🕒 5 min read (Quick)
This is my first blog focused on homelabbing and first technical blog in general so I figured to just make it pretty high level and go into more detail in additional blog posts. This is a layout of hardware I’ll be using as the bases of a homelab kit put together for a member of our community. Really wish I could hold on to this hardware and use it for myself more long term as it’s a capable setup with some cool features. For most that know me I love some new computer hardware!
Common Misconception
A common misconception I’ve seen others make when getting into homelabbing with their own hardware is thinking they need enterprise grade hardware in order to start. Enterprise server hardware can be great because you get features like IPMI or (Out-of-Band Management). This will allow for remote management, troubleshooting, and monitoring of servers, even when the OS is unresponsive or not installed. Also with enterprise hardware you get features like ECC memory and various other hardware that makes for a more performant and reliable system as they are meant to run 24/7. At the same time enterprise hardware is power hungry and loud. We’ve come a long way with computer hardware and even “consumer” hardware can be great for homelabs, but there are some specific features that you may want to look out for to make for an environment that is flexible, rich in features, and expandable. When it comes to networking, I’m a big pfSense fan for homelabbing as you get plenty of “enterprise level” features and can even install it on your own hardware (Random computer with 2x NICs).
Compute Node
When I first laid my eyes on the MS-01 from Minisform I told myself I definitely have to build something with it in the future. The MS-01 is a small form factor PC that uses Intel’s 13th Gen i9 or i5 CPU’s that have Performance-cores (P-cores) and Efficiency-cores (E-cores) in the same CPU. One model you’ll be able to configure to get up to 20 total vCores. It has 2x 2.5GbE & 2x 10GbE network adapters. It also has room for 3x M.2 storage drives and 1x PCIe Gen 4.0 x16 half-height slots. All of this together with its form factor makes for any amazingly quiet and low power compute node that can be used for an awesome home lab setup.
The CPU choices from Minisform are:
Also you can order this as a “barebone” machine meaning no OS is installed and a OS license is not included, also it will come with no RAM or Storage Drive.
Router
For this lab setup I’m using the Netgate 1100 pfSense+ Security Gateway. This is a firewall/router that is manufactured by Netgate and comes preloaded with pfSense+ and comes with 1-year of their TAC Lite support. As mentioned I’m a pfSense fanboy, likely because i’ve been using it for about 7 years now. I love how easy they make it to configure advanced features via the WebUI and their documentation is always up to date and clear.
Switch
For the switch I’m using a MikroTik CSS610-8G-2S+IN. My original plan was to use the Ubiquiti US-8-60W. Both are low power compact fanless switches that have great feature sets but I primarily went with the CSS610-8G-2S+IN due to it having 2x 2.5GbE SFP+ ports. Even tho I won’t be using the SFP+ ports for the initial configuration (I will be doing some bandwidth testing with the NVME SSD it comes with and a NAS with a ZFS setup in my own homelab just to see the numbers). If I was smart I would have probably just went with the US-8-60W so the switch and access point can be managed via the same Ubiquiti WebUI (UniFi Controller Software)… but hey I kind of like the idea of Frankenstein lab setups. Kinda feels good to know that when you really understand the network protocols and standards you can make anything work with anything for the most part.
For the access point we are going to use the Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LITE with the included POE (Power over Ethernet) adapter. TBH not much thought was put into the access point choice. Just needed an access point that supported VLANs (Pretty much most do…) and was affordable.
Access Point
Compute Node Software & Out-of-Band Management
For the computer node we’ll be installing Proxmox VE 8.2 and for the out-of-band management we’ll be using the MS-01’s built in Intel AMT vPro Capabilities and an open source console tool called the MeshCommander created by Ylian Saint-Hilaire (Also tested his MeshCentral Platform and it is AWESOME!). Also want to mention a super useful step-by-step guide I ran into while configuring Intel vPro for the MS-01. This made setting up the out-of-band management a breeze.
Proxmox VE has been one of my favorite Virtualization/Hypervisors to use over the last few years. I come from a VMware background and it’s what I’ve primarily used at work and I love VMware’s suite of products but over the years, I’ve felt when it comes to homelabbing I believe Proxmox is the way to go! I’m a VMUG Advantage member and use their products in other parts of my homelab to stay up to date with the latest features and upgrade paths but I really enjoy the ease of use when working with Proxmox. Also love how easy it always turns out to be to do more advanced functions on the command line of a Proxmox host.
Conclusion
This is a pretty capable setup for a small homelab using mostly “consumer” grade hardware and will be very expandable if additional compute, storage, or networking is needed. I’ve completed the initial configuration of all devices and now testing performance of the devices and a few other configurations. I’ll be putting together a few more blogs related to this lab setup before shipping it out to a member of our community.