If Something Happens to Ben#

This document is written for you — not for a technical audience. It explains what all the computers and equipment in the house actually do, what matters for your day-to-day life, what you can safely ignore, and what to do if you want to simplify or shut things down.

Ben has friends who understand this system technically. This document is about helping you understand it at a level where you can make decisions and ask the right questions.

The Short Version#

Most of the computer equipment in the house runs automatically and doesn’t need attention. The things that actually affect your daily life are:

  1. The internet and WiFi — managed by a device called Yukari
  2. The smart home — lights, automations, managed by Home Assistant
  3. The media server — Jellyfin, for watching movies and shows
  4. The NAS (file storage) — a device called Voile, where files and backups live

Everything else is Ben’s hobby server infrastructure. It won’t affect you if it goes down, and it can be shut off.

What Each Device Is#

Yukari — The Router (Critical)#

Yukari is the Unifi Dream Machine Pro — it’s the router and WiFi controller for the house. This is what gives everything internet access.

You need this. If it breaks, call your internet provider and/or ask a technical friend.

WiFi networks: - FalseBlue — main home WiFi. Uses your email/domain credentials to log in (enterprise auth) - FalseBlue-Basic — backup WiFi with a regular password. Password is stored in Bitwarden (Ben’s personal vault) - FalseBlue-Guest — guest WiFi. This is a captive portal - Falseblue-IoT — for smart home devices. Password is in Bitwarden (Ben’s personal vault)

If FalseBlue stops working, connect to FalseBlue-Basic — it uses a regular password and bypasses the enterprise login.

Voile — The NAS / File Server (Important)#

Voile is a Synology NAS (Network Attached Storage) — basically a box with hard drives in it that stores files and runs several services. It’s always on.

Admin panel: https://voile:5001 or https://192.168.0.25:5001

It hosts:

  • File backups for all the computers in the house
  • The backup manager (BorgWarehouse) — keeps copies of everything
  • GitTea (Ben’s private code backup server)
  • TaskWarrior (task management)
  • Some of the media library storage

If Voile breaks: The day-to-day internet still works. You’d lose access to some locally hosted services and file backups. Ask a technical friend to help assess whether drives need replacing. The Synology admin panel has a built-in health dashboard that will tell you if a drive has failed.

Home Assistant — Smart Home (Important for Daily Life)#

Home Assistant is a small green box plugged into the network near the router. It runs independently of everything else.

Login: http://192.168.0.55:8123

It controls: - The smart lights and switches - The succulent grow light (turns on at sunrise, off 10 hours later) - The side door light (turns on when it’s dark and you get home) - Low battery alerts for smart devices - AdGuard — the ad and tracker blocker for the whole network (runs on the HA Green box)

If Home Assistant goes down: The lights can still be controlled manually from their physical switches. The automations just won’t run. The HA box rarely needs attention — if it stops responding, try unplugging it and plugging it back in.

Ereshkigal — The Big Server (You Can Shut It Off)#

Ereshkigal is a large rack-mounted Dell server. It runs: - Jellyfin (the media/streaming server) - The Nix binary cache (speeds up Ben’s builds) - Tdarr (media transcoding) - Various monitoring services

This machine is loud, uses significant electricity, and is entirely optional for your day-to-day life.

If you want to turn it off: it’s safe to power it down. You’ll lose access to Jellyfin and the acquisition services, but nothing critical to the house depends on it.

If you want to keep Jellyfin: A technical friend can help migrate Jellyfin to a simpler setup (like a Plex or Jellyfin server running on Voile, or a streaming subscription).

Mokou — Ben’s Desktop#

Ben’s main desktop computer. If you don’t use it, you can leave it off. Nothing critical runs on it permanently.

Shinobu — Ben’s Laptop#

ThinkPad P14s. Personal/Business laptop, nothing server-related.

Razer — Old Laptop#

Older Razer Blade laptop. Nothing critical. Can be set aside or sold.

Octopi — Raspberry Pi (3D Printer Controller)#

Small Raspberry Pi connected to the 3D printer. If you don’t use the printer, you can unplug it. Nothing else depends on it.

Services You Might Actually Use#

Jellyfin — Streaming#

Jellyfin is like a private Netflix for movies, TV shows, anime, and music that Ben has collected. It runs on Ereshkigal.

Access: http://ereshkigal:8096 (on the home network)

If Ereshkigal is turned off, Jellyfin is unavailable. Netflix, Disney+, or other subscriptions are straightforward replacements.

The Media Library#

Movies, TV shows, books, and music are stored on Voile. If you want to keep any of this, a technical friend can help you copy it to an external drive before shutting down the servers.

If Something Breaks#

WiFi is down#

  1. Check that Yukari (the router) has power and lights on
  2. Try connecting to FalseBlue-Basic instead (password in Ben’s Bitwarden)
  3. Try rebooting Yukari by unplugging it for 30 seconds
  4. If still broken, call your ISP or ask a technical friend

Lights / Home Assistant not working#

  1. Physical switches still work manually
  2. Try accessing http://192.168.0.55:8123 to see if the HA panel is up
  3. If the HA box is unresponsive, unplug and replug it
  4. If it still won’t come back, ask a technical friend — restoring HA is straightforward

A server makes alarming noises or smells#

  1. Power it off at the power strip
  2. Don’t try to diagnose hardware yourself — call a technical friend

Something is backed up and you need a file#

Backups for all the NixOS machines are stored on Voile via BorgWarehouse. A technical friend can retrieve specific files. The restore procedure is documented in Restoring a Host from Backup.

Who to Ask for Help#

Ben has friends who understand this system. They have access to the code and documentation. Point them to this repository:

GitHub: https://github.com/tsunaminoai/nix-flake-final

The full technical documentation is in pkgs/docs/. For emergencies, the most useful docs are:

The friends who can help don’t need to understand all of it — this documentation is meant to make that recovery as straightforward as possible.

If You Want to Simplify or Shut Everything Down#

It’s okay to want a simpler setup. Here’s what to keep, what to let go, and what to replace:

Thing Keep? Simple replacement
Internet / WiFi (Yukari) Yes It’s just a router — keep it
File backups (Voile) Recommended External drive backups, or iCloud/Backblaze
Smart home (Home Assistant) Optional Most smart devices work with Apple Home or Google Home
Media server (Jellyfin, Ereshkigal) Optional Netflix, Plex, Disney+, etc.
Ad blocker (AdGuard on HA Green) Optional Browser extension (uBlock Origin)
NixOS on the laptops Optional A technical friend can reinstall Windows or macOS
The big server (Ereshkigal) No need to keep Can be powered off or sold

Steps to wind down gracefully#

  1. Ask a technical friend to export any files you want from Voile (photos, documents, media)
  2. Copy media to an external drive if you want to keep it
  3. Export Home Assistant configuration if you want to recreate automations elsewhere
  4. Power down Ereshkigal — unplug from the wall
  5. Leave Voile and Yukari on as long as you’re in the house — they’re the core of home networking and storage
  6. Voile can eventually be factory-reset or sold; Yukari can be replaced with any standard router

You don’t have to do any of this at once. The house works fine with Ereshkigal off and everything else left alone.