Rootless Podman homelab

The deployment uses rootless Podman Quadlets, systemd user services, SOPS with hybrid post-quantum age keys, separated edge and internal backend networks, and a root-owned socket proxy that forwards TCP 443 to rootless Caddy on 127.0.0.1:8443.

Services

Name	URL	Description	Access to internet
Caddy	bookmarks.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Authenticated bookmarks and WebDAV service	Yes
Forgejo	git.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Git server / DevOps platform	Yes
Home Assistant	home.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Home automation	Yes
Zigbee2MQTT	home-zigbee.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Zigbee to MQTT bridge	Yes
Immich	photos.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Photo and video backup solution	Yes
Radicale	contacts.${BASE_DOMAIN}	CardDAV (contact) server	No
SearXNG	search.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Internet metasearch engine	Yes
Syncthing	syncthing.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Continuous file synchronization	No
Vaultwarden	vault.${BASE_DOMAIN}	Unofficial Bitwarden-compatible server	No

The table lists user-facing services. Supporting databases, caches, MQTT, and worker containers stay on internal or dedicated backend networks and are not directly exposed. “Yes” means the service has Internet egress; “No” means all of its attached Podman networks are internal. Inbound public access is still limited to the Caddy HTTPS proxy, plus Syncthing's documented TCP/UDP 22000 protocol ports.

Security model

All containers run under the dedicated, password-locked homelab account.
The Git reconciler has no sudo access and cannot modify host system units.
Only TCP 443 and Syncthing TCP/UDP 22000 are exposed externally.
Application networks use strictly isolated deterministic /24 ranges within 10.200.0.0/16. Caddy joins edge networks only; database, cache, and MQTT networks are internal. Radicale, Syncthing, and Vaultwarden have no Internet egress; their application networks are internal while remaining reachable from Caddy or, for Syncthing, through its published protocol ports.
Writable application state lives in rootless Podman named volumes.
Deployment secrets are encrypted in Git and selectively imported as Podman secrets. Rendered secret-bearing configuration exists only below the homelab user's runtime directory.
Every image root filesystem is read-only, every container drops Podman's default capability set, and narrowly reviewed startup exceptions are allowlisted. PID cgroups limit each container to 1024 processes.
Rootless/non-root image users are selected explicitly wherever the upstream image supports them; documented exceptions and the required data-volume considerations are listed in the rootless image policy.
CI workloads for Forgejo Actions execute under a dedicated, password-locked forgejo-runner account with separate subordinate UID/GID mappings (200000-265535), independent rootless Podman storage, host nftables egress isolation blocking internal RFC1918 networks, and strictly no access to production containers, sockets, secrets, or storage.
SELinux must remain enforcing. Normal containers use container_t with per-container MCS separation. Only Zigbee2MQTT uses container_device_t, and the global container_use_devices boolean remains off. A host module adds container_net_domain to that type so Zigbee2MQTT can resolve MQTT. The host HTTPS socket proxy installs a targeted module so systemd-socket-proxyd can bind http_port_t (TCP 443) and connect to rootless Caddy on 127.0.0.1:8443.
Deployment-owned static bind mounts are read-only and privately relabeled.
Images use explicit versions and digest pins. Renovate is configured to open reviewed version-and-digest updates without automerge.

The systemd socket proxy is TCP-only and hides the original peer address from Caddy. HTTP/3 is intentionally disabled.

Podman's default seccomp profile, masked kernel paths, nodev/nosuid volume defaults, and no-new-privileges remain enabled. The deployment refuses to start if SELinux is disabled or permissive, or if global container device access is enabled.

Prerequisites

Fedora 44 or Fedora 45 Linux host on amd64 or arm64 with cgroup v2 and SELinux enforcing. bin/bootstrap-host installs this host package baseline: age (at least 1.3.0), restic (at least 0.19.1), ca-certificates, checkpolicy, container-selinux, curl, diffutils, firewalld, fuse-overlayfs, gettext-envsubst, gawk, git, iproute, jq, libselinux-utils, nftables, openssh-clients, passt, podman, policycoreutils, python3, ripgrep, shadow-utils, systemd, tar, util-linux, and xfsprogs. The script also provisions valid homelab and forgejo-runner subordinate-ID ranges and installs the SOPS RPM and Forgejo Runner binary selected by the checksum-pinned metadata in config/host-tools.env.
On arm64, bootstrap installs Fedora's qemu-user-binfmt and qemu-user-static-x86 packages and enables systemd-binfmt. Native multi-architecture images follow the host. Bootstrap fails if the distribution cannot provide the required emulation packages or registration.
Operator workstation with Bash 4 or later, Git, OpenSSH client tools, rsync, jq, ripgrep, GNU sha256sum, age 1.3.0 or later, a SOPS release with built-in age 1.3 support (3.12.0 or later), openssl, argon2, Python 3, and its bcrypt module. ShellCheck is optional locally and required by the validation workflow. The pinned Restic release is also required on the workstation when performing repository recovery there.
Administrator SSH access with sudo on the target host.
A Cloudflare-managed DNS zone for BASE_DOMAIN and permission to create a zone-scoped API token and DNS records.
No existing listener on TCP 443.
10.200.0.0/16 must not overlap a host, LAN, VPN, or container route.
A private GitHub repository dedicated to this directory. The target host uses a repository-scoped, read-only SSH deploy key.
A private S3-compatible bucket and a bucket-scoped key with list, read, write, and delete access. Backblaze B2 is configured through its S3 API as described in the backup guide.
The Zigbee coordinator must have a stable /dev/serial/by-id/... name.

