Starting a home lab can be a lot of fun, but it's important to consider a few things before diving in headfirst. One of the most important things to consider is power consumption. You'll need to make sure you have enough power to run all of your equipment, and that you don't overload your electrical system.
Another important thing to consider is storage capacity. Depending on what you plan on doing with your home lab, you may need a lot of storage. For example, if you plan on running more than 5 virtual machines, you'll need to make sure you have enough space to store all of the virtual hard drives.
Compute power is also something you'll need to consider. Running more than 5 virtual machines requires a lot of processing power, so you'll need to make sure you have a powerful enough computer to handle the workload. This can be especially important if you plan on running resource-intensive applications, such as video editing software or 3D rendering programs.
You'll need a powerful computer to act as the host for your virtual machines. This is known as the "hypervisor," and it's responsible for managing the virtualized resources and providing them to the virtual machines. A good start is to have a computer with a fast CPU and plenty of RAM, ideally 16GB or more. This will ensure that your virtual machines have enough resources to run smoothly.
In addition to a powerful host computer, you'll also need some storage space to hold the virtual machine images. This can be either an external hard drive or a network-attached storage (NAS) device. Make sure you have enough storage space to accommodate multiple virtual machines, as well as any data or applications you plan to run on them.
When it comes to software, there are a few options available for creating and managing virtual machines. The most popular option is Virtual Box since its free. It allows you to create and manage virtual machines on your host computer, and provides a wide range of features and tools to help you get started.
For sometime now I have been working on my setup until finally, for now, I have enough resources for any lab or service I may want to thinker with.
Here a picture of my setup, its janky, its mine
Its on my laundry space, don't have too much space for pictures, I will take some pics in two months during maintenance and clean up.
From the top got my gaming pc that I use remotely with Moonlight so I can either play on my office or living room.
In the middle my old faithful next to Boba, my Host PC where I run my virtual machines, currently running Windows 10 custom with a ton of this disable to only run VMware Workstation, on top of that I run my vms, yes I can run a Hypervisor.
At the next to levels got my storage PC with three APC UPS, 2 x APC PRO 1500 and one APC 1500
This is the PC that I use for backups and store data like videos, audio, etc
Some of the services that I run
For network
As you can tell this is not even the entire description, its just to show you that if you want a homelab you can afford one very cheap depending on your needs, I wanted multiple VMs so thats the reason for the host machine but you can start with just a Raspberry Pi, there is nothing professional about my hardware setup but it works for me, its stable and fast enough for my needs.
Maintenance is also an important factor to consider when setting up a home lab. You'll need to make sure you have the tools and knowledge to maintain and troubleshoot your equipment if something goes wrong. This can include things like replacing failed components, upgrading software, and backing up your data. I also clean up all computers once ever quarter to avoid dust accumulation.
Overall, starting a home lab can be a lot of fun, but it's important to consider the factors mentioned above before diving in. By taking the time to plan and prepare, you'll be able to set up a home lab that runs smoothly and meets your needs. And as you go along you will learn a lot more about how to maintain and troubleshoot your equipment. This will help you to avoid costly repairs and downtimes in the future.
So, if you're thinking about starting a home lab, take the time to plan and prepare. It may take a little more effort upfront, but it will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
