Proxmox Homelab Build

I recently transitioned my home server to a Proxmox VE environment - stepping out of the cozy docker-filled corner of most NAS OS’s.

My goal was to move away from simple application installation and toward managing a true virtualization environment. I initially tried Unraid and TrueNAS, but I kept hitting walls. They felt too rigid. I wanted the flexibility to spin up LXC containers, Docker instances, and full QEMU VMs side-by-side without fighting the OS.

So, I wiped the drives and installed Proxmox. Here is the story of the build, the things I broke, and the stable environment I eventually managed to build.

The Camouflaged Server

My fiancé wouldn’t appreciate an enterprise rack server that sounds like a jet engine. I built this on “standard” hardware. A repurposed gaming rig tucked away in a generic black case, camouflaged in the corner of my office.

Component	Model/Spec	Role	Notes
Compute	Intel Core i7-8700k	Primary CPU	6 Cores / 12 Threads
Memory	16GB DDR4	RAM	The current bottleneck (more on this later)
GPU	Nvidia GTX 970	AI Accelerator	Passed through to Immich for facial recognition
Boot Drive	Samsung 500GB NVMe	OS & ISOs	Fast storage for templates and the host OS
Bulk Storage	4x 1TB HDD (RAIDZ1)	Data Pool	~3TB Usable for Nextcloud/Media
Chassis	Generic Black Box	Case	Stealth build; high WAF (Wife Approval Factor)

The Network Topology

An overview of the network topology and server architecture.

The Struggle: Why I Nuked It and Started Over

My early attempts were a mess of permission errors and connectivity black holes. I struggled to wrap my head around mounting container storage in a way that allowed for cross-container talk. Sort of defeating the purpose, but ultimately getting the apps to see the data they needed. And without going too much into detail… I truly understand the saying:

"IT'S ALWAYS DNS"

Eventually, I realized I had dug myself into a hole. I did the only reasonable thing: I nuked it and started over.

The second time around, I leaned heavily on the Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts. After creating my own templates, based on these installation scripts, things were a breeze. Specifically for complex apps like Nextcloud; removing the need to manually configure the Nginx reverse proxy or the database backend from scratch.

The Service Stack

I currently host over 20 services, here are just a few of them…

Core Infrastructure (VMs)

• Home Assistant OS (HAOS): The central brain for my IoT devices.
• OpenWrt: I run two instances (production and lab) for network segmentation.
• Windows Server 2025: A virtualized instance of Microsoft’s latest server OS. It’s new, shiny, and serves as my sandbox for Active Directory learning.

Productivity & AI (LXC)

• Immich: This is where that GTX 970 shines. It handles photo backup and AI asset management.
• Nextcloud: The “Google Drive killer” for self-hosted files.
• Paperless-ngx: For OCR-ing and archiving physical documents.
• Ollama: Running local LLMs on my own hardware.
• Dashy: My “Start Page.” I use this for quick navigation to all services, while keeping the Proxmox WebUI open on a second monitor for system health.

Continuing Operations: Staying Alive

The most painful lesson of this migration was the forced restart. To ensure that never happens again, I’ve established a strict maintenance routine:

• The “Sunday Update”: I don’t auto-update. Every Sunday, I sit down, review pending updates, and apply them manually. This keeps me in the loop on what’s changing.
• The Backup Strategy: I use the Google Drive API with rsync to push critical data offsite. If, God forbid, 2 drive failures happen simultaneously, my data will survive.
• Monitoring: While Dashy gives me access, I rely on the Proxmox WebUI to watch resource usage—specifically that RAM usage, which is constantly hovering near the limit.

Future Plans: Breaking the RAM Limit

Right now, my biggest limitation is the 16GB of RAM.

I want to use Windows Server 2025 to simulate a full corporate environment—Domain Controller, clients, policies, the works. Currently, I have to boot up old laptops physically to act as “clients” because my server doesn’t have the memory to run the Windows VMs I need.

If I win the lottery, the next upgrade is doubling (or quadrupling) that RAM. Once I do that, those old laptops can finally retire, and the sad, but quiet black box in the corner will truly run the show.