Inside the Lab
Virtual machines, containers, self-hosted services, and the occasional idea that turns into a much bigger project. This is where I learn by doing.
Explore the LabA Personal Space for Things Made & Learned
Bunny Lab
Technology, creativity, and a curiosity that keeps growing.
I’m Nicole, the person behind Bunny Lab. I explore automation and virtualization, build software, and document what I learn so others can build on it. Away from systems and code, I make music and photograph the landscapes, skies, and moments I want to remember.
01 / Software
What I’m Building.
A long-running idea, taking shape one feature at a time.
Open Source - Self-Hosted - Actively Developed
BorealisAutomation Platform
Borealis is my attempt to put device management, monitoring, and automation behind one pane of glass. Inspired from several different systems and technologies I have worked with separately that I felt could be unified and simplified.
02 / Exploration & Knowledge
Build It. Break It. Understand It.
A place to experiment safely, learn the why, and leave useful notes for the next person.
Knowledge Worth Sharing
Practical guides for servers and containers, plus the troubleshooting workflows and references I use in homelab and business environments.
Find a Starting Point (opens in a new tab)03 / Beyond the Terminal
A Different Kind of Making.
Music to get lost in. Moments worth keeping.
Electronic · Piano · Orchestral · Other
Music
Ideas, moods, and experiments brought to life in FL Studio. Pick whichever genre resonates with you.
Explore My Music
Landscapes · Skyscapes · Waterscapes
Photography
A way for me to remember the fleeting things in life: A sky, a landscape, or simply a moment I want to be able to return to.
See Through My LensThe Person Behind Bunny Lab
A voracious learner, a believer in sharing knowledge, and occasionally someone in need of a gallon of coffee.
Open Source - Self-Hosted - Actively Developed
Borealis Automation Platform
Borealis Automation Platform
Borealis is my attempt to put device management, monitoring, and automation behind one pane of glass. Inspired from several different systems and technologies I have worked with separately that I felt could be unified and simplified.
Where It Began
What If These Ideas
Worked Together?
Borealis began as an automation idea centered on node graphs. Over time, it grew toward an MSP-friendly remote monitoring and management platform: a way to bring devices, automation, and remote operations into one interface.
My inspiration came from working with tools such as Datto RMM, Ansible AWX, Semaphore UI, RustDesk, and Apache Guacamole. Borealis is my exploration of how the ideas behind those kinds of tools could fit together.
The part that keeps me coming back is seeing an idea become something usable. Friends, coworkers, and clients have taken an interest along the way, but curiosity is still at the center of it.
Built to Be Shared
Open From the Beginning.
Borealis has been an open-source project since its inception. I am not building it as a paid product. It is a place to put my interests in automation, systems, and software into practice.
The repository and project documentation are the best places to explore the current implementation, understand how it works, and follow development.
Virtualization / Automation / Exploration
A Safe Place
to Learn.
The homelab is where I explore ideas, give hardware new jobs, and get comfortable with systems by actually working with them.
Sometimes an interesting article turns into an experiment. Sometimes that experiment becomes useful in places I did not expect.
Bunny Lab
A Place to Explore Systems
Compute
VMs & Containers
Services
Self-Hosted Applications
Data
Storage & Recovery
An overview of the areas I explore, not a live topology.
Start Exploring
The Homelab Environment
Each part of the lab has its own home. This is the way in.
Systems & Services
The directory of the servers, applications, and services that make up my lab environment.
Open the Lab Directory (opens in a new tab)How It Works
The setup guides, workflows, and references that make my experience reusable for others.
Explore the Knowledge (opens in a new tab)Service Uptime
Availability lives in Gatus. Go straight to the status page for the current picture.
Open the Status Page (opens in a new tab)The Way I Learn
Make It Safe
to Start Again.
Make Room to Experiment
A spare machine or an isolated virtual environment changes the question from “what if I break it?” to “what can I learn from this?”
Practice the Recovery, Too
Deployment is only part of understanding a system. In the lab, I want to know what fails, how to investigate it, and how to return to a working state.
Leave Useful Notes Behind
The lessons become documentation: small, understandable steps that someone else can follow and build on.
Break things where it is safe to do so. Learn how to fix them. Take that understanding into the places where reliability matters.
My approach to learning through the homelab.Made in FL Studio
A Different Way to Resonate.
Electronic music, piano, orchestral ideas, and a few experiments that do not need a neat category. Pick whatever resonates with you and go from there.
A Creative Thread
From MIDI Sequences to Something Personal.
