Linux troubleshooting is one of the most valuable skills you can build for a home lab, especially as you start running Proxmox, Kubernetes, Docker containers, and self hosted services. In this video I walk through the core commands you can use to diagnose issues quickly. This includes reading system logs and checking service health to spotting resource bottlenecks. Also, tracking down storage problems, and seeing kernel level errors. If you’re trying to figure out why a container crashed, why a disk vanished, why a service won’t start, or why your cluster is running slowly, this walkthrough gives you a practical toolkit of Linux commands to troubleshoot across any Linux distribution you run in your home lab.
Read the written blog post for this one: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2025/11/15-troubleshooting-commands-every-linux-home-lab-admin-should-know/
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0:00 Intro: Why Linux troubleshooting matters in the home lab
1:18 journalctl: Reading system logs
2:29 systemctl: Understanding and fixing service issues
3:24 top, htop, btop: Checking resource usage
4:31 dmesg: Kernel and hardware troubleshooting
5:28 lsblk: Identifying storage devices
6:23 df -h: Finding disk usage problems
7:12 du -sh: Tracking down large folders
8:15 free -h: Understanding memory pressure
8:56 ss: Network and port troubleshooting
9:33 ps and kill: Managing processes
10:23 nginx -t: Validating proxy configurations
10:58 kubectl get events: Kubernetes debugging
11:44 zfs list and zpool status: ZFS pool insights
12:22 pveperf: Proxmox performance checks
12:59 smartctl: Disk health diagnostics
13:43 Wrap up and final thoughts
