This Is The Best Blog Post Ive Ever Read About Setting Up Automation In A Homelab

This Is The Best Blog Post I’ve Ever Read About Setting Up Automation In A Homelab

1. Introduction

Every homelab engineer knows the pain: you’ve deployed dozens of Docker containers for services like Nextcloud, Home Assistant, or Jellyfin, only to spend weekends manually checking for updates, testing new versions, and redeploying containers. It’s tedious, error-prone, and steals time from actual innovation.

The blog post “How to Automate Version Updates for Your Self-Hosted Docker Containers with Gitea, Renovate, and Komodo” solves this elegantly. It’s a masterclass in self-hosted infrastructure automation, combining battle-tested DevOps principles with homelab pragmatism.

Why This Matters

• Zero-touch updates: Automatically detect, test, and deploy new container versions
• Security: Eliminate vulnerabilities from outdated software
• Consistency: Enforce GitOps workflows without cloud dependencies
• Scalability: Manage 10 or 100 containers with identical effort

In this guide, we’ll dissect why this approach works, implement it step-by-step, and optimize it for production-grade reliability—all using open-source tools you control.

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2. Understanding the Topic

Core Components

1. Gitea
   • Self-hosted Git service (GitHub alternative)
   • Stores Docker Compose files and application configurations
   • Triggers CI/CD pipelines via webhooks
2. Renovate
   • Automated dependency updater (created by Mend)
   • Scans Dockerfiles, Compose files, Helm charts
   • Opens pull requests with version bumps
3. Komodor
   • Kubernetes-focused monitoring tool (optional alternative: Portainer)
   • Validates deployment health post-update

Technical Architecture

[Container Registry] --> [Renovate Bot] --> [Gitea PR] --> [CI/CD Pipeline] --> [Komodor Health Check]

Why This Stack Wins

Feature	Traditional Approach	Gitea+Renovate+Komodo
Update Detection	Manual docker pull	Automated registry scanning
Testing	Ad-hoc	Pre-merge CI checks
Deployment	Manual docker-compose up	Git-triggered pipelines
Rollback	Hope you have backups	Instant Git revert

Real-World Impact: A Reddit user reported reducing update overhead by 90% while catching breaking changes via automated tests before production.

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3. Prerequisites

Hardware/OS Requirements

• CPU: x86_64 or ARMv8 (Raspberry Pi 4+ works)
• RAM: 4GB minimum (8GB recommended for CI workloads)
• Storage: 50GB+ (SSD strongly advised)
• OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Rocky Linux 9

Software Dependencies

# Core Packages
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
  docker-ce=5:24.0.6-1~ubuntu.22.04~jammy \
  docker-compose-plugin=2.20.3-1~ubuntu.22.04~jammy \
  git=1:2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10

# Verify Versions
docker --version        # Docker version 24.0.6
docker compose version  # Docker Compose version v2.20.3
git --version           # git version 2.34.1

Network Configuration

Port	Service	Protocol	Purpose
3000	Gitea	TCP	Web UI
8080	CI Runner	TCP	Build jobs
5432	PostgreSQL	TCP	Database (if external)

Security Checklist:

• Firewall rules restricting inbound traffic
• TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt
• Separate VLAN for CI/CD components

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4. Installation & Setup

Step 1: Deploy Gitea

docker-compose.yml for Gitea:

version: '3.8'

services:
  gitea:
    image: gitea/gitea:1.20.6
    container_name: gitea
    environment:
      - USER_UID=1000
      - USER_GID=1000
      - DB_TYPE=postgres
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_NAME=gitea
      - DB_USER=gitea
      - DB_PASSWD=your_strong_password
    volumes:
      - ./gitea:/data
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    container_name: gitea_db
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=gitea
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_strong_password
      - POSTGRES_DB=gitea
    volumes:
      - ./postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data

Initialize Gitea:

1. Browse to http://your-server:3000
2. Create admin account
3. Add SSH keys for repository access

Step 2: Configure Renovate

Create renovate.json in your repo:

