Homelab
I maintain and “babysit” a homelab, to play with various bits of software, services, and hardware. It’s always a work-in-progress, but I keep things nicely organised and documented in a private wiki. Here’s a brief overview of what I have set up, as of November 2024:
Across two sites—my university flat, and my parents’ house—there lies a menagerie of devices. For a VPN solution, I am currently using Tailscale for the sake of simplicity, though in the past I have experimented with both OpenVPN and WireGuard.
On a ThinkCentre Tiny, I run Proxmox to manage containers and VMs. This runs a broad range of services, from a web server to media and monitoring. An attached software defined radio is used for tracking aeroplanes with ADS-B, and interrogating the airwaves with SDR#.
One of the most useful things I’ve used this box for is quickly setting up and tearing down virtual networks and environments. For example, I have a collection of virtual machines used to test Active Directory across various versions of Windows and Linux.
A Raspberry Pi runs AdGuardHome for network-wide ad-blocking. This has been configured to support both plain DNS and DNS-over-HTTPS.
As a NAS, I run TrueNAS on a SFF ThinkCentre. This has an SFP+ card with a 10Gbps-capable transceiver, but is currently connected to my laptop via a 2.5GBps adapter. It’s all-SSD, so it can survive being moved around in the boot of a car.
Infrastructure-wise, I currently employ Ubiquiti (mainly their ISP-oriented Edge series) and MikroTik. I enjoy using equipment from a wide range of vendors and trying out their solutions, so I don’t stick to one brand. My lab is Cisco-free, since I have ample access to vast amounts of Cisco equipment at university.
For remote backups, I run a Synology at my parents’ house. This is also used as an NVR.
I’ve deliberately kept this vague, so as not to make this page an essay, but if you’re interested in the finer details, or have a suggestion or comment, please do get in touch!