Audit a Proxmox home lab with Claude and find skipped backups, stale IPv6 settings and a stuck update

Posted

Oct 20, 2026 by Adam Davidson (How-To Geek)

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Last checked

Oct 22, 2026

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Method:

How we verify

Evidence: Article or interviewA newsletter, journalist or interview account of what happened.

Outcome

Adam Davidson gave Claude access to two Proxmox machines in a home lab and asked it to look for problems without changing anything. Writing for How-To Geek, Davidson says Claude found three overlooked problems. The backup job only covered services Davidson had picked by hand, so newly added services were being skipped; the fix was to back up everything by default and exclude what isn't needed. The ISP had changed the IPv6 prefix, so a few services still pointed at a Pi-hole IPv6 address that no longer existed, which was why a Jellyfin list plugin had been silently failing. And on the OptiPlex running Proxmox, the enterprise repository was off with no free repository turned on, so it was stuck on 9.1.1; it has since been updated.

AI tool

Claude

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

What the prompt labels mean

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Audit my home server setup for problems I've overlooked, without changing anything.

Fill in before running:
- The machines and what runs on them (e.g. Proxmox hosts, containers, VMs): [MACHINES]
- How you can access them (read-only account, command output I paste): [ACCESS]
- Anything that's been acting up lately: [SYMPTOMS]

Rules:
- Read only: don't change, restart, update or delete anything. If a fix needs a change, write it down for me instead.
- Check backups cover every service, including ones added recently, and say when each last ran.
- Check network settings (DNS, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses) still match what each service points to.
- Check update sources and versions, and flag anything that can't get updates.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A list of problems found, ranked by risk, each with the evidence and the suggested fix.

You'll know it worked when: I know what's broken or at risk, and I can fix each item myself.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Audit my home server setup for problems I've overlooked, without changing anything.

Fill in before running:
- The machines and what runs on them (e.g. Proxmox hosts, containers, VMs): [MACHINES]
- How you can access them (read-only account, command output I paste): [ACCESS]
- Anything that's been acting up lately: [SYMPTOMS]

Rules:
- Read only: don't change, restart, update or delete anything. If a fix needs a change, write it down for me instead.
- Check backups cover every service, including ones added recently, and say when each last ran.
- Check network settings (DNS, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses) still match what each service points to.
- Check update sources and versions, and flag anything that can't get updates.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A list of problems found, ranked by risk, each with the evidence and the suggested fix.

You'll know it worked when: I know what's broken or at risk, and I can fix each item myself.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Audit my home server setup for problems I've overlooked, without changing anything.

Fill in before running:
- The machines and what runs on them (e.g. Proxmox hosts, containers, VMs): [MACHINES]
- How you can access them (read-only account, command output I paste): [ACCESS]
- Anything that's been acting up lately: [SYMPTOMS]

Rules:
- Read only: don't change, restart, update or delete anything. If a fix needs a change, write it down for me instead.
- Check backups cover every service, including ones added recently, and say when each last ran.
- Check network settings (DNS, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses) still match what each service points to.
- Check update sources and versions, and flag anything that can't get updates.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- For each fix, give me the exact command or setting change and a way to undo it.

Output: A list of problems found, ranked by risk, each with the evidence and the suggested fix.

You'll know it worked when: I know what's broken or at risk, and I can fix each item myself.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://www.howtogeek.com/claude-found-major-overlooked-homelab-problems/