Initial installation

Perform these steps in order. Replace every uppercase placeholder.

In GitHub, select New repository, select the owner, enter the repository name, select Private, leave all initialization options cleared, and create the repository.
On the operator workstation, make this podman directory the repository root, validate it, and push the initial commit:
```
cd /PATH/TO/homelab/podman
git init -b main
./bin/validate
./tests/static.sh
git add .
git commit -m 'Initialize Podman homelab'
git remote add origin git@github.com:OWNER/REPOSITORY.git
git push -u origin main
```
Do not put site identity in Git plaintext. bin/init-secrets encrypts the domain, timezone, Zigbee serial ID, and all BACKUP_S3_* values later. The GitHub repository is required on every replacement host; no separate repository backup is required if GitHub remains available and contains every committed change.

On the operator workstation, generate one unencrypted SSH deploy key for this host. The systemd timer cannot use a passphrase-protected key:

install -d -m 0700 /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 \
  -C 'homelab HOSTNAME read-only deploy key' \
  -N '' \
  -f /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-deploy-key

In the private GitHub repository, open Settings > Deploy keys > Add deploy key. Set the title to homelab HOSTNAME, paste the complete contents of github-deploy-key.pub, leave Allow write access cleared, and select Add key. A deploy key grants access only to this repository.
On the operator workstation, collect GitHub's ED25519 host key and verify its fingerprint against GitHub's current, independently loaded published SSH fingerprints:
```
ssh-keyscan -t ed25519 github.com \
  > /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-known-hosts
ssh-keygen -lf /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-known-hosts
```
Stop if the fingerprint does not exactly match GitHub's documentation. Do not accept an unverified first-use prompt. Test repository access:
```
GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-deploy-key -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes -o UserKnownHostsFile=/SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-known-hosts' \
  git ls-remote git@github.com:OWNER/REPOSITORY.git refs/heads/main
```
The command must print the main commit. github-known-hosts is required on a replacement host but can be recreated and reverified; it is not a secret and does not require backup.

Copy a trusted working tree and the bootstrap inputs to the target host. Run these commands from the podman repository root on the operator workstation:

ssh ADMIN@HOST 'install -d -m 0700 ~/podman-bootstrap/source'
rsync -a --exclude .git ./ ADMIN@HOST:podman-bootstrap/source/
scp /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-deploy-key \
  /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-known-hosts \
  ADMIN@HOST:podman-bootstrap/
ssh ADMIN@HOST 'chmod 0600 ~/podman-bootstrap/github-*'

Log in to the target host and run bootstrap from that trusted working tree:
```
cd ~/podman-bootstrap/source
sudo ./bin/bootstrap-host \
  --repo git@github.com:OWNER/REPOSITORY.git \
  --git-key ../github-deploy-key \
  --known-hosts ../github-known-hosts

/usr/bin/restic version
/usr/bin/age --version
/usr/bin/sops --version --disable-version-check
```
On a TTY, bootstrap asks whether Podman images and named volumes should live on an external disk mounted at /home/homelab/.local/share/containers/storage. Answer n to keep storage on the OS disk. Answer y to select a disk, then format it as XFS (new setup) or use an existing xfs/ext4 filesystem. Formatting a disk requires typing FORMAT and the /dev/disk/by-id/... name. Treat that disk as permanently attached; do not unplug it while services run. Scripted runs can pass --no-data-disk, or --data-disk /dev/disk/by-id/DEVICE and optionally --format-data-disk. Non-TTY runs without those flags keep storage on the OS disk.

Record the printed age1pq1... host recipient. Bootstrap creates the locked homelab account, installs Fedora's age and restic RPMs plus the checksum-verified SOPS RPM, clones the private repository, generates /home/homelab/.config/sops/age/keys.txt, installs the TCP 443 proxy and the daily host-tools update timer, and configures firewalld for the host's active default zone (e.g. FedoraServer on Fedora Server or public on Workstation; override with --firewalld-zone). The version command must report restic 0.19.1 or later. The generated keys.txt private identity is required to decrypt the existing secrets on a replacement host. Back it up in step 15. Never commit it.
Verify that the installed deploy credential can read the private repository:
```
uid=$(id -u homelab)
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  git -C /home/homelab/git/repository ls-remote origin refs/heads/main
```
The command must print the main commit. The private deploy key at /home/homelab/.ssh/id_ed25519 is required for unattended fetches. For a replacement host, create a new deploy key by repeating steps 3-5; restoring the old deploy key is optional.
On the operator workstation, generate the independent operator age identity and print its recipient:
```
install -d -m 0700 ~/.config/sops/age
test ! -e ~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt
age-keygen -pq -o ~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt
chmod 0600 ~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt
age-keygen -y ~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt
```
Back up operator.txt immediately to a separate encrypted/offline location. It is required to edit or recover secrets if the host identity is lost. Do not copy it to the container host and never commit it.
In Cloudflare, open My Profile > API Tokens > Create Token > Create Custom Token. Name it Caddy HOSTNAME. Add Zone > Zone > Read and Zone > DNS > Edit; under Zone Resources, include only the BASE_DOMAIN zone. Select Continue to summary, verify the two permissions and single-zone scope, select Create Token, and copy the token. These are the permissions required by the Caddy Cloudflare module. The token is shown once and will be encrypted by step 12.
Configure name resolution for every Caddy hostname: bookmarks, git, home, home-zigbee, photos, contacts, search, syncthing, and vault, all below BASE_DOMAIN.

