Posted: 9/14/2026 2:45:07 PM EDT
|
What does your home lab setup look like? I've been messing around with my own setup lately and I'm curious what other people are running. What hardware do you have, what software/services are you running, and what do you actually use it for? I'm interested in everything from an old PC running a few Docker containers to a full rack of servers. Things like: • Hardware and storage • Virtualization/Docker • Networking, DNS, ad blocking, VPNs, etc. • Media servers, game servers, Home Assistant, backups, NAS, whatever • Any cool projects or stuff you've built yourself Also curious what you actually find useful versus the stuff you set up because it seemed cool at the time and then never touched again. Post your setups. I'd love to see/hear about what everyone is running. |
|
My current home lab is still pretty modest, but I've been slowly building it out. The main server is an old HP Z210 running Ubuntu Server. It's got an i7-2600, 16GB RAM, SSD storage, and a GTX 1060 6GB that ended up still being in the machine. It's nothing impressive by today's standards, but it's been surprisingly useful. Right now I'm running: • Project Zomboid server, with mods and automated updates/backups • Minecraft server with automated backups for the kids • AdGuard Home for DNS/ad blocking for the whole house • Various scripts and systemd timers for backups, updates, monitoring, etc. • UFW for basic firewalling The game servers are probably the biggest reason I started doing this. It's nice having them running 24/7 for the kids and me without depending on somebody else's hosting. I keep finding more things to do though. I'm also starting to get more interested in the networking side. Right now the house is still running on an eero setup, so that's probably the next thing I'd like to replace with my own router/firewall/wireless and eventually get into things like VLANs and better network segmentation. For storage, I haven't really gone down the dedicated NAS route yet. I'm considering adding another machine with several HDDs and turning that into a proper NAS/backup server. This is probably my next step. My current back up is inside my main machine. This works, but isn't ideal for my needs. The hardware is definitely a work in progress. I'm trying to get more use out of old enterprise/desktop hardware before spending a bunch of money on a modern rack server. Although I keep finding cheap used PowerEdges on Facebook Marketplace, so we'll see how long that lasts. I'd eventually like to have one box handling virtualization/lab stuff and another dedicated to storage, but I'm not quite there yet. For now I plan on chucking 5 4tb disks in another old z210 that I have sitting here doing nothing and put probably put TrueNAS on it. The prices for drives though...yikes. |
Member
Joined:
Sep 2026
Posts:
28
EE: 0% (0)
USA
| My homelab is a media server that runs *arr software to acquire media files, such as TV shows and movies, and Jellyfin to stream them. The machine also has a couple hard drives with several dozen terabytes for storage and backups. |
|
One thing I never really understood about the self hosted streaming services...where to get the media to serve up... Sounds like that's the answer...interesting. My buddy has thousands of DVD and Blu-Ray movies that I could rip...but that doesn't sound like a fun time manually ripping all of those |
|
Originally Posted By eclark53520: One thing I never really understood about the self hosted streaming services...where to get the media to serve up... Sounds like that's the answer...interesting. My buddy has thousands of DVD and Blu-Ray movies that I could rip...but that doesn't sound like a fun time manually ripping all of those Well it's time consuming but not difficult. You need a blu-ray optical drive and an app like MakeMKV. Rip the media to your NAS drive. Use Jellyfin , Emby, or Plex to organize and stream your media. I think ripping the new Superman movie took me 45 minutes to an hour. TV show series can be a bit of a pain. I had one that somehow got the episodes out of order and was a pain to figure out what went where. ChatGPT and MediaInfo app helped get it straightened out. Here's one legal point to remember. You are supposed to own the physical media that you are ripping. |
|
Originally Posted By ScubaDachshund: Here's one legal point to remember. You are supposed to own the physical media that you are ripping. Yeah, which is why I probably won't bother with any SHSS. I really don't watch movies as it is. Which is why I don't own any movies on physical copies. The only TV I watch are live sports games. Every once in a while I'll watch a TV show I think might be interesting...but it's rare. So...streaming locally is WAY down the list of things to do on my homelab. |
