }
}

Add SSL with Let's Encrypt using Certbot.

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🔁 Environments: Dev, Staging, Prod

• Dev (web-dev): Auto-deploy on Git push (CI only)
• Staging (web-stage): Deploy on merge to main branch
• Prod (web-prod): Manual approval + Ansible deploy

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📊 Step 8: Monitoring and Logging (Bonus)

• Use Prometheus + Grafana on another container
• Install Node Exporter on each VM
• Use Loki + Grafana for central logging

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✅ Final Thoughts

With just a single Proxmox host, you’ve now built:

• A full CI/CD pipeline
• Multi-tier Linux infrastructure
• Cloud-compatible deployment pipeline
• Load balancing, monitoring, and staging workflows

You’re ready to take on real-world DevOps challenges — all from your homelab.

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💬 Questions?

Drop your comments or suggestions below. I'd love to hear how you’re building your own lab!