{
  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  "extends": [
    "config:recommended"
  ],
  "docker": {
    "enabled": true,
    "commitMessagePrefix": "chore(deps): ",
    "semanticCommitType": "fix"
  },
  "schedule": ["every weekend"],
  "automerge": true,
  "platform": "gitea",
  "endpoint": "http://gitea:3000/",
  "token": "$GITEA_TOKEN"
}

Run Renovate via Docker:

docker run -d --name renovate \
  -e RENOVATE_CONFIG_FILE="/config.json" \
  -v /path/to/renovate.json:/config.json \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  renovate/renovate:37.0.0

Step 3: Komodor Integration

Deploy Komodor agent (alternative: Portainer):

docker run -d --name komodor-agent \
  -e KOMODOR_API_KEY=your_api_key \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  komodorio/agent:0.7.0

Verification Steps:

1. Trigger test update in Renovate:

   docker exec $CONTAINER_ID renovate your-username/your-repo --dry-run
   

2. Check Gitea for opened PRs
3. Verify Komodor dashboards show deployment events

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5. Configuration & Optimization

Security Hardening

1. Gitea:
   • Enable 2FA in app.ini:

     [service]
     REQUIRE_SIGNIN_VIEW = true
     ENABLE_TWO_FACTOR = true
     

2. Renovate:
   • Restrict container privileges:
     ```yaml

     In docker-compose.override.yml

     security_opt:

     • no-new-privileges:true read_only: true ```
3. Network Segmentation:

   # Create isolated Docker network
   docker network create --subnet=10.10.0.0/24 ci_network
   

Performance Tuning

Parameter	Default	Optimized	Effect
RENOVATE_JOB_TIMEOUT	60m	120m	Prevents large repo timeouts
GITEA__database__CONN_MAX_LIFETIME	60s	300s	Reduces DB connection churn
POSTGRES_MAX_CONNECTIONS	100	200	Handles CI workload spikes

---

6. Usage & Operations

Daily Workflow

1. Update Cycle:
   • Renovate scans registries → opens PR
   • CI runs docker-compose build --pull && docker-compose up -d
   • Komodor alerts if service health degrades
2. Manual Override:
   ```bash

   Temporarily disable automerge

   docker exec $CONTAINER_ID renovate your/repo –automerge=false

Force dependency check

docker exec $CONTAINER_ID renovate your/repo –force

#### Backup Strategy  

1. **Gitea Data**:  
```bash
# Daily snapshot
docker exec -t gitea_db pg_dump -U gitea gitea > gitea_$(date +%s).sql

1. Docker Volumes:

   tar czvf volumes_$(date +%s).tar.gz /path/to/gitea/volumes
   

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7. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Problem: Renovate doesn’t detect Docker updates
Fix: Verify registry permissions in config.js:

{
  "docker": {
    "registryAliases": {
      "docker.io": "registry-1.docker.io"
    }
  }
}

Problem: Gitea webhooks fail
Debug:

docker logs $CONTAINER_ID | grep "webhook"
curl -X POST http://gitea:3000/api/v1/hooks/test

Problem: Komodor misses deployments
Verify: Agent connectivity:

docker exec komodor-agent komo doctor

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8. Conclusion

By implementing this stack—Gitea for version control, Renovate for automated dependency management, and Komodor for deployment health—you’ve built a self-hosted CI/CD pipeline rivaling cloud offerings.

Key Achievements:

• Complete ownership of your automation toolchain
• Reduced manual intervention by 70-90%
• Enterprise-grade update hygiene in a homelab

Next Steps:

1. Add end-to-end testing with Playwright
2. Implement signing via Cosign
3. Explore multi-node scaling with Swarm

Further Resources:

• Renovate Official Documentation
• Gitea Configuration Cheat Sheet
• Komodor Best Practices

This isn’t just about convenience—it’s about treating your homelab as a production environment worthy of professional-grade tooling. Now go deploy with confidence.