I've been tweaking this homelab setup over the past few years and it's grown into something more robust, hosting public services alongside personal experiments. Figured it'd be cool to share the details in case it sparks some ideas or tips from the community.
Quick background: Started with a basic rack in 2022, and it's evolved through a few changes. Now it's running a mix of VMs and containers, focusing on reliability without getting too fancy.
Hardware lineup includes a Dell PowerEdge R630 as the main hypervisor, it's got 8 TB HDD, 18 TB SSD, 40 cores, and 128 GB RAM, which handles most of the load pretty well. Then there's a HYVE ZEUS V1 for lighter lab tasks (not my favorite, but it works), a Dell Optiplex Micro 7050 for smaller jobs, and an HP EliteDesk 800 G4 for odds and ends. Oh, and a few spare servers like R620s and R720XD are sitting idle for now.
On the OS side, Proxmox 8.1 is the hypervisor of choice, with Debian 12 for most Linux VMs and LXC containers. Phasing out Ubuntu in favor of Debian for stability. Windows Server 2022 covers the Windows needs, though I'm eyeing 2025 once the kinks are sorted.
For structure, I keep things organized with naming conventions, like internal servers (e.g., inwsrv1 for web server) and public ones (e.g., pubwsrv1). It's helped manage the chaos, especially with resources spread out.
Network setup is where things get interesting: Using a Sophos SG230 as the router, a Dell PowerConnect 5548 as the core switch, and a few others for POE and 2.5GB needs. DNS is handled by Technitium servers, backed by PiHole for filtering, and I've got VLANs for separation, personal, family, IOT, management, and more. Rules keep traffic in check, like allowing specific ports between VLANs.
Monitoring relies on Wazuh for security and CheckMK for host checks, it's okay but could use tweaks. For internal sites, I've got things like a download center for script updates, an emailer tool for relaying messages, and a DNS monitor that sometimes acts up but helps catch issues.
Docker's in the mix too, running Vaultwarden for password management, Grafana for metrics (though not fully set up yet), Nebula for syncing, and a few others like Portainer for easy management.
Overall, it's a work in progress, still ironing out naming schemes and firewalls. What do you all use for similar setups? Any recommendations for better hardware swaps or VLAN optimizations? Or experiences with alternatives to Proxmox? Let's chat about it!