For public access, create a DNS-only wildcard A record nam 8000 ed * pointing at the public IPv4 address and, if used, a DNS-only wildcard AAAA record pointing at the host IPv6 address. Forward TCP 443 and Syncthing TCP/UDP 22000 at the router to the host. For LAN-only access, create the wildcard records in internal DNS pointing at the host's LAN address and do not create inbound router forwards. The Cloudflare zone and token are still required for ACME DNS-01 certificate issuance.
Before running secret initialization, have these values ready: the base domain, timezone, Zigbee router serial ID, S3 endpoint, region, bucket name, optional S3 prefix, the S3 key ID and secret, a unique restic repository password of at least 20 characters, the Cloudflare token from step 10, a bookmarks password, a Radicale username and password, and a Vaultwarden admin password. Save the chosen application passwords and the restic password in the operator password manager; application password hashes cannot be reversed. From the repository root on the operator workstation, initialize and push encrypted secrets using the host recipient printed in step 7 and the operator recipient printed in step 9:
```
./bin/init-secrets \
  --host-recipient age1pq1HOST... \
  --operator-recipient age1pq1OPERATOR...
git add .sops.yaml secrets/secrets.sops.yaml
git commit -m 'Initialize encrypted deployment secrets'
git push origin main
```
secrets/secrets.sops.yaml and .sops.yaml are required on a replacement host and are recovered by cloning the private repository.

Re-run host bootstrap so it can pull the encrypted file, set the timezone, and install the Zigbee udev rule (dialout 0660, no uaccess). If the first run already mounted a storage disk, omit the disk flags. Otherwise pass the same --data-disk / --format-data-disk or --no-data-disk choice:
```
cd ~/podman-bootstrap/source
sudo ./bin/bootstrap-host \
  --repo git@github.com:OWNER/REPOSITORY.git \
  --git-key ../github-deploy-key \
  --known-hosts ../github-known-hosts
```

Run the first reconciliation on the target host and verify it:

uid=$(id -u homelab)
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  /home/homelab/git/repository/bin/reconcile
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  /home/homelab/current/bin/status

Initialize the encrypted restic repository exactly once and verify its configuration. This is deliberately not automatic: a missing repository or incorrect endpoint must never silently create a second backup history.
```
uid=$(id -u homelab)
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  /home/homelab/current/bin/restic init
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  /home/homelab/current/bin/restic cat config
```
Stop if either command fails. restic init must be run only for a new, empty repository prefix; use cat config without init when adopting an existing repository.

Run and verify the first encrypted S3 backup:

uid=$(id -u homelab)
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  systemctl --user start homelab-backup.service
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  /home/homelab/current/bin/restic snapshots --latest 1
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  /home/homelab/current/bin/status

Follow the complete encrypted S3 backup procedure for provider-specific settings and checks. Do not treat the installation as recoverable until the host age identity, operator age identity, named volumes have verified backups.

Remove the target host's temporary bootstrap copy after the backup has been verified. Keep or destroy the operator-side deploy-key copy according to the backup inventory below; the installed copy remains under the homelab account.

The first deployment builds the two custom images, pulls every upstream image, and starts all application targets. It creates empty application state.

Complete the required Vaultwarden setup immediately:

Open https://vault.BASE_DOMAIN, register the owner account, and verify the login.
Change Environment=SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=true to false in quadlet/applications/vaultwarden/vaultwarden.container.
Commit and push the change.
Run ~/current/bin/reconcile as homelab, or wait for the timer.
Verify that the owner can still log in and that new registration is closed.

The Vaultwarden owner account is stored in homelab-vaultwarden-data; its encrypted volume snapshot is required when restoring onto a new host.

GitOps operation

homelab-reconcile.timer fetches origin/main every five minutes using the homelab deploy key (~/.ssh/id_ed25519, IdentitiesOnly=yes). Each update is staged as /home/homelab/releases/<commit> and validated before the /home/homelab/current symlink is switched. The oneshot service has TimeoutStartSec=infinity so image pulls and Notify=healthy database units can finish; after a restart, reconcile waits for each declared unit to become active before recording the new deployed commit.

An image update is a normal reviewed Git change:

[Container]
Image=docker.io/example/application:2.0.0@sha256:...

After merge, reconciliation pre-pulls the exact image and restarts only the affected application target. Shared releases such as Immich are grouped by Renovate. AutoUpdate=registry is deliberately not used.

The self-hosted Renovate workflow runs every day at 04:17 UTC. Configure it once:

Sign in as the dedicated bot account that has access to this private repository.
Open Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens > Fine-grained tokens > Generate new token. Limit repository access to this repository. Grant read/write access to Contents, Issues, Pull requests, Commit statuses, and Workflows, plus read access to Dependabot alerts. Generate and copy the token.
In the repository, open Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions > New repository secret. Set the name to RENOVATE_TOKEN, paste the bot token, and save it.
Open Actions > Renovate > Run workflow > Run workflow.
Verify that the run succeeds and that Renovate can open a pull request.