Member
Joined:
Sep 2026
Posts:
29
EE: 0% (0)
USA
|
Originally Posted By eclark53520: One thing I never really understood about the self hosted streaming services...where to get the media to serve up... Sounds like that's the answer...interesting. My buddy has thousands of DVD and Blu-Ray movies that I could rip...but that doesn't sound like a fun time manually ripping all of those |
|
I use Proxmox and I like it. It is free open source server operating system. That allows you to get recipes for spinning up containers at some open source efforts: Proxmox helper scripts I also use Jellyfin but mostly for things I already have. And ripping CDs so anyone in house can play them, or put it on random. You can always spin up Docker (and portainer) as a container in Proxmox. But I tend to like just making stuff a container in Proxmox. |
|
Originally Posted By eclark53520: What does your home lab setup look like? Mac Studio, 256GB RAM running Containerlab. 3 x Supermicro mini servers with 128GB RAM each running GNS3, Containerlab, and ESXi. 5 x FortiGates Several each of Cisco, Aruba, Arista, and Ruckus switches. Only a couple Juniper. A few routers. Got rid of most them because I really don't need them anymore with Containerlab and GNS3. A box full of MikroTik routers of various horsepower. A dozen or more Aruba APs. I don't fire them all up at the same time, but it is nice having the ability. A dozen Ruckus APs - but I am abandoning Ruckus. Various directional and omni WiFi antennas. Misc. Serial console port server. 16 outlet IP power switch. GPS time bases. More esoteric stuff, oscilloscope, a couple of logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, multiple SDR receivers, freq meter, ad nauseam. |
|
I have a Raspberry Pi 4B that handles my gateway routing into my network... my Cloudflare tunnels, my Wireguard VPN server, etc. I have a NUC mini PC that handles the rest: Stirling PDF, self hosted full capability PDF manipulator web app Teslamate for my car Jellyfin along with the *arr stack Immich... to cut my iCloud budget NextCloud Home Assistant... looking to get off of SmartThings eventually The Jellyfin/*arr stack is cool, but I'm looking into Stremio now, and might get an ONN 4k stick to play around with as well. |
|
Originally Posted By mike4eva: I use Proxmox and I like it. It is free open source server operating system. That allows you to get recipes for spinning up containers at some open source efforts: Proxmox helper scripts I also use Jellyfin but mostly for things I already have. And ripping CDs so anyone in house can play them, or put it on random. You can always spin up Docker (and portainer) as a container in Proxmox. But I tend to like just making stuff a container in Proxmox. Whatever I start up next will likely be some sort of hypervisor and Proxmox is high on the list. Currently I'm running ubuntu server on the metal as the box simply isn't reall powerful enough to make virtualization make sense. Works for right now though, and the box was just sitting there collecting dust so the price was right. |
|
Originally Posted By IPv6: Mac Studio, 256GB RAM running Containerlab. 3 x Supermicro mini servers with 128GB RAM each running GNS3, Containerlab, and ESXi. 5 x FortiGates Several each of Cisco, Aruba, Arista, and Ruckus switches. Only a couple Juniper. A few routers. Got rid of most them because I really don't need them anymore with Containerlab and GNS3. A box full of MikroTik routers of various horsepower. A dozen or more Aruba APs. I don't fire them all up at the same time, but it is nice having the ability. A dozen Ruckus APs - but I am abandoning Ruckus. Various directional and omni WiFi antennas. Misc. Serial console port server. 16 outlet IP power switch. GPS time bases. More esoteric stuff, oscilloscope, a couple of logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, multiple SDR receivers, freq meter, ad nauseam. Impressive. What all are you doing with it? If you don't mind |
|
Originally Posted By DDiggler: I have a Raspberry Pi 4B that handles my gateway routing into my network... my Cloudflare tunnels, my Wireguard VPN server, etc. I have a NUC mini PC that handles the rest: Stirling PDF, self hosted full capability PDF manipulator web app Teslamate for my car Jellyfin along with the *arr stack Immich... to cut my iCloud budget NextCloud Home Assistant... looking to get off of SmartThings eventually The Jellyfin/*arr stack is cool, but I'm looking into Stremio now, and might get an ONN 4k stick to play around with as well. All that on a NUC eh? Nice The NAS and self hosted cloud is something I could definitely use...I hate paying for cloud storage. |
