Homarr: Sleek Home Lab Dashboard for Server Monitoring

For home lab enthusiasts, having the ability to keep up with services you have deployed, monitor your servers, and quickly access resources is a game changer. Home lab dashboards offer just this ability. There are many excellent home lab dashboard solutions out there. However, this post will look at another great solution called Homarr. Homarr seamlessly integrates with your existing apps, displaying valuable information at your fingertips.

What is the Homarr Home Lab Dashboard?

Homarr is a powerful server and app management dashboard, bridging the gap between you and all the home lab services you are running. This open-source solution offers a broad range of deployment methods, making it a versatile tool suitable for any server environment.

It is also sleek and modern in look and feel and includes many different prebuilt integrations, allowing you to integrate with popular home servers and home lab solutions like Pi-Hole, Adguard, and others.

Homarr allows you to monitor your server’s health, including critical system metrics like CPU usage, RAM, and disk storage, in real-time. Consolidated in one convenient location, this valuable information makes it easy to identify potential issues before they become major problems.

Navigate to the official Homarr documentation site here: Home | Homarr Docs

Organize Applications Your Way

You can organize your self-hosted applications or favorite websites on your dashboard. You can drag and drop elements freely, arranging your dashboard to best suit your needs and preferences.

Enhance Your Experience with Seamless Integrations

Homarr supports over 15 integrations, allowing you to control and monitor your network directly from the dashboard. From Radarr and Sonarr to PiHole and Dash, these integrations allow Homarr to gather data from your apps and display it in an easily digestible format. This seamless integration process enhances your experience and allows you to manage multiple servers efficiently.

Customizable and Accessible: Homarr for Everyone

Homarr stands out for its high level of customization and accessibility. With support for 23 languages, Homarr serves a global user base, ensuring that server monitoring and management are available to everyone. Its open-source nature allows users to view, modify, and distribute the source code, further enhancing its accessibility and versatility. Homarr even includes a library of over 7000 beautiful icons to help you personalize your dashboard.

Create Your Own Dashboard

One of the key features of Homarr is the ability to create your own dashboard using its comprehensible and easy-to-use visual editor. With no YAML or JSON involved, users can easily customize their dashboards to meet their unique needs and preferences.

Easy Installation Process

Homarr prides itself on its beginner-friendly installation process. With Homarr, you can start building your dream dashboard in less than 10 minutes, making your journey toward efficient server monitoring and complete control over your server operations extremely easy.

Homarr offers more options than you will find with other home lab dashboards. However, most will probably want to use the Docker or Docker Compose installation method.

• Docker

• Docker Compse

• Portainer stacks

• Unraid Community App Store

• Synology

• QNAP

• Saltbox

• Yarn package manager

• NPM package manager

• Easypanel

• and others…

Docker and Docker Compose

Use the following Docker command to pull the Homarr container:

docker run  
  --name homarr 
  --restart always 
  -p 7575:7575 
  -v <your-path>/homarr/configs:/app/data/configs 
  -v <your-path>/homarr/icons:/app/public/icons 
  -d ghcr.io/ajnart/homarr:latest

Using Docker Compose, you can create a docker-compose.yml file with the following contents:

version: '3'
#---------------------------------------------------------------------#
#     Homarr - A simple, yet powerful dashboard for your server.     #
#---------------------------------------------------------------------#
services:
  homarr:
    container_name: homarr
    image: ghcr.io/ajnart/homarr:latest
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ./homarr/configs:/app/data/configs
      - ./homarr/icons:/app/public/icons
    ports:
      - '7575:7575'

Below, I have created the Docker Compose file.

Once you have your docker-compose.yml file created, you can bring the container up using:

docker-compose up -d

You can check the status of your Homarr container with the command:

docker-compose ps

Interact with Docker

In addition, Homarr seamlessly integrates with Docker to display the containers running on the same system as Homarr. To enable this configuration, you need to add the Docker volume mount, in addition to the default ./homar mounts.

---
version: '3'
services:
  homarr:
    container_name: homarr
    image: ghcr.io/ajnart/homarr:latest
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ./homarr/configs:/app/data/configs
      - ./homarr/icons:/app/public/icons
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    ports:
      - '7575:7575'

This allows you to see all the Docker containers running on the same host as Homarr.

Initial configuration

After you bring the container up, you can navigate to Homarr using HTTP not HTTPS to port 7575 of your Docker container host.

