Follow my personal journey of building a homelab, from a simple Synology NAS for files to a massive Proxmox server for virtualization and media.

It’s funny how hobbies start. Sometimes it’s a deliberate choice, and other times you just sort of stumble into it. For me, my homelab journey was definitely the second one. It didn’t begin with a grand plan for a server rack and a wall of blinking lights. It began with a simple need: I had to store my school files.

The Humble Beginning: One Simple NAS

My first “homelab,” if you could even call it that, was a Synology NAS. It was a straightforward, reliable little box. Its main job was to make sure my schoolwork was safe and accessible. That’s it. No fancy media streaming, no complex virtual machines. Just files.

For a while, that was enough. It did its job perfectly. But if you’ve ever tinkered with tech, you know that “enough” doesn’t always stay enough for long. The curiosity bug starts to bite.

The First Real Upgrade: Getting Serious About Media

The next step came when I wanted a better way to manage my media. That’s when I brought a Mac Mini into the mix. I set it up to run Plex for streaming and the “Arrs” (software like Sonarr and Radarr that help manage media collections).

This was a solid setup. The Synology handled the files, and the Mac Mini had enough power to serve everything up smoothly. The two devices worked together well. My needs were met. But the itch was back. I started wondering, “What else could I do? What if I wanted more control? More power?”

The Great Leap: Building a Proper Server

In the last month, I decided to go all in. I moved from my simple consumer-grade setup to a full-blown enterprise server running Proxmox.

For anyone new to this, Proxmox is a hypervisor. Think of it as an operating system for your server that lets you create and run multiple other operating systems inside it, all at the same time. These are called virtual machines, or VMs.

My main storage is now a TrueNAS VM. This is where things get a little technical and, I think, really cool. I have two special storage controller cards (HBAs) in the server that I “pass through” directly to the TrueNAS virtual machine. This means the VM gets to talk to my hard drives directly, with no middleman, giving it full speed and control. It’s a powerful and efficient way to manage a huge amount of storage.

The Mac Mini has a new job now, too. It’s a central backup station for all my family’s Apple devices using a great tool called iMazing.

A Look Under the Hood

So, what’s actually running this whole operation? I managed to get my hands on a decommissioned Nutanix server, which is built from Supermicro parts. It’s a beast.

Here’s a quick rundown of the specs:

• Server: Supermicro 2U Chassis (Model: CSE-829U)
• CPU: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6140 processors. That gives me a total of 36 cores and 72 threads.
• Memory: 384GB of DDR4 ECC RAM. The “ECC” part is important—it stands for Error Correcting Code, which helps prevent data corruption.
• Storage (OS/VMs): Two 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSDs in a mirrored setup for speed and redundancy.
• Storage (Main Pool): 12x 16TB Seagate drives managed by TrueNAS.
• GPU: An NVIDIA RTX A2000 with 12GB of VRAM. This is fantastic for Plex, as it can handle multiple video transcodes without breaking a sweat.
• Networking: A 10GbE NIC and a 10GbE switch to make sure data moves between devices lightning fast.
• Power: Dual 1000W power supplies for redundancy and a CyberPower UPS to keep everything running safely if the power goes out.

My 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Having a powerful server is great, but all that data is worthless if it’s not backed up properly. I follow the classic 3-2-1 rule: three copies of my data, on two different types of media, with one copy off-site.

1. The Proxmox server and Apple device backups (from the Mac Mini) are first backed up to my old friend, the Synology NAS.
2. The Synology NAS then uses a tool called HyperBackup to send an encrypted copy of everything to BackBlaze, an online cloud storage service.

This way, even if my house and all my hardware were to disappear, my most important data would still be safe in the cloud.

It’s been quite a journey, from a single NAS for school files to this powerhouse in a rack. It’s a hobby that’s always evolving, and I’m constantly learning. If you’re just starting out, don’t be intimidated by setups like this. Start small, solve a problem you have, and let your curiosity guide you. You might be surprised where you end up.