I’d like to start doing a better job of tracking the changes I made to my homelab environment. Hardware, software, network, etc. I’m just not sure what path I want to take and was hoping to get some recommendations. So far the thoughts I have are:
- A change history sub-section of my wiki. (I’m not a fan of this idea.)
- A ticketing system of some sort. (I tried this one and it was too heavy. I’d need to find a simple solution.)
- A nextcloud task list.
- Self-host a gitlab instance, make a project for changes and track with issues. Move what stuff I have in github to this instance and kill my github projects. (It’s all private stuff.)
I know that several of you are going to say “config as code” and I get it. But I’m not there yet and I want to track the changes I’m making today.
Thanks
I would encourage you not to split things up too finely. A single repo for your environment would allow you to see all related changes with git. E.g. if you set up a new VM it might need a playbook to set something up, a script to automate a task, and a DNS entry. With a well put together commit message explaining why you’re making those changes there’s not much need for external documentation.
Maybe if you want some more info organised in a wiki, point to the initial commit where you introduced some set up. That way you can see how something was structured. Or if you have a issue tracker you can comment with research on something and then close the issue when you commit a resolution.
Try not to have info spread out too much or maintaining all the pieces will become a chore. Make it simple and easy to keep up.
Try not to have info spread out too much or maintaining all the pieces will become a chore. Make it simple and easy to keep up.
I think you’re right on this point. I have a tendency to over-complicate things and that leads to them getting scrapped or neglected.
