Updated on 2025-04-27
Introduction
Last month, I upgraded my PC with the goal of building my own private cloud. As
part of this project, I purchased a new domain,
manuelchichi.com.ar, and began setting up the
environment.
🔍 Note: While researching my options, a lot of questions came up. I quickly realized it would require more investigation to find the right tools and make sure everything would work properly.
My main idea was to use an open-source solution with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) support and strong features. That’s when I discovered OpenStack.
Isn’t it overkill to use OpenStack for a homelab server?
Yes, it probably is. Installing a full-fledged cloud platform like OpenStack on a single home server isn’t strictly necessary. But I want to learn how to use OpenStack and its components properly.
💡 Tip: I also wanted something with more features than Proxmox and compatibility with Cluster API for Kubernetes (K8s) cluster creation.
Available Hardware
For this project, I’ll be using an old PC I already had lying around, with the following specifications:
| Part | Quantity | Model |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 | Ryzen 1600 |
| RAM | 4 | 8GB DDR4 |
| Disk | 1 | 256GB NVMe SSD (500MB/s) |
🛠️ Setup Note: Not the newest hardware, but more than enough for a learning environment!
Plan
Here’s the step-by-step plan for setting up my private cloud:
- Install Ubuntu Server 24.04 on the PC.
- Install OpenStack using Kolla-Ansible 19.2.0.
- Install Kubernetes 1.31 using Cluster API for OpenStack.
- Deploy key services like Redmine, Gitea, or Bitwarden.
🚀 Goal: Turn a single PC into a fully functional cloud environment!
Inspiration
This series of posts is heavily inspired by William Perdue’s blog series on setting up a local OpenStack server. His detailed guides have been incredibly helpful for planning my own setup.
Conclusion
Let’s see how this project evolves in the next post!