🏠 HomeLab

What is a Homelab?

A homelab is equipment that has been repurposed to provide server functionality in your home. This can include old desktop PCs, Network Switches, UPS's and much more.

Currently, I have a self-hosted HomeLab running 3 nodes via Proxmox VE, a great system for creating Virtual Machines and Containers.

What is a Node?

Basically a machine, which can be physical or virtual. Multiple can make up a cluster, which can share resources. As example, my cluster composes of:

• An old gaming desktop PC that has a processer "too old" (i7-7700k) to run Windows 11 (totally not bitter), with a graphics card that can speed up LLMs
• An old machine that was being disposed of by my previous workplace, loaded up with RAM they were getting rid of
• A cheap Mini PC from Amazon

All of these can talk to each other through Proxmox. It's advised

Homelab Benefits

I highly encourage anyone who wishes to tinker and experiment to get some old equipment and see what it's capable of.

You can benefit from:

• Blocking ads with 🚫 Pi-hole – cleaner, faster browsing across all devices
• Your own Google Photos with 📷 Immich – host and manage your photo memories privately
• A full on personal cloud with NextCloud - Office productivity suite
• Control your home with 🏠 Home Assistant - Smart lights, temperature sensors, alarms and more
• Your own personal Google-like Search engine with 🔍 Searxng - Personalised and private
• Full network visibility with 📡 NetAlertX – get alerts when devices go up, down, or misbehave
• Easy access to your media with Plex or Jellyfin – stream your movies, shows, and music anywhere
• A personal dashboard with Homer – keep your services organised and accessible
• Password vault with 🔒 Vaultwarden – self-hosted alternative to Bitwarden
• Centralised wiki-style documentation with BookStack – perfect for tracking homelab changes
• Web IDE access via VS Code Server – code from anywhere with just a browser
• Container orchestration and reverse proxy with Docker, Traefik, and Portainer – run apps efficiently and expose them securely
• Backups made simple with Proxmox Backup Server – reliable snapshotting of VMs and containers
• Your own Git management with Gitea - Just like Github, but totally yours and integratable with the rest of the cluster.
• Your own Local AI with Open Web GUI - ChatGPT like interface, link it with Self-Hosted Ollama and passthrough a GPU to have your own offline chatbot.
• Your own Minecraft Server - no need to pay for a host, run it from home privately without compromising your desktop or laptop's performance
• Much, much more.

Best of all, the only price for doing all this is the initial cost of the gear (can be cheap on sites like eBay) and the electricity to run them.

I use my homelab for learning, experimentation, and a bit of everyday convenience. It's a rewarding rabbit hole to fall into – and a great way to take control of your own data.

Further help

Take a look at some ProxMox Helper Scripts to get started.

Have suggestions or need something else? ✉️ Contact me