Infrastructure case study
A security-focused Proxmox and Docker environment designed around trust zones, reliable internal services, safe administration, and hands-on learning across virtualization, networking, DNS, storage, and monitoring.
Problem
Management interfaces, family devices, guests, IoT hardware, lab systems, and gaming workloads should not all share the same level of access. I wanted an environment where experimentation would not put management systems or household devices at unnecessary risk.
My role
I planned the segmentation model, configured the virtualization and service layers, worked through routing and DNS behavior, documented public-safe architecture, and continue to maintain the environment as it evolves.
Architecture
The network is organized by purpose and trust level rather than treating every device as equivalent.
Administrative access to infrastructure, controllers, hypervisors, and service administration paths.
Household access to approved internal services such as media, files, and shared tools.
Internet access without lateral access to internal home resources.
Restricted smart-device network with minimal internal reachability.
Isolated space for testing systems and experiments without affecting trusted workloads.
Internet-focused network for gaming devices without exposing management planes.
Services
Troubleshooting
VLAN configuration is end-to-end. Native VLAN and PVID choices can break the design even when the switch configuration looks correct in isolation.
DNS and ACLs have to be designed together. Name resolution can appear healthy while access policy makes the service feel unreliable.
Controller software depends on host networking. VPN adapters, firewall profiles, and desktop-hosted controllers can create behavior that looks like an infrastructure fault.
Backups reduce recovery time. Taking backups before major changes turns risky experimentation into a manageable rollback problem.
Deep dive
The repository contains sanitized architecture documentation, diagrams, examples, and security-sharing guidance.