|
Hardware is just a refurbished HP Z620 with SSDs running proxmox for virtualizing Ubuntu and Debian. Aside from dedicated VMs for pihole (fail over) and GitLab omnibus, it's whatever tech I'm currently learning. At the moment I'm deep in AI loop engineering so there's VMs for postgresql/pgvector, LangFuse, and LangChain/LangGraph. |
Joined:
Sep 2022
Posts:
3424
EE: 0% (0)
USA
| A network rack from FB marketplace, two decommissioned enterprise switches off eBay. A FrankenNAS made out of a Minisforum mobile-on-desktop-mATX board and an LSI 93xx controller off eBay. A crap ton of Dahua cameras, a few thousand feet of Cat6 cable. A zoo of containers in Proxmox on the FrankenNAS with an NVR, Jellyfin media server, an assortment of Aliexpress media streamers for TVs. |
Joined:
Sep 2022
Posts:
3425
EE: 0% (0)
USA
|
Originally Posted By IPv6: Mac Studio, 256GB RAM running Containerlab. 3 x Supermicro mini servers with 128GB RAM each running GNS3, Containerlab, and ESXi. 5 x FortiGates Several each of Cisco, Aruba, Arista, and Ruckus switches. Only a couple Juniper. A few routers. Got rid of most them because I really don't need them anymore with Containerlab and GNS3. A box full of MikroTik routers of various horsepower. A dozen or more Aruba APs. I don't fire them all up at the same time, but it is nice having the ability. A dozen Ruckus APs - but I am abandoning Ruckus. Various directional and omni WiFi antennas. Misc. Serial console port server. 16 outlet IP power switch. GPS time bases. More esoteric stuff, oscilloscope, a couple of logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, multiple SDR receivers, freq meter, ad nauseam. Wow, we ran a test harness for a real deployment at a hyperscaler on much less. |
|
Originally Posted By voyager3: Wow, we ran a test harness for a real deployment at a hyperscaler on much less. I try to keep enough stuff on hand to simulate most issues that a customer might have. It was a lot worse when I used to simulate POTS/VOIPS hybrids. Cisco voice routers and Adtrans everywhere. Now that I think of it, I still have 3 Adtrans stacked somewhere. |
|
Originally Posted By eclark53520: All that on a NUC eh? Nice The NAS and self hosted cloud is something I could definitely use...I hate paying for cloud storage. Originally Posted By eclark53520: Originally Posted By DDiggler: I have a Raspberry Pi 4B that handles my gateway routing into my network... my Cloudflare tunnels, my Wireguard VPN server, etc. I have a NUC mini PC that handles the rest: Stirling PDF, self hosted full capability PDF manipulator web app Teslamate for my car Jellyfin along with the *arr stack Immich... to cut my iCloud budget NextCloud Home Assistant... looking to get off of SmartThings eventually The Jellyfin/*arr stack is cool, but I'm looking into Stremio now, and might get an ONN 4k stick to play around with as well. All that on a NUC eh? Nice The NAS and self hosted cloud is something I could definitely use...I hate paying for cloud storage. Since it's for my use, it's idle 99% of the time.  It's only 8GB RAM as well... but so far so good... |
|
Originally Posted By ScubaDachshund: Here's one legal point to remember. You are supposed to own the physical media that you are ripping. I take the approach of, if I've paid for the movie in some way (BluRay, DVD, purchase the stream on Amazon, etc), I have the right to use it however I want for personal use. I don't want more physical discs piling up, except for some select few 4K movies I really like. If I own it on disc, I'm not bothering to rip it. I'm simply going to download it from any site where I can find it and deal with the theoretical risks of downloading from the pirate sites. Which thus far has mounted to nothing. Similarly, if I own it on disc, I'm not wasting my time and effort to rip this. Someone already has. I'm downloading it. This is format shifting, which Sony v. Universal City Studios decision already decided was legal. I'm format shifting it from one format I own to another format. I don't download things that I don't already somehow own or have paid to stream. Originally Posted By TheDoorGunner: The task may seem insurmountable, but your friend could chip away at the collection by ripping a couple of discs a day. Eventually, he'll find small optimizations that'll improve the process. My personal home lab is a Unifi UDM Pro Max with a couple of Unifi cameras on it, a 24 Port Unifi Pro switch with POE powering four Unifi access points, a Banana Pi and a Raspberry Pi for redundant Pi-holes, with the Banana Pi also running PiVPN to connect back home. A Minisforum MS-01 running Ubuntu and PlexMediaServer with PlexPass to stream movies and TV series to my family around the country. A Unifi UNAS-Pro with six 24TB drives to hold all the media. An old Hikvision NVR running 7 POE cameras on their own VLAN so they can't call home to Amazon or China or wherever they try to call. Need to upgrade this to more Unifi cameras. One Hikvision LPR camera on the front of the house pointing to the entrance of the cul-de-sac. We're near a high school and sometimes shenanigans occur. The LPR has been really handy a few times. |
