I started my home lab with the hardware I owned. Initially, I roped my Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB) as a testbed for Docker containers and self-hosting apps. Meanwhile, my Windows 11 desktop and M1 MacBook Air provided support and helped with other specific projects, like running local LLMs occasionally.
When Pi 4 hit its limits, my three-device home lab became chaotic. I needed a solution that wouldn’t cannibalize my primary computers. So, I consolidated everything into a single HP ProDesk 600 G6 mini PC running Proxmox. Here’s how I simplified my home lab with a single Proxmox node.
You should build a home lab if your major is even remotely associated with computing
Table of Contents
I wouldn’t have survived college without my home lab
Fragmented setup became unsustainable
When juggling became chaos
Using a Raspberry Pi 4 running Raspbian OS as a home server kept showing its limitations whenever I tried to run multiple Docker containers. At times, those experimental containers crashed silently, taking down the entire Pi and other self-hosted services with it.
My Windows 11 desktop ran additional resource-demanding VMs and containers. And I used the RTX 3080 GPU for local LLM models with Home Assistant. Meanwhile, the M1 MacBook Air had only 8GB of RAM remaining for ESP32-related projects. Juggling between services, self-hosted and containerized applications across different platforms became chaotic and messy — I kept running out of storage, my regular tasks felt the lack of resources, and the power consumption kept climbing.
That’s when I discovered Proxmoxthanks to my XDA colleagues. I picked up a used HP ProDesk 600 G6 mini PC ($270) to run Proxmox. It packs an Intel Core i5-10500 CPU, 32GB (3200MHz) DDR4 RAM, and 256GB NVMe to get me started. I added another 1 TB m.2 NVMe drive later. Deploying Proxmox VE 9.0 on the mini PC took a few minutes. However, understanding storage management, VM vs. LXC trade-offs, taking snapshots and backupsand network configurations took me weeks to master.
- Storage
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MicroSD card slot
- CPU
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Arm Cortex-a72 (quad-core, 1.8GHz)
- Memory
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1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of LPDDR4
- Operating System
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Raspberry Pi (Official)
Using a Proxmox node for my home lab
Experimenting with VMs and containers became easy
I backed up important configurations and migrated my home lab to a Proxmox node by recreating VMs and containers one at a time, gradually shifting things to minimize downtime. Moving my Home Assistant instance from a Raspberry Pi to a mini PC gave it a major performance boost. For lightweight apps and services, I prefer LXC containers; for complex apps, I use full VMs.
Proxmox lets me experiment with different virtual machines and containers while allocating resources adequately on the mini PC. Debian 13 serves as the primary VM to run self-hosted apps and containers. Pi-hole runs as a separate LXC container, thanks to the community scripts. A separate Debian 13 VM runs to experiment with Docker containers before I deploy them on my home network.
With a single Proxmox node, I access all the VMs and containers conveniently from a single management interface. The built-in snapshots feature in Proxmox lets me test changes safely, and I roll them back if something goes wrong. Everything runs smoothly on a single node, with no resource-related hiccups or bottlenecks. For example, my Pi-hole LXC runs lean with 512MB of RAM, while Home Assistant enjoys 4 GB. The home lab is quieter, draws less power than before, and keeps the electricity bill in check.
Lessons learned the hard way
Don’t repeat those mistakes
I made several mistakes and learned quite a few lessons during the process. First, don’t migrate everything at once. When I attempted to move multiple services simultaneously, the failures brought down half of my home lab in an evening.
Second, never experiment with VLAN configurations and firewall rules on a live network. Testing OPNsense settings brought down the internet access for my home network several times. Now, I test all changes in isolated VMs first, and snapshots make rollbacks instant if something breaks.
Over time, I learned to allocate resources more effectively by referring to the documentation for each OS and container. For media storage, I use external USB SSDs rather than filling up the internal NVMe SSDs. That kept the system responsive for the VMs and containers. As the next upgrade, I plan to add another NIC to the mini PC for faster, direct transfers with my desktop.
A single Proxmox node solved all my home lab woes
With everything consolidated into one machine, my Windows 11 desktop and M1 MacBook Air are now free to handle their intended tasks — no more haranguing them for experiments. The struggling Pi 4 can rest now that the mini PC handles all the home lab duties, and I have no concerns about my grown home lab.
What started as chaotic juggling between three devices is now an efficient, quiet mini PC. A mini PC was the right choice for my space and power constraints, but you can build a powerful Proxmox node with old PC parts and add more storage for NAS capabilities. For anyone dealing with a scattered home lab, a single Proxmox node might be the consolidation that you need.