I have been making music on and off since 2011, starting on Newgrounds. Along the way, I worked with MIDI sequencers and Adobe Audition before finding my way to FL Studio.
These days, I share my songs on SoundCloud and through my self-hosted Nextcloud environment, where others can listen and explore the collection.
Music gives me a way to express a part of myself that does not depend on someone sharing my interest in technology. You do not need to care how a system works to connect with a piece of music.
Landscapes / Skyscapes / Waterscapes
Moments I Want
To Remember.
Photography is how I keep a little of something fleeting. A landscape, a sky, a moment in time I want to be able to revisit later.
Why I Take Photographs
A Way Back
To a Moment.
I have been taking photographs for more than thirteen years. Landscapes, skyscapes, and waterscapes are the subjects I return to most.
As time passes, it matters to me that I can look back at these photographs and revisit those moments in my mind. The image is something I can keep when the moment itself has moved on.
Landscapes
Skyscapes
Waterscapes
Not everything I make needs to solve a problem.
Sometimes I just want to remember the sky.
The Photographs Have Their Own Home.
Explore the full public collection in my self-hosted Immich gallery.
The Person Behind Bunny Lab
Hi, I’m Nicole.
A technology enthusiast drawn to automation, virtualization, and the satisfaction of finally understanding how something works.
Bunny Lab is my environment, my experiences, and a window into the things I care about. It is where software, self-hosted systems, shared knowledge, music, and photography get to exist together.
How It Started
Curiosity.
A Little Stubbornness.
A Lot of Learning.
When I was young, my brother was the person I turned to for help with technology. One day, he told me to figure things out myself. I started working through the problems I used to give up on, and gradually learned to trust my own troubleshooting.
What made a difference was having somewhere I could start over. A spare computer, a laptop, a server, or an isolated virtual machine makes mistakes less intimidating. That is the kind of environment I encourage other people to build, too.
I am a voracious learner. I like seeing an idea become something real, understanding why things work, and documenting the experience so it can be useful to someone else.
Somewhere between “I wonder if this is possible” and “I’m gonna need a gallon of coffee for this.”
How I Approach Things
Make Room to Learn. Leave Something Useful.
Make Failure Recoverable
Practice in an environment where it is safe to break things, investigate what happened, and learn how to fix them.
One Piece at a Time
Break an intimidating process into smaller parts, then explain how one part flows into the next.
Let the Knowledge Travel
Good documentation lets someone understand a system without finding the person who originally built it.
Professional Background
Experience That Informs the Way I Work.
Systems engineering, documentation, troubleshooting, and making complicated work easier to understand.
American Red Cross
Blood Component Manufacturing Technician
I work full-time in blood-component manufacturing alongside my continuing part-time IT work.
Deeptree, Inc.
Systems Engineering & Managed IT Services
Experience across Windows and Linux systems, virtualization, backups and recovery, technical documentation, vendor coordination, and support for varied client environments.
Consulting Engineer
August 2026 – Present
Part-time, project-based and remote IT work, systems troubleshooting, automation, and technical documentation.
Systems Engineer
October 2022 – August 2026
Systems troubleshooting, automation, recovery support, and reusable technical documentation.
Helpdesk Team Lead
October 2020 – October 2022
Technical guidance, mentoring, escalation support, and more consistent documentation and troubleshooting practices.
System Administrator
February 2019 – October 2020
Windows and Linux administration, client support, implementations, and repeatable support procedures.
Earlier Experience & The Foundations
Great Falls Clinic Hospital · Environmental Services
April 2018 – March 2019
Dependable behind-the-scenes work in a patient-care environment.
Centene Corporation · Claims Analyst
September 2017 – February 2018
Claims processing, macros, an Access database, and improvements to repetitive analyst workflows.
Staples · Print & Marketing Specialist
March 2016 – September 2017
Print design, production workflows, and helping people turn ideas into finished materials.
Staples · EasyTech Expert
May 2013 – March 2016
Computer troubleshooting and software to automate technical services and maintain service records.
IGA Supermarkets · Backstock Manager
June 2011 – June 2014
Store operations, associate training, and a digital inventory system for weekly shelf-work records.
Around the Internet
Find Me Where the Work Lives.
Projects, photographs, music, and conversations on the platforms I am part of.
Professional & Creative Platforms
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Personal Platforms & Other Corners of the Internet
Discord Username
bunny_lab
Epic Games Account
CyberStrawberry
The respective platforms above are the best places to connect with me about a project, photograph, or piece of music. For something that does not fit elsewhere, you can email me at contact@bunny-lab.io.