A little while ago, I stumbled upon the r/homelab subreddit. There, users gather to discuss their home network setups, often used for experimentation like a laboratory. I finally have enough money to get started on a modest set up, so I ordered some pieces this week to get started.
I’m currently taking classes to get a degree in computer networking. One class is an introduction to computing class that has us using virtual machines for something. Another is a networking class that should prepare me for the Cisco CCENT certification exam. I’ve become a lot more interested in the subjects thanks to the classes. At the same time, my home network needs have changed and I could use some more power and storage.
Enter the homelab. Following some guidance from the r/homelab wiki, I decided on a basic set up. For hardware, I decided to get an HP DL380e Gen8 server, a Cisco Catalyst 3560G 48-port switch, and an HP ProDesk desktop. The plan is to use a hypervisor (probably Proxmox) on the ProDesk so it can act as a pfSense router, Pi-Hole ad blocker, VPN (hopefully with WireGuard), and reverse proxy (probably Caddy) all at the same time. This router will be connected to the Cisco switch, where I may set up some virtual LANs. I’ll have to see how everything works together. I got the DL380e as a barebones thing, so the specs were up to me. I decided to go with dual Xeon E5-2450 processors, and I’ll be getting 48 GB of RAM (the maximum is 384 GB). These are both pretty cheap options. I think I found a good deal on some 1TB 2.5″ SAS hard drives, so I will probably start with six of them in a RAID 6 configuration and add more as needed. I’m not totally certain about this though. The server will be home to a few virtual machines. I’ll be moving my TV tuner card there, so there will be at least one Windows 10 VM. I’m also going to be running my normal website from there, and I’ll probably run an OctoPrint setup so I can control my 3D printer, so I’ll need at least two Linux VMs for that. I’ll probably also throw in one for Arch Linux, just because I like to tinker with it. Beyond that, I’m not sure what else I’m going to do with it yet. Maybe host some game servers for Minecraft or something or get a media library going. I’d really, really love to put my spare RX 480 graphics card in it and stream some games. This is totally possible, but I need a very specific PCI riser card to fit a double slot graphics card, plus a power wire adapter and maybe an extra power supply. We’ll see how it goes and maybe I’ll try to track down the special riser in the future.
There’s no real purpose to doing this other than I want to. The experience with Cisco networking and virtual machines might help me get a job some time in the future. It’s not super expensive at least, and it’ll be fun to have a ton of computer power at my disposal.