House IT Stuff

Automation to configure various IT related things in the house

Architecture

• Main host

  • services via docker-compose and systemd
  • pihole - DNS server with ad/tracking prevention
  • mosquitto - mqtt broker (useful for home automaton
  • node-red - flow based programming environment for automation
  • homebridge - service to emulate Apple HomeKit accessories
  • data monitor - various scheduled scripts to gather, record and broadcast data from APIs
  • TICK stack - timeseries database an monitoring
  • Grafana - data visualization, dashboards alerting

• DMZ host

  • nginx for reverse proxy to internal web services

Setting Up

• make sure ansible (and python) is installed
• make sure sshpass is installed
  • brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kadwanev/bigboybrew/master/Library/Formula/sshpass.rb
• set up the hosts file
  • see below on how to prep the pi's SD card for first boot
  • boot the pi
  • cp hosts.yml.example hosts.yml
  • locate the pi on the network using bin/findhosts
  • edit hosts.yml with the proper IP, username/password for the raspberry pi
• install roles from ansible-galaxy ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml
• make the right config files are present (not in this repo)

Running Things

Setting up the main host for internal services

playbook main.yml -i hosts.yml

Setting up the dmz host to proxy web services

playbook dmz.yml -i hosts.yml

Prepping new Raspbian SD card

• Assuming Raspbian GNU/Linux as the OS

• Download and flash: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

• Remount the SD, open a terminal, cd to the Volume (/Volumes/boot on mac OS)

• create an empty file ssh (enables ssh on boot)

• create the file wpa_supplicant.conf (configures wifi network access)

  country=US
  ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
  update_config=1
  network={
    ssid="--ssid--"
    psk="--psk--"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    }
  

  • boot the board with card inserted, it should show up on your wifi network