Frequently Asked Questions

You may find you have several questions related to the concept of running an IT homelab, or what skills you can use from setting up in an IT homelab can be used in industry. Below, you can find answers to several frequently asked questions. Should this website be lacking a specific question, you can refer back to the Feedback page and suggest more content be added.

Is Proxmox as a hypervisor used in industry?

Proxmox is not widely used in industry, as previously stated previously within the website. However, it can defintely be a worthwhile thing to setup within a homelab environment. Proxmox does have Enterprise pricing available on their website, but it's more likely that smaller businesses are using it. I have it setup in my homelab because it helped me get an intro to virtualization platforms, which are used in industry.

Why is Docker useful?

Docker can be thought of as a super light weight "virtual machine" platform. More specifically, it's a containerization platform. Containers are similar to virtual machines in the sense that they are isolated from the host operating system, but a docker container is different as containers only have what is absolutely necessary for an application to run. Whereas virtual machines can run their own applications, but they usually have a full virtualized OS underneath. Docker is useful in IT homelabbing for hosting a variety of services such as media servers, DNS servers, etc. You could otherwise run these services on VMs, but it would use more resources and be more of a hassle to manage.

Is it a good idea to setup a Windows Server Domain Controller in a homelab?

Yes! To gain learning experience for enterprise! You can setup a Windows Server Domain Controller within an IT homelab to get experience with Group Policy, user management, and practical PowerShell Active Directory manipulation. For this case, I would recommend joining virtualized client machines to the domain controller instead of physical personal computers within your household. Beyond learning experience, it does not make too much sense to join your personal family computers to a domain controller within your home as there are better ways to manage devices.

What is good hardware for an IT Homelab?

Low-powered, low-cost hardware seems to be the direction many enthusiats are moving towards. In the past, I have seen people utilize rack-mounted servers for their homelab setup, but that is an expensive route as not only do rack-mounted servers cost significantly more, but they use a lot more power. I recommend using Mini-PCs, and JBOD (just a-bunch-of-disk) enclosures for a homelab setup. A Mini-PC can run a hypervisor platform like Promox, and a JBOD enclosure can be used for mass storage. Within the hypervisor platform on a Mini-PC, you could setup a virtual machine that can run Docker containers.

In what cases would I use a VM over containers?

Virtual Machines (VMs) are better used for when you need to fine-tune the configuration of an application, or when something is a bit too complex to be hosted in a container. For example, a Windows Server Domain Controller makes sense as a virtual machine given the complexity of it. If you have to have a specific program that runs on schedules, that might be better to setup in a VM as well given the complex configration. Finally, if you need to passthrough hardware for some reason (i.e, a GPU) this can sometimes be easier to do on a VM than a container.

Is it bad to open ports on my home network?

Not necessarily, but you should try to avoid opening ports up to the internet whenever possible. This is because malicious attackers can run mass scans on your public IP address and exploit vulnerabilities in services that are running on open ports. Instead, I would try to limit the amount of open ports to maybe just a VPN. Hosting a VPN would allow you to access all your services from home, without opening ports for SSH or RDP. If you would like to host a website from home, there are several new solutions available that allow you to self-host without opening a port, such as CloudFlare Tunnel.

What's a good beginner homelab project?

A good beginner homelab project that I typically recommend to others within the IT major is setting up a DNS server with PiHole, a media server, and getting Docker to work. Ideally it's good to find something that can be very rewarding to you. PiHole / a custom DNS server is rewarding because you can use it to block advertisements across your home network, which can be impressive to your family or guests. A media server is rewarding because you can use it to stream media that is pulled from physical media you own. Docker is rewarding because it helps you learn about something that can be expanded upon, in the sense that you can add more containers to your setup. So the ideal beginner route I recommend is: Docker initial setup, Media server, DNS server.

What's the best practice if I do open a port?

Make sure the service that is utilizing the port is always up-to-date to for any security vulnerability patches. If it's a docker container, you could write a script that auto-updates the container by recreating the container with the latest image. All it takes is a vulnerability within a service for an attacker to gain access to sensitive information within your network, so it's important to keep things up-to-date.

What's the best solution for a NAS in a homelab?

A NAS system (Network-Attached Storage) is used for storing files on a network. People typically prefer Synology products for NAS solutions at home because they have a proprietary, easy-to-use OS running on them with a nice WebUI, and they have a reputation for being very reliable. You can also build your own NAS and install an OS on it that manages software RAID (hard drive redundancy) and allows you to create shared folders using SMB, NFS, and other protocols. Some of these OS' include Unraid, TrueNas, and OpenMediaVault. I personally am using Unraid within my setup.

What should I virtualize, and what should I run on physical hardware?

It makes sense to virtualize almost all of your services as virtualization allows for easier backups, snapshots, and more efficient usage of resources. The only things I wouldn't virtualize in a homelab setup would be things that require hardware passthrough. If you are using a JBOD enclosure to build a NAS, I would NOT install the OS that manages NAS storage within a VM. This should be installed directly on a physical machine (directly on a Mini-PC if that's what's being used) in the setup. Other than that, domain controllers, VMs for managing Docker containers, and anything else can be in a VM.