Personal Homelab Journey & Recommendations
Join me as I share my experiences, lessons learned, and suggestions for building your own homelab. This is my adventure into self-hosted infrastructure, and I'm excited to share what I've discovered along the way.
The redundant metal powering my ecosystem. Built for stability, speed, and quiet operation in a residential environment.
A homelab is a personal testbed where enthusiasts set up their own servers, networking equipment, and infrastructure at home. It's a playground for learning, experimenting, and hosting services without relying on cloud providers. Here's why I think it's worth your time:
Virtualization changed everything for my homelab. With tools like Proxmox or VMware ESXi, you can run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server. Each VM acts like its own computer with its own operating system, completely isolated from the others. I highly recommend starting with Proxmox - it's free, powerful, and has an incredible community.
Docker is probably the tool I use most in my homelab. Instead of installing software directly on your system, Docker packages applications with all their dependencies into lightweight, portable containers. I run everything from web apps to databases in Docker - it's consistent, easy to manage, and if something breaks, you just delete the container and redeploy. No messy system-wide installations.
My suggestion: Learn Docker Compose. Define your entire application stack in a YAML file, and deploy everything with one command. It's a game-changer for managing multiple services.
Every server in my homelab runs Linux. This open-source operating system is stable, secure, and gives you complete control. I started with Ubuntu Server because of its great documentation and community support. The learning curve exists, but once you're comfortable with the command line, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.
My recommendation: Start with Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS. It's beginner-friendly, well-documented, and has long-term support. Once you're comfortable, you can explore Debian, Rocky Linux, or other distributions.
This is hands-down one of my favorite tools. Nginx Proxy Manager sits in front of all my services and routes traffic intelligently. I can run dozens of services on one server, each with its own subdomain, all secured with automatic SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt. The web UI makes configuration a breeze compared to editing raw Nginx configs.
I put all my domains through Cloudflare, and I can't recommend it enough. It provides DNS management, DDoS protection, SSL encryption, and caching - all on their free tier. Most importantly, it hides my home IP address from the public internet. Cloudflare Tunnels even let me expose services without opening any ports on my router.
DNS (Domain Name System) is absolutely critical to understand when running a homelab. It's what translates human-readable domain names like "myserver.com" into IP addresses. When I first started, DNS seemed complicated, but once I grasped it, everything clicked into place.
I manage all my public DNS records in Cloudflare. When someone on the internet types "myapp.leleasley.uk", Cloudflare's DNS servers respond with either my public IP or Cloudflare's proxy IP.
Inside my network, I run AdGuard Home as my primary DNS server. All devices on my network use it as their DNS. This lets me create local DNS overrides, block ads, and have full logging of DNS queries.
Here's where the magic happens. In AdGuard Home, I create local DNS records that override the public ones. When I'm at home and type "myapp.leleasley.uk", AdGuard Home responds with my server's local IP (192.168.1.50) instead of going through the internet.
For services I never want exposed externally, I use custom domains like ".home" or ".lan". These never leave my network and don't require a real domain name.
Based on my experience, here's the path I'd recommend if I were starting over. Take it one step at a time, don't rush, and enjoy the learning process.
I started with an old laptop, and it was perfect for learning. Don't feel pressured to buy expensive hardware right away. A Raspberry Pi, old PC, or even a mini PC from Amazon works great. You can always upgrade later once you know what you need.
This was a game-changer for me. Install Proxmox on your hardware, and suddenly you can run multiple VMs and containers on the same machine. Start with one Ubuntu Server VM and expand from there. The ability to snapshot before making changes saved me countless times.
Once your VM is running, install Docker. This is how you will host 90% of your applications. Start by deploying a simple container like 'Heimdall' or 'Portainer' to get the hang of it.
Before you open anything to the internet, set up a VPN like Tailscale. This lets you access your lab securely from anywhere without exposing dangerous ports to the world.