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I Just Started My First Home Lab—Here’s What I’m Running

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From a simple Raspberry Pi to a powerful mini PC, here’s a look at my new beginner home lab setup and the exciting possibilities ahead.

I finally did it. I dove headfirst into the world of self-hosting and started my very own beginner home lab. For years, I’ve been curious about running my own services instead of relying on big tech companies, and I decided it was time to stop thinking and start doing. It’s been an incredibly fun journey so far, and it’s way more accessible than I thought it would be. If you’ve been on the fence, let me show you how I got started.

My initial setup is pretty modest. I picked up two key pieces of hardware:

  • A Raspberry Pi 5 with 4GB of RAM.
  • A used Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 mini PC with an i7 processor and 16GB of RAM.

The goal was to start small with the Pi and then have the mini PC ready for when I wanted to tackle bigger projects. This two-device approach feels like the perfect way to ease into things without getting overwhelmed.

My Beginner Home Lab Kicks Off with a Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a fantastic starting point. It’s low-power, silent, and has a massive community online, so finding guides and help is easy. Right now, I have a few lightweight but super useful services running on it using Docker.

  • Pi-hole: This is the first thing many people install, and for good reason. It’s a network-wide ad blocker. Instead of installing a browser extension on every device, Pi-hole filters out ads for every single device connected to my home network, from my phone to my smart TV. It’s amazing how much cleaner web browsing becomes.
  • Home Assistant: This is the brain of my smart home. It’s an open-source platform that brings all your different smart devices (lights, plugs, sensors, etc.) together into one place. It’s incredibly powerful and lets you create automations that aren’t possible with Alexa or Google Home alone.
  • Homepage: This is a simple, clean dashboard that gives me one place to see and access all my self-hosted services. Instead of remembering IP addresses and ports, I just go to my homepage and have links to everything. It’s a small thing that makes the whole experience feel more polished.

These three services alone have already made a huge difference, and the little Raspberry Pi handles them like a champ.

Leveling Up: Ideas for a More Powerful Home Lab Server

Now for the Lenovo M900. This machine is significantly more powerful than the Pi, and it’s where the real fun begins. I installed Proxmox on it, which is a fantastic, free hypervisor. Think of a hypervisor as a manager for your server; it lets you create multiple virtual machines (VMs) and containers on a single physical machine. This means I can run several different operating systems and applications, all isolated from each other.

But with all this power comes the big question: what should I run on it? This is where the true potential of a beginner home lab starts to show. Here are some of the exciting projects I’m planning to spin up on the ThinkCentre.

Fun Project Ideas for a Beginner Home Lab

If you’re in the same boat, with a new server humming away and wondering what to do with it, here are some popular and incredibly useful ideas:

  • A Media Server (Plex or Jellyfin): This is probably the most popular home lab project. Plex and Jellyfin scan your movie and TV show files, organize them with artwork and descriptions, and let you stream them to any device, anywhere. It’s like having your own personal Netflix.
  • Network Attached Storage (NAS): Why trust your files to a third-party cloud? With software like TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault, you can turn your server into a powerful NAS. It’s perfect for backing up your computers, storing your photos and documents, and having full control over your own data.
  • A Personal Password Manager (Vaultwarden): We all know we should use strong, unique passwords for everything. Vaultwarden is a self-hosted implementation of Bitwarden’s API. It lets you run your own password manager, syncing across all your devices, without relying on a commercial service.
  • Your Own Cloud File Sync (Nextcloud): Think of Nextcloud as your personal Google Drive or Dropbox. You can store files, share them with family, and use its mobile and desktop apps to sync data seamlessly. It also has plugins for calendars, contacts, video calls, and more.
  • Advanced Automation (n8n or Node-RED): If you like the automation aspect of Home Assistant, tools like n8n take it to the next level. You can connect different apps and services (both self-hosted and on the web) to create complex workflows, automating tasks that save you time and effort.

The possibilities are nearly endless, and that’s what makes this so exciting. Starting with a simple setup and slowly adding new services is a fantastic way to learn about networking, Linux, and server management. My little home lab is just beginning, but it has already opened my eyes to the power of self-hosting. The best part isn’t just the end result; it’s the process of building it yourself.

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