A classic token with the repo and workflow scopes is an alternative. Limit either token to this repository. The Actions secret remains in GitHub and is not required on a replacement container host.

The workflow deliberately does not use the automatic GITHUB_TOKEN: pull requests created with that token do not reliably trigger the validation workflow. It fails with a setup message when RENOVATE_TOKEN is absent. The workflow is restricted to scheduled and manual events, so the secret is never exposed to pull-request code.

Require the validate, host-tools (amd64), host-tools (arm64), and e2e checks in the main branch protection rule. A select job maps the Git diff onto those checks: CI, docs, incubator, Renovate-workflow, encrypted-secret, Home Assistant automation, and validate-only test changes skip Podman, custom image builds, and host-tool tests, so e2e can pass in seconds. Workload changes run only the affected workloads. Custom image Containerfiles build only the matching image. Host-tool metadata runs the architecture tests and the complete Podman suite. Global deployment changes still run the complete real Podman E2E suite. Keep approval and merge manual; passing checks do not automatically merge an update.

The included renovate.json understands Quadlet Image= entries and the custom image build inputs. Its Docker digest pinning and currentDigest capture mean Renovate changes the SHA-256 digest together with a tag, and also proposes digest-only updates when a tag is republished. Custom managers cover the Caddy xcaddy modules, Radicale's pinned Alpine packages, and the architecture-specific SOPS release assets and checksums in config/host-tools.env. Fedora-managed age and Restic packages are not controlled by this GitOps pin. Container and host-tool updates are never automerged; after review and merge, deployment remains the responsibility of the GitOps reconciler. The workflow action and Renovate container version are pinned and are themselves managed by Renovate.

Useful commands as the homelab user:

~/current/bin/reconcile --dry-run
~/current/bin/reconcile
~/current/bin/status
systemctl --user status homelab.target
journalctl --user -u homelab-reconcile.service
journalctl --user -u caddy.service
podman ps
~/current/bin/security-audit

If Git, SOPS, validation, a registry, or a local build fails before activation, the current release continues running. If systemd reload or a unit health check fails after the current symlink has already moved, reconcile restores the previous current target and reloads units; that symlink rollback is not a database downgrade, and named-volume major migrations already applied by migrate-databases are not reversed. Runtime failures after a stateful service starts are also not automatically rolled back, because its database may already have migrated.

The timer always executes /home/homelab/current/bin/reconcile. A bug in that already-deployed script cannot be fixed by waiting for the next timer tick: fetch and activate the new commit from the Git checkout once, then the timer keeps using the repaired release.

uid=$(id -u homelab)
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  bash -lc '
    cd /home/homelab
    export GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i /home/homelab/.ssh/id_ed25519 -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes -o UserKnownHostsFile=/home/homelab/.ssh/known_hosts"
    git -C /home/homelab/git/repository fetch --prune origin \
      +refs/heads/main:refs/remotes/origin/main
    git -C /home/homelab/git/repository reset --hard origin/main
    /home/homelab/git/repository/bin/reconcile
  '
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  journalctl --user -u homelab-reconcile.service -n 50 --no-pager

Automated PostgreSQL and MariaDB major version updates

When Renovate updates a PostgreSQL or MariaDB container image across major versions, bin/migrate-databases runs during reconcile before the new systemd application target starts. It discovers only *-postgres.container and *-mariadb.container units. Thin wrappers bin/migrate-postgres and bin/migrate-mariadb select one engine for manual use.

Shared steps:

Detect a mismatch between the on-disk major (PG_VERSION, or mariadb_upgrade_info / mysql_upgrade_info) and the target image.
Stop the owning application target and database unit, then fail if either is still active or if any container still has the data volume mounted.
Dump the database with an ephemeral rootless --network none container using the previous image, and write a raw tarball of the data directory into ~/.local/state/homelab/{postgres,mariadb}-upgrades/ before wiping the volume.
Re-initialize the volume with the new image, restore the dump, and verify it (SELECT current_database() for PostgreSQL, schema presence for MariaDB).
On success, keep the logical dump and delete the bulky raw tarball. If restoration or verification fails, roll back from the state-dir tarball (not a temp directory).

PostgreSQL uses a custom-format pg_dump / pg_restore. MariaDB dumps logical users with --system=users, then application databases with mariadb-dump --all-databases as root via the imported MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD secret, omitting the mysql and sys schemas so a major upgrade does not restore a physical mysql.proc table into the new version. It does not mount docker-entrypoint-initdb.d seed SQL during the upgrade. Downgrades are refused.

The migration tool can also be run or inspected manually:

~/current/bin/migrate-databases --check
~/current/bin/migrate-databases --dry-run
~/current/bin/migrate-postgres --workload forgejo
~/current/bin/migrate-postgres --workload immich

Hardening an existing host

Hosts installed by an older revision have container_use_devices enabled globally. Before deploying the hardened Quadlets, perform the one required host migration as an administrator:

sudo dnf install -y container-selinux
test "$(getenforce)" = Enforcing
sudo setsebool -P container_use_devices off
getsebool container_use_devices

The final command must report off. Reconciliation will otherwise stop before restarting containers. After deployment, run ~/current/bin/security-audit as homelab, exercise every application, and check for new SELinux denials:

sudo ausearch -m AVC,USER_AVC -ts recent

Do not resolve a denial by disabling SELinux, using spc_t, enabling nested labels, or restoring the default capability set. Add only the specific writable mount, file label, or allowlisted capability demonstrated necessary.

