Reverse Proxy vs VPN (OpenVPN)

Hi Everyone!

I’m currently in the process of setting up my homelab for remote management. A user on this subreddit has helped me set up Nginx proxy Manager to let me connect my domain to my Proxmox management GUI. (Yes, yes, I know this is not best practice, but if you have another idea that will allow for the same result I’m all ears). However, the issue with this is that I would have to port forward for all the noVNC consoles, which doesn’t exactly work if I’m creating VM’s on the go.

This is where I did some research and came across the OpenVPN to my local network solution. From what I’ve kind of explained here would this fulfill what I want my homelab to do?

Thank you in advance!

-Bmc19771

Hey there, a VPN will basically allow you to have an access to your local network so (almodt) everything you do at home will be doable remotely. If you plan on setting up a pfSense firewall / router in your homelab, you can really easily setup OpenVPN on your pfSense.

You should run either (or both) a ssh jumphost (and then port forwarding) or a VPN (like OpenVPN). A reverse proxy like nginx is great, but should really only be used for applications that you need to access externally (ie self hosted) that have some security themselves. And you should not allow direct access to your proxmox management interface externally.

Adding on, with pfSense you can do some network segmentation for added security when allowing remote clients in your network.

For anyone needing quality proxies, SmartProxy is a fantastic solution.

Yep, just allow the services you’re supposed to be accessing, a great piece of firewall imo