Looking to start a homelab? Homelabs can be as simple as a single raspberry pi or a server rack full of enterprise level servers, usually its something in-between. What your setup looks like really depends on your goals, computing needs, and budget.
1. Determine Goals
What are you looking to learn or accomplish? Some common goals would include running local software to such as pihole, vaultwarden, or automiate your home using home assistant. Maybe you want to learn virtualization using a hypervisor or docker container. Another common use case is hosting type of media server such as plex or Jellyfin. With so many cloud services, its becoming harder and harder to maintain privacy, so many people are looking to open source solutions to replace those cloud based services such as nextcloud, truenas, or hosting on a product like unraid. Lastly you you might be like me and are interested in learning more and testing out the latest networking products such as opnsense.
2. Hardware
There are many different options for hardware to host your homelab. You can using a cost effective single board computer like a Raspberry PI Here or use an enterprise server. I actually have both in my homelab. Here are some examples:
- Single Board Computers (SBC) (eg. Raspberry Pi)
- Old or Current Computer
- Mini Computers (eg. thin clients, Dell Wyse or HP)
- Network Attached Storage (eg. Synology, QNAP)
- Enterprise Server (eg. Dell or HP)
2a. Choosing the correct Hardware for you
There are five main things to consider when choosing hardware
- Cost
- Power Consumption
- Heat dissipation
- Computing Power
- Reliability
A raspberry pi is a cost effective solution that doesn’t use much power or produce much heat, but the computing power is low. While a Enterprise server new will cost thousands of dollars, use a ton of power and produce a lot of heat, but has really good computing power and reliability.
I would say the two most popular options are buying used mini computers and used enterprise servers and I personally recommend them both options depending on your use case. I bought a dell r530 for around $150 added some hard drives and did some simple configuration to reduce the power consumption and got it running under the 85 watts, which is about the same as a desktop computer.
3. Operating Systems and Virtualization
Next you need to decide what software or virtualization is right for your setup. You could go with a straightforward Linux installation like Ubuntu or maybe Windows if that is more comfortable.
If you are looking to take it to the next level and virtualize as an option, you wil want to look at VMware ESXi (which looks to still be free yet), Proxmox (open source), or Unraid (paid). I use Unraid on my server and highly recommend it and plan on doing a future write up on it (not sponsored by Unraid, however I would take a sponsorship from Unraid). Unraid host both Virtual Machine (VM) and Docker containers and I currently use both of them.
4. Software and Services
Software will help complete your system. There are a variety of different services and applications you can install that will help you accomplish your goals.
Here are some popular homelab software services:
- Media Streaming
- Plex
- Jellyfish
- Cloud Services
- Next Cloud
- Immich
- Home Automation
- Home Assistant
- Network and Security
- OPNSense
- Pi-hole
- Password Manager
- Vaultwarden
5. Security
Be careful with what hardware and software services you expose to the internet, make sure you use secure passwords, or even better, certificates for authentication. You can also use Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and Zero Trust Architecture deployment depending on what your goals are.
Conclusion
Now you have a foundation to start a fresh new homelab or give you ideas on how to upgrade your current setup. If you are starting new, start with a smaller solutions like a mini computer or old desktop then scale as needed. No matter if your goals are to run a media servers, self-hosting apps, learning new tech, or just tinkering this will help you figure out the right hardware, OS, and software applications to get started. Take your time, interact with the community, experiment, and have fun along the way.
Here is a link to what made up my homelab at the end of 2024. Hopefully this guide helps you get started and gives you some direction as you build out your own setup.