Secret rotation

Edit the encrypted file only through SOPS:

SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE=~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt \
  sops secrets/secrets.sops.yaml
git add secrets/secrets.sops.yaml
git commit -m 'Rotate deployment secrets'
git push origin main

The reconciler replaces Podman secrets and recreates their declared consumers. The post-quantum age host identity is mode 0600 under /home/homelab/.config/sops/age/keys.txt. Back it up separately from the operator identity. To add or remove recipients, update .sops.yaml and run:

SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE=~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt \
  sops updatekeys secrets/secrets.sops.yaml

Repository validation requires exactly two age1pq1... recipients in both the creation rule and encrypted SOPS metadata, preventing a later downgrade to classical age keys. An age private identity cannot be recreated from its recipient. Restore the exact keys.txt from backup on a replacement host.

Home Assistant .storage, Forgejo state, and credentials created through application UIs are application-managed state, not deployment secrets.

Backup and recovery

The canonical procedures are:

The automated snapshots are encrypted locally, incremental, and deduplicated. The first run uploads all selected data; later runs upload only new chunks while remaining complete point-in-time snapshots.

When migrating between hosts, amd64 hosts remain native. An arm64 replacement host completes the QEMU setup during bootstrap-host before the first reconciliation, and native multi-architecture images follow the host's native architecture.

Backup inventory

Item	Backup requirement	Replacement-host action
Private GitHub repository	Keep all changes pushed. An independent mirror is optional.	Clone it with a read-only deploy key.
`.sops.yaml` and `secrets/secrets.sops.yaml`	Required; keep them committed in the private repository. They include the domain, timezone, Zigbee serial ID, backup location, and owner-scoped Forgejo Runner secret/UUID.	Clone them from GitHub; the host age identity decrypts them. Update the Zigbee serial ID through SOPS first if the replacement hardware differs. Reuse the committed runner registration and never run it concurrently on the old and replacement hosts.
Host age identity: `/home/homelab/.config/sops/age/keys.txt`	Required; store encrypted/offline.	Restore the exact file with `--host-age-key`. Do not generate a replacement when restoring existing SOPS secrets.
Operator age identity: `~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt`	Required; store encrypted/offline, separately from the host identity.	Keep it on the operator workstation. It is the recovery identity if the host copy is lost.
GitHub deploy private key	Optional. It is an unencrypted secret.	Prefer a new key and a new read-only GitHub deploy-key entry. Restore the old key only if intentionally retaining it.
Verified `github-known-hosts`	No.	Recreate it and verify it against GitHub's published fingerprint.
Cloudflare and generated deployment credentials	Required in encrypted form; keep `secrets/secrets.sops.yaml` pushed.	No separate host copy is required. SOPS decrypts them from Git.
Chosen bookmarks, Radicale, and Vaultwarden plaintext passwords	Keep in the operator password manager.	They are not host bootstrap inputs. Their hashes come from Git and application accounts come from volume backups.
`RENOVATE_TOKEN`	Keep it as a GitHub Actions repository secret.	It is not copied to or required by the container host.
S3 access key and restic repository password	Required in SOPS and the operator password manager.	Decrypt them with the offline operator identity to ac 8BD0 cess backups after host loss.
Deployed Git commit	Included in every restic snapshot.	Verify that it exists in Git and is an ancestor of the revision being deployed.
Active `homelab-*` Podman named volumes	Included in every restic snapshot.	Create empty named volumes and restore their snapshot subtrees before first reconciliation. Inactive incubator volumes are outside this inventory.
Forgejo Runner account, graphroot, containers, and `/var/lib/homelab/forgejo-runner-storage.xfs`	No; CI execution state is disposable and must not cross hosts.	Run bootstrap with `--defer-forgejo-runner` during restoration. Bootstrap creates a fresh bounded graphroot; rerun it without the option only at final cutover.
Releases, rendered configs, installed binaries, systemd links, firewall rules, and the `zigbee-router` symlink	No.	`bootstrap-host` and `reconcile` recreate them.

Application accounts and settings created through a UI are stored in the named volumes; encrypted deployment credentials are stored in Git. Git reconciliation never deletes named volumes.

Legacy offline archive fallback

The following removable-media workflow is retained only as an independent offline fallback. Use the automated restic procedure above for routine backups.

This is a cold backup of every application volume. It stops all applications so PostgreSQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Valkey, and file data are consistent.

Mount an encrypted backup destination. Create a host-specific directory writable only by homelab:

sudo install -d -m 0700 -o homelab -g homelab \
  /MOUNTED/ENCRYPTED/BACKUP/HOSTNAME-YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ

Open a homelab login shell and set its user systemd runtime directory:

sudo -iu homelab
set -Eeuo pipefail
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$(id -u)"
cd ~/current

Stop reconciliation and every application target:

mapfile -t backup_apps < <(jq -r 'keys[]' manifests/applications.json)
systemctl --user stop homelab-reconcile.timer homelab-backup.timer
while systemctl --user is-active --quiet homelab-reconcile.service; do
  sleep 1
done
systemctl --user stop homelab.target
for app in "${backup_apps[@]}"; do
  systemctl --user stop "homelab-$app.target"
done
test -z "$(podman ps --quiet)"

Do not continue unless the final command succeeds. The homelab account is dedicated to this deployment, so any running container means the backup is not cold.

