news
Homelabs and Proxmox
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XDA ☛ I tried Firecracker microVMs for self-hosted services, and it's surprisingly powerful
When you think of self-hosting, chances are Docker containers, Proxmox installations, or similar full virtual machines come to mind. Both approaches have their strengths, and most of us settle into one or the other depending on the workload. But after experimenting with Firecracker microVMs, I’ve found a new favorite option that feels like the best of both worlds.
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XDA ☛ 6 LXCs that can cover 90% of your Proxmox home lab usage
Capable of running apps, packages, and distros inside isolated environments, containers and virtual machines are the crux of self-hosting and experimentation workloads. Although both have their own neat perks, there are plenty of cases where you may want to run containers over VMs. If you’re using an old, computationally-challenged rig as a server, you might want to switch to containers, as VMs tend to have significantly higher processing overhead.
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HowTo Geek ☛ What I’ve Learned After Running My Homelab for Nearly Five Years
Are you just getting into homelabbing? I’ve been doing it for nearly five years, and over that time, I’ve learned quite a lot. From learning to be satisfied with my own setup to figuring out what to self-host, here are a few key things I’ve learned from years of homelabbing to hopefully make your journey easier.
Don’t Get Jealous of Other People’s Setups — Learn From Them
When I first got into the homelab space, I watched countless hours of YouTube videos of people showing off their homelab. I saw huge server racks, multiple computers, massive storage arrays, and all the pretty lights. I had…none of that.
After watching more homelab content than most people consume in a year, I was left unhappy with my setup and wanting more. I didn’t spend any more money (as I didn’t have any more to spend on the homelab), but I was constantly thinking “If only I had this next super cool awesome thing that I don’t really need, but I really want it.”
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XDA ☛ Proxmox Enhanced Configuration Utility is just what I needed for my home lab
Proxmox has many features that I appreciate, but its FOSS nature and thriving community might just be my favorites. Thanks to a talented community of tinkerers, Proxmox has a massive number of script repositories that not only make it easy to use the virtualization platform, but also add certain functionalities to it. There’s the Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts repo for easy to use templates, PVE mods for real-time temperature monitoring, and Ultimate Updater for simpler VM and LXC updates.
Then there’s the Proxmox Enhanced Configuration Utility, a script I recently ran into. And well, it’s yet another useful repo for Proxmox users, especially if you’re someone looking to pass GPUs to your virtual guests.