[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":206},["ShallowReactive",2],{"notice":3,"post-getting-started-with-a-home-lab":30},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":22,"extension":23,"meta":24,"navigation":25,"path":26,"seo":27,"stem":28,"__hash__":29},"page\u002Fnotice.md","Site relaunch",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":18},"minimark",[9],[10,11,12,13,17],"p",{},"🎉 ",[14,15,16],"strong",{},"Welcome to the all-new Red ALT Key site",", rebuilt from scratch! Video Notes are back, as well as a proper accessibility panel in the header. Still polishing corners — thanks for bearing with us.",{"title":19,"searchDepth":20,"depth":20,"links":21},"",2,[],"🎉 Welcome to the all-new Red ALT Key site, rebuilt from scratch! Video Notes are back, as well as a proper accessibility panel in the header. Still polishing corners — thanks for bearing with us.","md",{},true,"\u002Fnotice",{"title":5,"description":22},"notice","VKMJnU1ySGlgFLHqcmtMB3LTbmKa7RxzFMeX2jhSEc4",{"id":31,"title":32,"body":33,"date":194,"description":195,"extension":23,"image":196,"meta":197,"navigation":25,"path":198,"readingTime":199,"seo":200,"stem":201,"tags":202,"videoUrl":196,"__hash__":205},"posts\u002Fposts\u002Fgetting-started-with-a-home-lab.md","Getting Started With a Home Lab",{"type":7,"value":34,"toc":185},[35,38,43,46,50,72,75,79,82,103,111,115,118,150,153,157,160,171,175,178,182],[10,36,37],{},"Every home lab tour on YouTube seems to open with a wall of blinking servers, and it scares people off before they even start. You don't need that. You need one machine and a reason to learn.",[39,40,42],"h2",{"id":41},"what-a-home-lab-actually-is","What a Home Lab Actually Is",[10,44,45],{},"A home lab is just a personal environment — one box or several — where you run services, break things, and learn without any of it mattering to production. That's the whole point: the stakes are zero, so you can experiment freely.",[39,47,49],{"id":48},"step-1-pick-your-hardware-you-probably-already-have-it","Step 1: Pick Your Hardware (You Probably Already Have It)",[51,52,53,60,66],"ul",{},[54,55,56,59],"li",{},[14,57,58],{},"An old laptop or desktop"," you were about to sell. Perfect starter hardware.",[54,61,62,65],{},[14,63,64],{},"A Raspberry Pi"," (or three). Low power, quiet, great for lightweight services like Pi-hole or a small Docker host.",[54,67,68,71],{},[14,69,70],{},"A dedicated mini PC"," (Intel NUC-style) if you're ready to commit — low power draw, small footprint, surprisingly capable.",[10,73,74],{},"Don't buy anything for your first project. Use what's already gathering dust.",[39,76,78],{"id":77},"step-2-pick-a-virtualization-layer","Step 2: Pick a Virtualization Layer",[10,80,81],{},"This is where most beginners overthink it. Three reasonable starting points:",[83,84,85,91,97],"ol",{},[54,86,87,90],{},[14,88,89],{},"Proxmox VE"," — free, purpose-built for home labs, huge community, my default recommendation.",[54,92,93,96],{},[14,94,95],{},"TrueNAS Scale"," — if storage is your primary goal (NAS) and virtualization is secondary.",[54,98,99,102],{},[14,100,101],{},"Plain Docker on a minimal Linux install"," — if you don't need full VMs yet and just want to run services in containers.",[10,104,105,106,110],{},"If you're not sure, start with Proxmox. You can always run Docker ",[107,108,109],"em",{},"inside"," a Proxmox VM later — it's not an either\u002For decision.",[39,112,114],{"id":113},"step-3-pick-one-project-not-ten","Step 3: Pick One Project, Not Ten",[10,116,117],{},"The classic home lab failure mode is installing 15 services in a weekend, understanding none of them, and giving up. Instead, pick one:",[51,119,120,126,132,144],{},[54,121,122,125],{},[14,123,124],{},"Pi-hole"," — network-wide ad blocking, teaches you basic DNS.",[54,127,128,131],{},[14,129,130],{},"Jellyfin"," — a self-hosted media server, teaches you storage and transcoding.",[54,133,134,137,138,143],{},[14,135,136],{},"A Kali container"," for CLI security tools — see the ",[139,140,142],"a",{"href":141},"\u002Fposts\u002Fkali-linux-in-docker","Docker + Kali walkthrough"," if you want a low-commitment way to try this.",[54,145,146,149],{},[14,147,148],{},"Nextcloud"," — self-hosted file sync, teaches you reverse proxies and TLS certificates.",[10,151,152],{},"Get one thing running end-to-end, including backups, before adding the next.",[39,154,156],{"id":155},"step-4-think-about-backups-before-you-need-them","Step 4: Think About Backups Before You Need Them",[10,158,159],{},"The single most common home lab regret is losing a config you never backed up. At minimum:",[51,161,162,165,168],{},[54,163,164],{},"Snapshot VMs before major changes (Proxmox makes this trivial).",[54,166,167],{},"Keep configuration files in a private Git repository.",[54,169,170],{},"Back up anything irreplaceable (photos, documents) to at least one location outside the lab itself.",[39,172,174],{"id":173},"step-5-document-what-you-do","Step 5: Document What You Do",[10,176,177],{},"Future-you will not remember why you set a static route six months ago. A simple Markdown file per service — what it does, how it's configured, how to restore it — pays for itself the first time something breaks at 11 p.m.",[39,179,181],{"id":180},"where-to-go-from-here","Where to Go From Here",[10,183,184],{},"Once you're comfortable with one host, the natural next steps are networking (VLANs, a proper firewall like OPNsense or pfSense), then clustering multiple nodes for high availability. But that's a \"someday\" problem — for now, get one box running one useful service, and let curiosity pull you forward from there.",{"title":19,"searchDepth":20,"depth":20,"links":186},[187,188,189,190,191,192,193],{"id":41,"depth":20,"text":42},{"id":48,"depth":20,"text":49},{"id":77,"depth":20,"text":78},{"id":113,"depth":20,"text":114},{"id":155,"depth":20,"text":156},{"id":173,"depth":20,"text":174},{"id":180,"depth":20,"text":181},"2026-08-24","You don't need a rack of enterprise servers to start a home lab. Here's how to begin with what you already own.",null,{},"\u002Fposts\u002Fgetting-started-with-a-home-lab","8 min read",{"title":32,"description":195},"posts\u002Fgetting-started-with-a-home-lab",[203,204],"Home Lab","Virtualization","ChMBkg4k9pE1Hh6iSsNIkNXntL5OzJiOAdIBGz7Q-gM",1788843378949]