Archive every active named volume and the host age identity:

backup_root=/MOUNTED/ENCRYPTED/BACKUP/HOSTNAME-YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ
umask 077
install -d -m 0700 "$backup_root/volumes"
: > "$backup_root/volume-list.txt"
while IFS= read -r app; do
  podman volume ls \
    --filter "label=io.containers.systemd.application=$app" \
    --format '{{.Name}}' >> "$backup_root/volume-list.txt"
done < <(jq -r 'keys[]' manifests/applications.json)
sort -u -o "$backup_root/volume-list.txt" "$backup_root/volume-list.txt"
sed -n 's/^VolumeName=//p' quadlet/volumes/*.volume \
  | sort > "$backup_root/expected-volume-list.txt"
diff -u "$backup_root/expected-volume-list.txt" \
  "$backup_root/volume-list.txt"

while IFS= read -r volume; do
  volume_path=$(podman volume inspect --format '{{.Mountpoint}}' "$volume")
  podman unshare tar --acls --xattrs --selinux \
    -C "$volume_path" -czf "$backup_root/volumes/$volume.tar.gz" .
done < "$backup_root/volume-list.txt"

install -m 0600 ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt "$backup_root/host-age-keys.txt"
install -m 0600 ~/.local/state/homelab/deployed-commit \
  "$backup_root/deployed-commit.txt"
(
  cd "$backup_root"
  find . -type f ! -name SHA256SUMS -print0 \
    | sort -z \
    | xargs -0 sha256sum > SHA256SUMS
)

Verify every archive and checksum before restarting services:

(
  cd "$backup_root"
  sha256sum --check SHA256SUMS
)
while IFS= read -r volume; do
  tar -tzf "$backup_root/volumes/$volume.tar.gz" >/dev/null
done < "$backup_root/volume-list.txt"

Restart the deployment and leave the homelab shell:
```
systemctl --user start homelab.target homelab-reconcile.timer homelab-backup.timer
~/current/bin/status
exit
```
If any command in steps 3-5 fails, correct the backup error or discard the incomplete backup, then run this restart step before leaving the host.
On the operator workstation, copy ~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt to a different encrypted/offline backup. Verify that the copied identity prints the operator recipient recorded in .sops.yaml:
```
age-keygen -y /ENCRYPTED/OFFLINE/BACKUP/operator.txt
```
Copy the completed host backup off the container host. Verify SHA256SUMS at the destination. Keep at least one backup created before each database-migrating application upgrade.

Legacy offline-archive restore

For S3/restic snapshots, use the canonical replacement-host guide above. The following procedure applies only to archives created by the legacy fallback.

Do not run an initial reconciliation before restoring the volumes.

On the operator workstation, verify the selected backup:
```
cd /RESTORED/BACKUP/HOSTNAME-YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ
sha256sum --check SHA256SUMS
age-keygen -y host-age-keys.txt
```
The second command must print the host recipient present in .sops.yaml and secrets/secrets.sops.yaml. If it does not, stop.
Create a fresh host deploy key and verified github-known-hosts by repeating initial-installation steps 3-5. Add the fresh public key to Settings > Deploy keys in the same private GitHub repository. Do not remove the old host's deploy key yet if the old host is still in service.
Attach the Zigbee coordinator to the new host and verify that the configured device exists:
```
ls -l /dev/serial/by-id/
```
If its serial ID differs, edit site.homeassistant_zigbee_router_serial_id in secrets/secrets.sops.yaml with SOPS, commit, and push that change before continuing.

From the repository root on the operator workstation, copy the current trusted working tree and fresh GitHub inputs to the new host:

ssh ADMIN@NEW_HOST \
  'install -d -m 0700 ~/podman-bootstrap/source ~/podman-bootstrap/volumes'
rsync -a --exclude .git ./ ADMIN@NEW_HOST:podman-bootstrap/source/
scp /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-deploy-key \
  /SECURE/PATH/homelab-bootstrap/github-known-hosts \
  ADMIN@NEW_HOST:podman-bootstrap/

Copy the verified backup files from the backup directory:

scp host-age-keys.txt deployed-commit.txt volume-list.txt \
  expected-volume-list.txt SHA256SUMS \
  ADMIN@NEW_HOST:podman-bootstrap/
rsync -a volumes/ ADMIN@NEW_HOST:podman-bootstrap/volumes/
ssh ADMIN@NEW_HOST 'chmod 0600 ~/podman-bootstrap/github-* ~/podman-bootstrap/host-age-keys.txt ~/podman-bootstrap/volumes/*'
ssh ADMIN@NEW_HOST \
  'cd ~/podman-bootstrap && sha256sum --check SHA256SUMS'

On the new host, run bootstrap with the backed-up host identity:
```
cd ~/podman-bootstrap/source
sudo ./bin/bootstrap-host \
  --repo git@github.com:OWNER/REPOSITORY.git \
  --git-key ../github-deploy-key \
  --known-hosts ../github-known-hosts \
  --host-age-key ../host-age-keys.txt \
  --data-disk /dev/disk/by-id/DEVICE
```
Add --format-data-disk only for an empty replacement disk. If the original data disk moved with the host, omit it. Use --no-data-disk to keep storage on the OS disk. Restore the volume archives only after /home/homelab/.local/share/containers/storage is mounted.

