Homelabs are popular among technology enthusiasts, hobbyists, IT professionals, and students who want to deepen their understanding, experiment with different configurations, and develop new skills in a practical and immersive manner. They provide a space for self-directed learning, experimentation, and innovation, allowing individuals to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in the ever-evolving world of technology.

I have had a variety of different homelab environments over the years, which has allowed me to practice my skills, and try new things. I’ve used everything from a full rack with servers and networking equipment that guzzle power, to old workstations, and to mini PC’s. I would have to say my favourite is using mini PC’s.

Currently I have a mix of hardware running different things, which are all virtualized using Vmware ESXi, Proxmox, QEMU, and Hyper-V. That’s 4 different systems with a variety of virtual machines on each, ranging from a Dell Optiplex Micro, Dell Optiplex mid tower, Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny, and a Dell Precision laptop.

My existing hardware is becoming outdated, and also takes too much power, so I’m in the stage of redesigning my homelab. I plan on creating a Proxmox VE cluster with 3 Beelink Mini PC’s, and expand as needed. This will give me an inexpensive cluster, with a total of 12 vCPU’s, 48GB of RAM, and 3TB of storage. And when I need more I’ll just add more of the same Beelink Mini PC’s to the cluster. More to come on that in a future article.

So if you want to practice your skills, and try new things, it’s time to build a homelab. Start small if you’d like with Hyper-V on Windows 10 or 11, as long as you have a CPU that supports virtualization.

More on setting up Hyper-V from the Microsoft Learn link below.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v

Or you can get a dedicated system that supports virtualization, and setup Proxmox VE, and take it to the next level. I’ve included a link below for my setup guide for Proxmox VE.

https://davidbradette.com/Proxmox%20%E2%80%93%20Dell%20Optiplex%209020.html