Table of Contents

πŸ› οΈ TorresVault Basic Troubleshooting Guide

A clean, simple, repeatable troubleshooting guide tailored specifically to your home lab setup β€” Proxmox, UniFi, Pi-hole, NPM, Cloudflare, HA, FPP, and all the issues you've commonly faced.

Use this as your first-stop workflow when something breaks.

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🚦 1. Network & Connectivity Basics

Symptoms: VMs unreachable, dashboards offline, services not resolving.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Check UniFi for offline clients or adopted-but-disconnected devices. * Verify correct NICs are active on Proxmox nodes. * Confirm VLAN assignments match expected networks.

πŸ”Œ Common Fixes

* If a VM loses network unexpectedly:

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πŸ“‘ 2. DNS Issues (Pi-hole / Internal DNS)

Symptoms: Hostnames like `pve1`, `nextcloud.in.torresvault.com` not resolving.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Pi-hole β†’ Local DNS β†’ Records * Ensure no typos in hostnames * Ensure A records point to new fixed IPs * If using wildcard entries, verify they don’t conflict

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Reload DNS:

  pihole restartdns 

* Add missing A records for internal access * Make sure DHCP-provided domain suffix = `in.torresvault.com`

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πŸ” 3. Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) Issues

Symptoms: Service loads internally but not externally, SSL failures.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* NPM β†’ Proxy Hosts β†’ ensure entry exists * Confirm Forward IP matches the VM’s fixed IP * Check that β€œForce SSL” isn’t breaking internal-only apps

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Re-request SSL using DNS challenge * Make sure Cloudflare DNS proxied (orange) is enabled * Ensure firewall/port forwarding on UCG Max routes 80/443 correctly

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☁️ 4. Cloudflare DNS Issues

Symptoms: Public URIs not working, SSL challenge failures.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Confirm A records:

* Ensure Cloudflare API token used by NPM is valid * Check if record is Proxied vs DNS-only

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Recreate DNS record * Rotate Cloudflare API token and update NPM * Purge cached DNS

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πŸ“¦ 5. Docker / Docker Compose Problems

Symptoms: Container won’t start, port conflicts, permissions errors.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Check logs:

  docker logs -f <container> 

* Validate docker-compose.yml:

  docker compose config 

* Confirm folders exist under ~/apps/<app>/

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Rebuild:

  docker compose down && docker compose up -d 

* Fix wrong port exposures * Ensure user belongs to docker group

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🧡 6. Proxmox Host Issues

Symptoms: VM traffic lost, backups failing, cluster partial.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Check storage health: Datacenter β†’ Storage * Check logs for `log_vg-log` filling up * Ensure corosync links (10.10.10.0/30) are up

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Restart Proxmox Backup services:

  systemctl restart proxmox-backup
  systemctl restart proxmox-backup-proxy 

* Clean old logs only after reviewing them * Verify correct NIC mappings after reboots

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πŸ”” 7. Home Assistant Issues

Symptoms: Automations failing, sensors offline, dashboards broken.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Developer Tools β†’ States * Check whether entities are `unavailable` * Validate YAML with Check Configuration

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Reload automations * Restart HA Core * Fix entity renames after device migrations

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πŸŽ„ 8. FPP / Light Show Issues

Symptoms: Player offline, playlist not starting, show not responding.

πŸ” Quick Checks

* Verify FPP is reachable at: `http://192.168.60.55` * Check output status logs * Confirm GPIO or Kulp port fuses (10A) aren't tripped

πŸ”§ Common Fixes

* Restart FPP service * Reset playlist * Re-sync with HA if using ha-fpp integration

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🧩 9. High-Level Troubleshooting Logic

If something breaks, follow this order:

1. Is the device reachable? (Ping β†’ UniFi β†’ Physical layer) 2. Is DNS resolving? (Pi-hole A records β†’ Cloudflare) 3. Is the reverse proxy routing correctly? (NPM logs) 4. Are containers healthy? (Docker logs) 5. Are Proxmox services running? (pveproxy, pvedaemon, pvescheduler) 6. Is this an automation/device-specific issue? (Home Assistant)

This top‑down approach solves 95% of the issues you’ve encountered.

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πŸ“˜ Final Tip

Document any new fix you discover here so your wiki becomes the single source of truth for TorresVault.