After switching to dark mode, viewing the Settings screen looks like the following. You can choose which search engine Homarr uses to search the web. You can also clear cache, etc.

When you go to edit mode, you can add:

• Apps

• Widgets

• Category

Adding applications

Below, I am starting to add an application integration. Here I am connecting to Pi-Hole.

Under the integrations screen, I am choosing Pi-Hole as well. Here you will want to enter your API key from Pi-Hole to allow Homarr to pull data from your Pi-Hole installation. You can also use this with Adguard and other solutions as well.

The Pi-Hole tile is added to the Homarr dashboard.

Deeper integration with Pi-Hole and other apps

You can add deeper integration with Pi-Hole, Adguard Home, and others, by adding the DNS hole summary and DNS hole controls. The summary displays in real-time the blocks and other metrics from your DNS blocking solution. The controls allow you to disable the solution right from your Homarr dashboard.

After adding an integration via API key with Pi-hole and the widgets above, you have real-time statistics from your Pi-Hole installation and you can enable or disable it from your Homarr dashboard as well.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What makes Homarr a highly customizable server dashboard?

Homarr allows you to add your self-hosted applications, favorite websites, and even integrate other tools, arranging them as per your convenience on the dashboard. You can also select from a wide library of icons, and with support for 23 languages, it adapts to diverse user preferences and needs.

Q2: Can I monitor my server’s CPU usage and swap usage?

Absolutely. Homarr allows you to monitor various system metrics, including CPU usage, swap usage, memory, and much more. This view of your server’s performance helps identify potential issues and ensure optimal server health.

Q3: How does Homarr support the growth of your home lab?

As your home lab grows, so does your need for efficient server monitoring. Homarr is scalable, supporting multiple servers and providing a centralized dashboard to monitor all your server metrics. This enables you to stay on top of your expanding server infrastructure and make data-driven decisions.

Q4: Can Homarr integrate with other server monitoring software?

Yes, one of the key features of Homarr is its ability to integrate seamlessly with a wide range of applications. This includes popular server monitoring software, enhancing your server management experience by consolidating data from various platforms in one convenient location.

Q5: How can Homarr help me gain complete control over my server operations?

Homarr provides a modern dashboard that centralizes all your server data, from CPU utilization to memory usage. By providing real-time access to these crucial metrics, Homarr empowers you to take prompt, informed actions, offering complete control over your server operations.

Q6: Is Homarr only for Linux systems?

While Homarr can certainly be used with Linux systems, its versatility allows it to work with various other operating systems as well. This makes it a comprehensive solution for server monitoring, regardless of the underlying operating system.

Q7: What are some of the supported integrations?

Homarr supports a wide range of integrations with popular apps and services. This includes but is not limited to, Radarr, Sonarr, PiHole, Dash, and a few others. These integrations allow Homarr to display data and control apps directly from the dashboard.

Q8: Is there a lot of configuration required to install?

No, Homarr is designed to be user-friendly, with a straightforward installation process. It offers several deployment methods, making it easy to install and configure, even for beginners. Furthermore, Homarr provides a visual editor to create your own dashboard without any need for YAML or JSON knowledge.

Q9: How does Homarr enhance the server monitoring process?

Homarr enhances the server monitoring process by offering a modern, integrated dashboard that consolidates all server metrics in one convenient location. It enables you to monitor, analyze, and manage your servers effectively, providing valuable information that aids in decision-making and resource management.

Q10: What makes Homarr a valuable tool as my home lab grows?

Its ability to integrate with various apps, support multiple servers, and provide a highly customizable dashboard makes it a valuable tool for home labs of all sizes. As your server infrastructure expands, Homarr’s comprehensive monitoring capabilities ensure you stay on top of your server’s performance and health.

Empower Your Home Lab with Homarr

As your home lab grows, it’s crucial to have a reliable server monitoring and dashboard solution in place. It has highly customizable features and seamless integrations make it a valuable tool for enthusiasts. Whether you’re just starting out or managing a growing enterprise, Homarr provides the tools you need to monitor and manage your server operations effectively.

It simplifies server management, providing a modern dashboard that puts all your apps and services at your fingertips. With Homarr, you gain control over your server and container operations, helping you to keep a check on server performance and availability.

Other posts you may like

• Untangle NG Firewall 15 Released New Features
• How to Install Pi-Hole on ProxMox
• Install Pi-hole in Ubuntu 21.04
• Cameyo introduces Linux Support for Virtual App Delivery
• Configure Pi-hole SSL using a self-signed certificate