René Welches

TECH NOTES TO MYSELF

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

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

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

Securing Proxmox API Tokens with Apple Keychain Access for Terraform

Store and retrieve Proxmox credentials securely using macOS Keychain instead of plain text files

Securely manage Proxmox API tokens for Terraform using macOS Keychain Access. Eliminates plain text credential files and integrates seamlessly with automated Terraform workflows.

Posted by Rene Welches on Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Last Modified on Wednesday, February 4, 2026