Raspberry Pi recovery architecture · 2025
Home Lab
What would happen if I lost the machine running my home services? I built a small server around that question, then tested a full recovery.
System architect and operator.
Restore tested1h 45munder a 2h target
One Raspberry Pi, real responsibilities
The lab hosted public and private services on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB RAM, a 1TB external drive, consumer internet, and no available port forwarding.
8GB, no port forwarding, small budget
The design had to preserve operating-system headroom, remain below a small external-service budget, and recover without depending on the failed node.
Compose, not Kubernetes
Docker Compose avoided single-node Kubernetes overhead. Cloudflare Tunnel and Caddy served public traffic, Tailscale handled private administration, and container memory limits made capacity explicit.
I actually ran the restore
Encrypted rclone backups went to Backblaze B2. The documented restore playbook completed a full test in 1 hour 45 minutes, while the recorded 96GB backup cost was $2.82 per month.
Outcome
A full restore completed in 1 hour 45 minutes; 96GB of backup storage cost $2.82 per month at the recorded point in time.