I’ve got several apps running on my home server including Plex, Nextcloud, and some media management tools. Just got started with automation using a workflow tool in a Docker container and it’s pretty neat so far. Been setting up basic stuff like storage monitoring notifications but mostly focusing on work productivity automations.
Would love to hear from the community:
What automation platforms work well with your home-hosted services?
Share some interesting workflows you’ve created
Best practices for linking these tools to local applications and keeping everything stable?
I have been utilizing Home Assistant for about two years, and it has become the backbone of my entire setup. Its capacity to integrate with containerized applications is outstanding. For instance, I have it connected to Jellyfin, which monitors Docker container health and automates backups for Nextcloud, adjusting based on usage patterns. A notable automation I set up dynamically scales Plex transcoding. It monitors live streams and system load, launching additional Docker workers during peak times. I recommend beginning with fundamental health checks and progressively enhancing your automation. Remember to test each automation in isolation before syncing them to critical systems, as I learned the hard way when a cleanup script almost wiped out my media library.
Been using Ansible to manage my homelab for a year now - absolute game changer. I can version control everything and push identical configs to multiple machines, which beats clicking through GUIs any day. My go-to playbook handles Docker updates during maintenance windows, backs up databases before big changes, and shoots status updates to our Slack channel. Yeah, the learning curve sucked at first, but now I can rebuild my whole stack in under an hour. Got another workflow that watches disk space and automatically moves old media to cold storage when things get tight. Just start simple with stuff like log rotation, then build up to the complex stuff once you get the hang of the syntax.
n8n’s been solid for me - runs great in Docker and connects to basically everything. I’ve got it triggering Sonarr/Radarr downloads when new episodes drop, plus it sends Telegram alerts when my server temps get weird. Way easier than Ansible if you’re not into YAML hell.