The printed host recipient must equal the value verified in step 1. --host-age-key refuses to overwrite a different existing host identity.

Stage only the application backup files for the homelab account:

sudo install -d -m 0700 -o homelab -g homelab /home/homelab/restore/volumes
sudo install -m 0600 -o homelab -g homelab \
  ~/podman-bootstrap/volume-list.txt /home/homelab/restore/volume-list.txt
sudo install -m 0600 -o homelab -g homelab \
  ~/podman-bootstrap/deployed-commit.txt /home/homelab/restore/deployed-commit.txt
sudo cp ~/podman-bootstrap/volumes/*.tar.gz /home/homelab/restore/volumes/
sudo chown homelab:homelab /home/homelab/restore/volumes/*.tar.gz
sudo chmod 0600 /home/homelab/restore/volumes/*.tar.gz

Create and restore every volume before starting an application:

sudo -iu homelab
set -Eeuo pipefail
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$(id -u)"
cd ~/git/repository
backup_commit=$(<"$HOME/restore/deployed-commit.txt")
git cat-file -e "$backup_commit^{commit}"
git merge-base --is-ancestor "$backup_commit" origin/main
while IFS= read -r volume_file; do
  volume=$(sed -n 's/^VolumeName=//p' "$volume_file")
  label=$(sed -n 's/^Label=//p' "$volume_file")
  archive="$HOME/restore/volumes/$volume.tar.gz"
  grep -Fxq "$volume" "$HOME/restore/volume-list.txt"
  test -f "$archive"
  if podman volume exists "$volume"; then
    printf 'Refusing to overwrite existing volume: %s\n' "$volume" >&2
    exit 1
  fi
  podman volume create --label "$label" "$volume" >/dev/null
  volume_path=$(podman volume inspect --format '{{.Mountpoint}}' "$volume")
  podman unshare tar --acls --xattrs --selinux \
    -C "$volume_path" -xzf "$archive"
done < <(find quadlet/volumes -type f -name '*.volume' | sort)

sops --decrypt secrets/secrets.sops.yaml >/dev/null

All commands must succeed. A failed ancestry check means the selected data backup does not lead forward to the current main; select the matching Git revision before continuing. If SOPS decryption fails, do not generate another host identity; reinstall the correct host-age-keys.txt backup.

Run reconciliation and verification:

~/git/repository/bin/reconcile
~/current/bin/status
systemctl --user status homelab-reconcile.timer
exit

Verify application logins and application data. Verify that Git fetch works:

uid=$(id -u homelab)
sudo runuser -u homelab -- \
  env HOME=/home/homelab XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$uid" \
  git -C /home/homelab/git/repository fetch --prune origin main

Move the wildcard DNS records and any router forwards from the old host's address to the new host's address. Verify HTTPS access and Syncthing connectivity from the intended networks.
Remove /home/homelab/restore and ~/podman-bootstrap only after the new host and an independent copy of the backup have been verified. In GitHub, remove the retired host's deploy key under Settings > Deploy keys.

If the host age identity backup is unavailable but the operator identity still works, bootstrap without --host-age-key, replace the old host recipient in .sops.yaml with the new printed recipient, then run this on the operator workstation:

SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE=~/.config/sops/age/operator.txt \
  sops updatekeys secrets/secrets.sops.yaml
git add .sops.yaml secrets/secrets.sops.yaml
git commit -m 'Replace lost host age recipient'
git push origin main

Do this before reconciling. This is recipient rotation, not recreation of the lost private key. If both identities are lost, the encrypted deployment secrets cannot be recovered and must be replaced.

Host-managed updates

SOPS and Forgejo Runner are manually fetched host tools, so their release tags and amd64/arm64 checksums are committed in config/host-tools.env. Renovate checks the upstream stable releases daily and opens pull requests. After the pull request passes the required host-tool tests and the affected-workload E2E suite (or the full suite for global changes) and is merged, homelab-reconcile.timer publishes the new metadata through current.

homelab-host-tools-update.timer then runs daily at 02:00 in the host timezone with a persistent catch-up run. Its root-owned helpers are installed by bootstrap-host; the helpers read only validated metadata and derive the fixed upstream download URLs and artifact names. They never execute code from the mutable Git checkout. A failed download, checksum, metadata, or installation leaves the previously installed version in place. Forgejo Runner updates use the upstream release's architecture-specific checksum files, replace the binary atomically, and restart the runner service only after a successful update. Upstream releases are therefore proposed automatically but remain review-gated; there is no unattended update directly from an upstream release. Inspect them with:

systemctl status homelab-host-tools-update.timer
systemctl status homelab-host-tools-update.service
rpm -q sops
forgejo-runner --version

For an existing host that predates this timer, rerun the reviewed bootstrap-host command from the initial-installation procedure once. This installs the fixed helpers and timer; it does not grant the Git reconciler root access.

The socket proxy is also intentionally outside rootless GitOps. After reviewing a change under systemd/system, reinstall it explicitly:

sudo install -m 0644 systemd/system/caddy-https-proxy.* /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart caddy-https-proxy.socket

SELinux policy under selinux/ is compiled and loaded by bootstrap-host. Re-run that command after a policy change. The Git reconciler does not apply it.

The fixed host-tool helpers, socket proxy, and that SELinux module are the only host-root integration points. The Git reconciler still has no sudo access, and the host-tool helpers accept only release metadata for the fixed upstream releases rather than running repository scripts as root.

