René Welches

TECH NOTES TO MYSELF

Back to the Future: Bringing Ollama Date-Blind Models to the Present

My local Ollama model was stuck in 2024 and treated the real present as a fake future — here's the Open WebUI filter that gets it current

A local LLM stuck at its 2024 training cutoff accused me of faking the future when web search returned same-day results. Here is why it happens in Open WebUI and a small filter function that drives any model back to the present.

Posted by Rene Welches on Saturday, June 13, 2026
Last Modified on Monday, June 15, 2026

Real IPs for k3s: MetalLB, VLANs, and Why I Had to Buy a Switch

A k3s LoadBalancer turned into a network rebuild — managed switch, VLANs, OPNsense, and MetalLB in L2 mode

How I gave my Proxmox k3s cluster a real LoadBalancer with MetalLB — and why getting there meant buying a managed switch, segmenting the network into VLANs, and working around the limits of Google Nest WiFi.

Posted by Rene Welches on Friday, June 12, 2026
Last Modified on Sunday, June 14, 2026

My Local AI Stack: Mac Mini + Proxmox LXCs

Ollama on the Mac mini, Open WebUI on Proxmox, and SearXNG keeping the web search private

How I run a fully self-hosted AI stack split across a Mac mini M4 Pro for inference and a Proxmox cluster for the frontend — Ollama, Docling, Caddy, Open WebUI and SearXNG, all behind TLS.

Posted by Rene Welches on Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Homelab IaC: Terraform + Ansible for Proxmox LXC

Because clicking through the Proxmox UI twice is already too many times

How I went from Proxmox community scripts to a full Terraform + Ansible IaC setup for managing LXC containers, with MinIO as a self-hosted Terraform state backend.

Posted by Rene Welches on Monday, April 20, 2026

Running Debian 13 in UTM on Apple Silicon

Native ARM64 virtualization with a Debian netinstall ISO — no emulation required

Step-by-step guide to creating a Debian 13 (Trixie) ARM64 virtual machine in UTM on an Apple Silicon Mac using the Virtualize mode for near-native performance.

Posted by Rene Welches on Thursday, February 19, 2026

Running Your Own Root CA for the Homelab

What started as a GitHub README turned into a proper blog post

How to create a self-signed Root CA for your homelab, sign server certificates, and trust them on macOS and Linux — including the git gotcha that the macOS Keychain won't tell you about.

Posted by Rene Welches on Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Last Modified on Thursday, February 19, 2026

Upgrading My 'Frankenstein-cluster': MOREFINE M8 Replaces the MINIX

A newer, faster node for $120 net after selling the old one

I picked up a MOREFINE M8 mini PC (Intel N150, 16GB DDR4, 1TB NVMe) for $219.99 and sold my old MINIX NEO J50C-4 Plus on eBay for $100, netting a solid upgrade for just $120.

Posted by Rene Welches on Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Last Modified on Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Fixing Twingate DNS Resolution with AdGuard Home

Moving connectors to separate hosts fixed my DNS resolution issues

How to fix Twingate DNS resolution issues when using the Home Assistant connector with AdGuard Home by moving connectors to separate Proxmox hosts.

Posted by Rene Welches on Thursday, January 29, 2026

Automating Docker Container Deployment on Proxmox with Terraform

Using SSH Agent authentication to provision Docker containers in LXC containers - and why Ansible is next

Learn how to use Terraform with SSH agent authentication to automatically deploy Docker containers in Proxmox LXC environments. Includes practical examples and discusses why Ansible is better suited for configuration management.

Posted by Rene Welches on Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Last Modified on Thursday, January 29, 2026

Expanding My Proxmox Cluster: Minisforum UM700 for $69

Adding a refurbished mini PC to my homelab cluster

A $75 refurbished Minisforum UM700 (Ryzen 7 3750H) makes a perfect second node for a Proxmox cluster. Step-by-step guide on creating a cluster, joining nodes, and understanding quorum with practical command references.

Posted by Rene Welches on Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Last Modified on Thursday, January 29, 2026