CrumpNet is my personal technology site for documenting the systems I build, the problems I run into, and the lessons I learn along the way.
At its core, CrumpNet is a homelab, but I do not want it to be just a pile of servers and services. I want it to be a place where I can practice infrastructure design, test tools, improve my documentation habits, and make better long-term technical decisions.
Why I Wanted a Homelab
I work with infrastructure professionally, and I wanted a place where I could safely test ideas outside of production environments.
The goals were simple:
- Learn by building
- Break things safely
- Practice troubleshooting
- Document decisions
- Improve my understanding of Windows, Linux, networking, monitoring, security, and cloud services
A homelab gives me a place to slow down and understand how systems fit together.
Why Document It Publicly
Private notes are useful, but public writing forces a different level of clarity.
If I write something for myself, I can leave gaps. If I write something publicly, I have to explain:
- What I was trying to do
- Why I chose that approach
- What tradeoffs I accepted
- What went wrong
- What I would do differently
That process makes me better.
What CrumpNet Covers
The lab is built around a few core areas:
Identity and infrastructure — Active Directory, Windows Server, DNS, DHCP, and the PKI that ties it together.
Visibility — Monitoring with Zabbix and security event collection with Wazuh. If something breaks or something looks wrong, I want to know about it.
Services and automation — Docker workloads, Linux administration, backup, and the scripting that keeps things running.
Network — VLANs and segmentation to keep the lab organized and isolated.
The goal is practical coverage: how I built it, what went wrong, and what I would change.
What I Will Not Publish
Some details do not belong on a public website.
I will avoid publishing:
- Passwords, tokens, or secrets
- Private keys
- Exact firewall rules where they expose too much
- Sensitive screenshots
- Complete internal host inventories
- Security gaps that would make the environment easier to attack
The goal is to share the design and lessons, not expose the environment.
Where This Goes From Here
CrumpNet will grow as the lab grows, with a focus on practical notes, real lessons learned, and decisions that are worth remembering.
If it works the way I intend, CrumpNet becomes something I can reference during an outage, hand to a colleague, or revisit years from now without having to reverse-engineer my own thinking. Good documentation holds up over time. This is my attempt to write that way.