In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad move. -Douglas Adams
|
As a voice guy, I would recommend a VOIP/PBX install like FreePBX or the free version of 3CX. Get one or more phone numbers like a SIP trunk from Voip.ms, Flowroute, or Twilio and play with the lines, IVR, and a few desk phones. TT |
|
Well...I got what I think might be an OK deal. Positives: Dell R630 2x E5-2690v3 24core/48thread total at 2.6GHz/3.5GHz boost 128gig DDR4 - 8x16gig sticks H730 Raid Controller 2.2tb of storage already in it Has an Intel Nic in it Looks really clean in the pictures Negatives: 1u form factor...I was hoping for 2u to be a bit quieter and more expandability. I found this searching for a 730 chassis...but they're all a lot more expensive. 2.5" drives.... For $300...which feels decent. I'm thinking I'll toss in some 4tb drives, throw Proxmox on it, spin up a NAS and some game servers and see where I go from there. I'll keep my Z210 for things I want to run on the metal...or maybe an OPNSense box...idk... Toss out any suggestions... |
|
My home lab consists of a RPI 5 with a POE Hat running PiHole and a BeeLink mini PC running Home assistant. Beyond that I have a lot of Unifi stuff: UDM Pro UNVR (3x 8tb) UNAS Pro (3x 8tb and 3x 4tb) 5 cameras U7 Pro XG AP U6 Pro AP Flex 2.5g Switch Pro Max 24 POE Switch Agg switch (8xSFP ports) A few other smaller switches Synology NAS I know, not really a home lab, but it works for me. Playing around with HA and the Pihole is good enough. Not to mention the UI stuff and the UI travel router I have been playing around with recently. |
Who, What, Where? Call Sign, Snowball
|
I don't do a shitload of "lab" stuff... I have an M4 Mac Mini (16GB RAM version) that I run my Home Assistant VM on (VirtualBox). I also have Docker Desktop running PiHole in a container. I've also got Plex running on it with my media stored on an attached USB HDD, which is backed up to an HDD connected to my main router. On the shelves next to my desk, I have my old work-issued Lenovo laptop running Ubuntu (they never officially assigned it to me, so they never asked for it back!) with VirtualBox on it. I intend to move my HA VM over to it soon. I also have Docker running there, with another PiHole VM, so both PiHoles are set up in my router. I've been playing with Terraform/Tofu from my main Mac since we're using it at work. I found a utility called Topaz that can run in Docker, which emulates an Azure account, so you can execute against it without running up any costs. I haven't used it yet, since I have a free Azure account. Also I just posted about USB C for power... eventually I want to replace some of my switches with USB C powered units to streamline and minimize the power supply / wall wart mess. |
Now she's making $15 an hour as a 'tard wrangler with a degree in women's studies... - tommytrauma
|
My internet lives in another building about 60ft. away from the house. I've been running the network to the house through powerline adapters. It has been this way for years. The TVs always take time to load or transition. I wanted to have a better connection so I started looking into fiber. I have 1gbit stitches with sfp ports so I looked at using them. I noticed that 10gb was not much different in price. I had to buy two new smaller switches for sfp+ ports. Temporarily, I put the fiber on an overhead line between the house and shed. The shed is insulated and conditioned so I don't have a heat problem. (It is my extended pantry) The final goal is to bury the fiber. That would eliminate the overhead hazard of smashing it with a tall trailer. I have to get the tractor fixed to do that though. The difference is night and day. TVs load a lot faster. I haven't finished wiring in the house network. I plan on getting the TVs on ethernet instead of wifi. |
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens stupidity.
"To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods."
"To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods."