The Reverse Proxy That Finally Joined the Club I already had a working Nginx Proxy Manager box. It did the job. Certificates renewed. Hosts forwarded. I clicked around the UI like my dog finding the toy he hid months ago. I was happy-ish. The problem was not NPM. The problem was me, staring at a container I built with an installer script and zero notes. DNS had just gone through the Terraform-then-Ansible treatment. NPM was next. Same pattern. Fewer mystery boxes, so I thought… ...

Building Homelab DNS with Terraform and Ansible Replacing a “hand-built” Technitium DNS server with a Proxmox LXC managed by Terraform and configured by Ansible. For a while my lab DNS was a Technitium instance I had stood up with an auto-installer script inside an LXC and Proxmox. It worked… but it lived outside any real infrastructure-as-code workflow. The long-term goal is simple: Terraform owns the VM/LXC lifecycle Ansible owns the software and configuration Later, NetBox can become the source of truth for IPs and documentation This post covers the first concrete step: rebuilding Technitium as a Terraform-managed LXC and driving install plus config with Ansible. ...

Why IaC Now? As a Network Engineer with a strong focus on Cisco ISE, identity services, and Python automation, I’ve reached a point where I want to level up significantly. Declarative infrastructure, GitOps workflows, and true repeatability are no longer “nice to have” — they’re essential. I’m starting a structured 9-month IaC learning path (5–10 hours per week) to: Deepen my current role with better automation Build toward potential MLOps / NetSecDevOps opportunities Make my homelab (Proxmox NUC + AWS + Cisco CML) truly reproducible and version-controlled Document everything publicly on this site as proof of work My Learning Plan Phase 1: Terraform Foundations (Current) HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (2026) – Udemy course by Zeal Vora Focus: Writing clean, maintainable Terraform for Proxmox, networking, and cloud resources Goal: Get comfortable with modules, state management, and real-world patterns Phase 2: Ansible + Configuration Management Ansible for Network Engineers - Hands-On & Capstone Projects - Udemy course by Abhishek Das Deep dive into Ansible for network device management and server configuration Integrate with Terraform (Terraform → Ansible pattern) Phase 3: Kubernetes & GitOps Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) - Udemy course by Mumshad Mannambeth Kubernetes on Proxmox ArgoCD, Flux, and policy-as-code tools Phase 4: Tying It All Together Machine Learning Specialization - Coursera specialization by Andrew Ng Integrating IaC with my existing Cisco ISE / identity workflows Adding ML components (Ollama + automation pipelines) Building real homelab projects I can write about Why I’m Documenting This Publicly Accountability — Writing forces clarity Portfolio Building — Future employers and my future self will see real progress Knowledge Retention — Teaching what I learn is the best way to internalize it Community Value — Hopefully help other network engineers on the same journey What to Expect on This Blog You’ll see regular updates as I progress: ...