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home lab setup: A Friendly Guide to TrueNAS and OPNSense

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Turn your spare hardware into a learning playground for storage, networking, and a safer home network

Today is 2025-10-14 and I’m sitting with a warm mug, thinking about a practical home lab setup that fits real-life needs. You don’t need a shiny enterprise rack to learn here. With a little planning and the right choices, you can build something flexible, useful, and surprisingly capable. In this guide, I’ll walk you through using TrueNAS for storage and Plex, paired with OPNSense as a firewall/router. The goal? A sturdy, learn-as-you-go home lab setup you can grow as you learn networking and home automation.

Why a home lab setup makes sense

A home lab setup lets you tinker without risking your day-to-day network. You can experiment with virtual machines, set up a Plex server, and test a firewall without affecting how you stream your favorite shows. The idea is simple: separate storage, take control of your network, and learn along the way.

For many of us, TrueNAS provides a reliable storage backbone that can host a Plex library, share files across devices, and cache frequently accessed data. Meanwhile, OPNSense gives you a modern firewall/router with a friendly interface and lots of plugins to explore. If you’re curious about how to align these pieces, you’re not alone—this is a common starting point for many home lab projects.

TrueNAS Documentation is a solid place to start if you want to understand how pools, datasets, and plugins work. And if you’re leaning toward advanced firewall features, the OPNsense Documentation is a great resource to reference as you go.

TrueNAS as the storage backbone for Plex and files

If your main goal with a home lab setup is a centralized place for media and shared files, TrueNAS shines. It provides reliable ZFS storage, easy shares, and a clean UI for managing permissions.

  • Start with a small but fast drive for the system pool and a larger pool for media and backups. You’ll want to keep your Plex library on fast storage if possible.
  • Use dataset-level compression and snapshots to protect against accidental deletions or ransomware. It’s a simple safety net that pays off.
  • Plex can run as an application on TrueNAS, or you can run Plex Media Server on its own VM or container if you prefer separation of duties.

If you’re curious about how to set up a Plex library on TrueNAS, Plex’s own support pages are a good guide, and TrueNAS docs cover how to configure shares and permissions. For the creative among us, you’ll often find it’s the small, well-tuned settings that matter most.

For more details on how to structure TrueNAS storage for media and files, check out:
– TrueNAS Documentation
– Plex Media Server

Getting OPNSense running on your existing hardware

OPNsense is a capable firewall/router that’s friendly to home labs. The idea is to leverage your spare hardware to learn network concepts without bringing down the main network.

  • You don’t need a brand-new box. A modest x86_64 machine with 4–8GB of RAM is a reasonable starting point. If you plan to run additional services or VMs, bump memory to 16GB or more.
  • A dedicated NIC (2.5GbE or better) improves performance and gives you cleaner separation between your WAN and LAN traffic.
  • If you’re current ISP router is in the way, you can bridge it or place OPNSense behind a double-NAT setup to learn how to handle it safely. Always have a plan to revert to the ISP router if something goes wrong.

OPNsense shines in its web UI, traffic shaping options, and a growing ecosystem of plugins. As you experiment, you’ll pick up concepts like firewall rules, NAT, DNS, and VPN—great building blocks for future projects.

For official guidance on setting up OPNSense, see:
– OPNsense Documentation

A practical starter checklist for your weekend build

  • Inventory what you already own: a CPU, RAM, storage drives, and a NIC with good support.
  • Plan a simple hardware split: a fast drive pool for storage (TrueNAS), RAM headroom for Plex and VMs, and a stable NIC for OPNSense.
  • Install TrueNAS on a dedicated boot drive and create a pool for media and backups.
  • Install OPNSense on a separate drive or USB and configure basic WAN/LAN with a simple rule set.
  • Set up Plex in TrueNAS or as a separate VM, optimizing for streaming if you have multiple clients.
  • Implement basic backups and snapshots for critical data.

If you want a quick reference on remote access and general Plex setup, Plex’s remote access guide is a helpful companion:
– Plex Remote Access

Next steps for your own learning journey

  • Start with small, visible wins: create a shared folder, add a Plex library, and get a simple firewall rule working.
  • Document your steps. A quick notes file saves hours later when you tweak settings or troubleshoot.
  • Explore more advanced topics at your own pace: VLANs, VPNs, containerized apps, and automated backups.

A friendly note: you don’t have to rush this. A home lab setup is a living project—it’s okay to start with one component (like TrueNAS storage for Plex) and expand as your understanding grows. And if you want a second eye on your plan, drop a note here and I’ll help you map out a practical, incremental upgrade path.

Resources mentioned in this post:
– TrueNAS Documentation: https://www.truenas.com/docs/
– OPNSense Documentation: https://docs.opnsense.org/
– Plex Remote Access: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200222258-remote-access/

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