Forgejo Actions runner

Forgejo Actions allows running CI/CD workflows triggered by Git events in Forgejo. Because CI workflows execute arbitrary code, they are strictly quarantined from production workloads.

Security boundary and isolation model

Dedicated Host Account: The runner executes under a dedicated system user account forgejo-runner with a locked password and no login credentials. It has no sudo access or group memberships in wheel, root, or homelab.
Subordinate UID/GID Segregation: Subordinate IDs are allocated from 200000-265535, strictly non-overlapping with the homelab production range (100000-165535).
Independent Podman Runtime & Storage: The runner uses its own rootless Podman instance (/home/forgejo-runner/.local/share/containers/storage) and systemd user manager. It has no access to the homelab account's Podman socket (/run/user/<HUID>/podman/podman.sock), storage, secrets, or rendered configs. Its graphroot is a dedicated 20 GiB XFS filesystem backed by /var/lib/homelab/forgejo-runner-storage.xfs, preventing CI from filling the production filesystem without a fixed ceiling.
Hardened Runner Configuration:
- capacity: 1 limits concurrent execution to a single job.
- docker_host: "-" blocks jobs from mounting or accessing the runner's own Podman daemon socket.
- privileged: false enforces unprivileged container execution.
- valid_volumes: [] blocks jobs from mounting arbitrary host paths.
- cache.enabled: false prevents cache poisoning between workflow runs.
- the Node 26 Trixie job image is digest-pinned, forcibly refreshed before use, and old unused resources are pruned weekly by the runner-only user timer.
Network & Egress Isolation: The host service homelab-forgejo-runner-egress.service loads nftables egress rules matching meta skuid "forgejo-runner". DNS is allowed only to resolvers listed by the host. The resolved Forgejo addresses receive a TCP 443 exception; all other outbound traffic destined for RFC1918 private subnets (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16), loopback (127.0.0.0/8, ::1/128), and IPv6 ULAs (fc00::/7). The runner communicates with Forgejo exclusively over HTTPS via git.${BASE_DOMAIN}.
Resource Limits: Both the daemon and the complete user-<RUID>.slice enforce MemoryMax=16G, CPUQuota=400%, and TasksMax=2048. The user-slice limit covers the Podman API service, job containers, service containers, and the runner daemon together. Each job container is additionally limited to four CPUs, 16 GiB of memory, and 1024 PIDs.

Registration and operation

Runners are registered at owner scope rather than repository or global scope. Every repository belonging to that Forgejo user or organization may schedule jobs on the runner, while repositories owned by other accounts cannot.

Register the runner: On the host or management environment with access to the running forgejo container:
```
./bin/register-forgejo-runner --scope OWNER
```
This executes an owner-scoped offline registration via forgejo-cli inside the Forgejo container using the secret passed via stdin (--secret-stdin). An empty/global scope and an OWNER/REPOSITORY scope are rejected. bin/init-secrets generated the secret; registration records the returned UUID securely in secrets/secrets.sops.yaml.
Commit and deploy: Commit the updated secrets/secrets.sops.yaml and deploy to the host.
Apply and start the runner: Run sudo ./bin/bootstrap-host .... Bootstrap renders the runner configuration at /home/forgejo-runner/.config/forgejo-runner/config.yaml, registers the systemd user service, and starts forgejo-runner.service.

Verify status:

runner_uid=$(id -u forgejo-runner)
sudo runuser -u forgejo-runner -- env HOME=/home/forgejo-runner \
  XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$runner_uid \
  DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/$runner_uid/bus \
  systemctl --user status podman.socket forgejo-runner.service
systemctl status homelab-forgejo-runner-egress.service
sudo runuser -u forgejo-runner -- env HOME=/home/forgejo-runner \
  XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$runner_uid bash -c 'cd "$HOME"; exec podman ps -a'

Runner configuration, job-image, nftables, user-slice, or storage-policy changes are host-integration changes. Re-run the reviewed bootstrap-host command after merging them. Binary-only Forgejo Runner updates are installed by the daily host-tools timer and restart the daemon automatically.

To disable and roll back Actions execution without changing Forgejo data:

runner_uid=$(id -u forgejo-runner)
sudo runuser -u forgejo-runner -- env HOME=/home/forgejo-runner \
  XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$runner_uid \
  DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/$runner_uid/bus \
  systemctl --user disable --now forgejo-runner.service forgejo-runner-prune.timer podman.socket
sudo systemctl disable --now homelab-forgejo-runner-egress.service

Unregister the runner in Forgejo before deleting its bounded storage image or account. Forgejo may remain Actions-enabled with no online runner.

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Rootless Podman homelab

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
bin		bin
config		config
docs		docs
images		images
incubator		incubator
manifests		manifests
quadlet		quadlet
secrets		secrets
selinux		selinux
systemd		systemd
tests		tests
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.sops.yaml		.sops.yaml
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
README.md		README.md
renovate.json		renovate.json

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Rootless Podman homelab

Services

Security model

Prerequisites

Initial installation

GitOps operation

Automated PostgreSQL and MariaDB major version updates

Hardening an existing host

Secret rotation

Backup and recovery

Backup inventory

Legacy offline archive fallback

Legacy offline-archive restore

Host-managed updates

Forgejo Actions runner

Security boundary and isolation model

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