Homelab - Proxmox Setup

As I mentioned in my prior post, I have started to play around with things tied to the idea of "homelab" setups.  I am not going to go into detail on what equipment I have, you can check out my other post here ( https://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2024/08/my-homelab-equipment.html ) for more information.

One of the cool things about the HP Envy desktop computer that I am using is that you can easily "hide" certain drives via the BIOS.  This makes it to do testing where you want to ensure certain drives can't be impacted.  I decided to setup Proxmox on my machine, while keeping the Windows OS available.

Here is my approach (my HP Envy had 4 internal drives right now):

• For Windows, I have a 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD.
• For Proxmox, I have a 256GB SSD and 3TB HDD.

Using the BIOS ability to hide certain internal (SATA) drives, I can basically hide the drives not being used.  So when I want to use Proxmox, I hide the two drives tied to Windows.  While I can't easily swap between the two systems (like you can a dual boot setup) it helps ensure I don't mess up one environment while using the other.

I am not going to go into details on how I setup Proxmox since there are plenty of guides out there, but I will share a few high level points that I felt would be useful:

• It is very easy to install Proxmox, but make sure you still read over the documentation.  On the install page instructions, it links to ( https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-sysadmin.html ) which has good info.
• Configure your updates: If you are using the free setup, you should go into updates > repositories to disable the two enterprise options and enable the "no-subscription" option.
• If you plan to setup a cluster, you should do that before adding VMs.  I don't remember the exact issue, but I know I ran into some situation where I couldn't setup a cluster because one of the hosts already had VMs on it.
• Keep notes on configuration in case you need to set things up again.
• Check out https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/ which has scripts to make it really easy to setup different capabilities (mainly containers).

My homelab - Equipment

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received some of the items listed below for free, sometimes in exchange for a review.  I will note those items by putting *see disclosure* on the same row.  I was not required to write a positive review and I do not rate products higher than they should have been. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's requirements.

It has been a while since I made a blog post.  Recently I decided to start playing around with computers a little more again, reading up on how people are doing their own “homelabs” to experiment and learn.  I don’t plan to do anything big or crazy, but I figured I’d document what I am doing on my blog.

For my first post, I am just going to layout the hardware I am using.  I figure if I write future posts, I can just mention this post if anyone wants to see the specific hardware I am using.  I am just mentioning the main/relevant items, not every single piece of gear and I will update as needed if I get new gear.

Equipment as of 8/30/2024:

• HP Envy (desktop computer)
• Computer Specs
• Intel i7-4790 @ 3.6 Ghz
• NVidia GeForce GTX 745
• 32GB RAM
• Internal storage
• Micron 256GB SSD
• SanDisk 256GB SSD
• Seagate 3TB HDD
• Toshiba 1TB HDD
• SanDisk 16GB SSD built-in to the motherboard, works as cache for the HDD as long as you have the right software.
• Connected items
• Inateck FD2002 USB 3.0 dual SATA HDD docking station (my review) *see disclosure*
• Useful for swapping drives out easily.
• Fujitsu Lifebook E546 (laptop computer)
• Specs
• Intel i5-6200U @ 2.4 Ghz
• 16GB RAM
• Plextor 128GB SSD
• Raspberry Pi 4
• Specs
• 4GB RAM
• Argon ONE V2 Case (my review) *see disclosure*
• Inateck FE2005 USB 3.0 enclosure (my review) *see disclosure* 
• Misc equipment
• Cudy 8-port 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet switch
• GL-iNet Marble (GL-B3000)
• GL-iNet Mango (GL-MT3000N-V2) qty 2