{"id":230,"date":"2025-06-17T21:10:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T21:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xircx.com\/?p=230"},"modified":"2025-06-17T21:10:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T21:10:39","slug":"home-lab-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?p=230","title":{"rendered":"Home Lab Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;ve been wanting to run hypervisors at home for a long time\u2014and today, I&#8217;m finally doing it. The current setup consists of a few <strong>Dell PowerEdge R720<\/strong> servers, each equipped with <strong>dual 2.8GHz CPUs<\/strong>, <strong>384GB of RAM<\/strong>, a <strong>GeForce GTX 660 GPU<\/strong>, and several <strong>SSDs<\/strong>. Unfortunately, these servers don\u2019t support PCIe bifurcation, so I\u2019m unable to use NVMe to PCIe adapters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Network Infrastructure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>networking hardware<\/strong> is fairly straightforward. I&#8217;m using a <strong>Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro<\/strong> for firewalling, VLAN tagging, and network segmentation. On the switching side, I have a basic <strong>Ubiquiti 24-port switch<\/strong> and a <strong>Netgear 24-port unmanaged switch<\/strong>. Despite being a \u201cdumb\u201d switch, the Netgear still supports VLAN passthrough, allowing me to properly segment the VM network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve also recently upgraded to a <strong>1Gbps symmetric fiber connection<\/strong>, giving me much better throughput for remote access and future projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Current Use Cases<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Right now, I&#8217;m running a few basic services in the lab:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Game servers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Domain controller<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>NFS-backed storage via TrueNAS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Weekly VM backups handled by Proxmox<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lab Automation with Ansible<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lately, I\u2019ve started integrating <strong>Ansible<\/strong> into the environment to automate routine tasks and configurations. I\u2019ve built playbooks that handle system updates across all VMs, which has been a huge time-saver. I&#8217;m planning to publish a detailed article soon on how to set this up\u2014stay tuned if you&#8217;re interested in automating your own home lab!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"pgc-sgb-cb wp-block-pgcsimplygalleryblock-slider \" data-gallery-id=\"7f777394\"style=&quot;min-height:620px&quot;><div class=\"sgb-preloader\" id=\"pr_7f777394\">\n\t<div class=\"sgb-square\" style=\"background:#d4d4d4\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"sgb-square\" style=\"background:#d4d4d4\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"sgb-square\" style=\"background:#d4d4d4\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"sgb-square\" style=\"background:#d4d4d4\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"simply-gallery-amp pgc_sgb_slider \"><noscript><div class=\"sgb-gallery\"><div class=\"sgb-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=385\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"151\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5-151x300.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5-151x300.png 151w,https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5.png 441w\" sizes=\"auto, 250px\"\/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"sgb-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=382\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4-300x208.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4-300x208.png 300w,https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4-1024x711.png 1024w,https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, 250px\"\/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"sgb-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=387\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7-224x300.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7-224x300.png 224w,https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7.png 648w\" sizes=\"auto, 250px\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/noscript><\/div><script type=\"application\/json\" class=\"sgb-data\">{\"captionHAlign\":\"bottom\",\"collectionThumbSubMenuDownload\":false,\"sliderMaxHeight\":620,\"sliderAdminWidth\":720,\"responsiveHeight\":true,\"sliderAnimation\":\"fade\",\"sliderThumbsNaviColor\":\"rgba(0,0,0,1)\",\"autoPlayDelay\":8,\"galleryType\":\"pgc_sgb_slider\",\"galleryId\":\"7f777394\",\"images\":[{\"id\":385,\"title\":\"image-5\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5.png\",\"link\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=385\",\"alt\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"mime\":\"image\/png\",\"type\":\"image\",\"width\":441,\"height\":877,\"sizes\":{\"thumbnail\":{\"height\":150,\"width\":150,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5-150x150.png\",\"orientation\":\"landscape\"},\"medium\":{\"height\":300,\"width\":151,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5-151x300.png\",\"orientation\":\"portrait\"},\"full\":{\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-5.png\",\"height\":877,\"width\":441,\"orientation\":\"portrait\"}},\"imageMeta\":{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"keywords\":[]},\"meta\":false,\"postlink\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=385\"},{\"id\":382,\"title\":\"image-4\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4.png\",\"link\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=382\",\"alt\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"mime\":\"image\/png\",\"type\":\"image\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":750,\"sizes\":{\"thumbnail\":{\"height\":150,\"width\":150,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4-150x150.png\",\"orientation\":\"landscape\"},\"medium\":{\"height\":208,\"width\":300,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4-300x208.png\",\"orientation\":\"landscape\"},\"large\":{\"height\":711,\"width\":1024,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4-1024x711.png\",\"orientation\":\"landscape\"},\"full\":{\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-4.png\",\"height\":750,\"width\":1080,\"orientation\":\"landscape\"}},\"imageMeta\":{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"keywords\":[]},\"meta\":false,\"postlink\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=382\"},{\"id\":387,\"title\":\"image-7\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7.png\",\"link\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=387\",\"alt\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"mime\":\"image\/png\",\"type\":\"image\",\"width\":648,\"height\":867,\"sizes\":{\"thumbnail\":{\"height\":150,\"width\":150,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7-150x150.png\",\"orientation\":\"landscape\"},\"medium\":{\"height\":300,\"width\":224,\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7-224x300.png\",\"orientation\":\"portrait\"},\"full\":{\"url\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-7.png\",\"height\":867,\"width\":648,\"orientation\":\"portrait\"}},\"imageMeta\":{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"keywords\":[]},\"meta\":false,\"postlink\":\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/?attachment_id=387\"}],\"itemsMetaDataCollection\":[]}<\/script><script>(function(){if(window.PGC_SGB && window.PGC_SGB.searcher){window.PGC_SGB.searcher.initBlocks()}})()<\/script><\/div><div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div><p id=\"pvc_stats_230\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"230\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon small\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p><div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been wanting to run hypervisors at home for a long time\u2014and today, I&#8217;m finally doing it. The current setup consists of a few Dell PowerEdge R720 servers, each equipped with dual 2.8GHz CPUs, 384GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 660 GPU, and several SSDs. Unfortunately, these servers don\u2019t support PCIe bifurcation, so I\u2019m unable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-transparent-header":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-topic"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":1329,"today_views":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AI-tech-DC_compressed-jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xircx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}