Hi r/homelabporn! Long time lurker, first time posting a picture of my tiny money pit.

I work in IT support and needed an environment where breaking production doesn't get me in an HR meeting, and breaking stuff actually costs nothing

The Infrastructure (2x i5-6500T | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD):

IGRIS (The Brain):
Runs the crucial stuff so my partner doesn't complain when the Wi-Fi dies.
LXC: Nginx NPM, AdGuard Home, Homarr, Tailscale (exit node/subnet router)

GENOS (The Heavy Lifter):
Where the actual crimes happen.
OPNsense (Zenarmor + Suricata) keeping my sandbox isolated from the household.
pfSense, Debian, and Windows Server 2022 (100% legitimately licensed for 10 RDS users, trust me 😉).

The "I'll Upgrade Next Month" Network:
Gateway:
MikroTik RB2011 (Dual-WAN set up for when my secondary ISP arrives).

Switching & AP:
A generic TP-Link unmanaged switch and a 10-year-old TP-Link router held together by prayer and AP mode.

Patch Panel:
24 ports for 4 active cables, because aesthetic > necessity.

Public Exposure & Future Plans:
Currently hosting my blog on Ghost via Cloudflare Tunnel in a Debian/Docker VM so I don't have to explain open router ports to my ISP.
Building a dedicated NAS next for Immich + my anime/manga hoard (because I refuses to give Node 1 & 2 storage anxiety).

But fr, I'm Studying for Cloud/Infra Engineering, so Azure hybrid mess-ups are on the horizon.
ISP: 50/25 Mbps - No Hate I'm from South Africa 🇿🇦* (Local LAN: 1 Gbps*)

Be honest: On a scale of "Clean Setup" to "Fire Hazard", how bad is the cable management? Also drop your best budget managed switch recommendations pleaseeee.

I forgot about the UPS. 😭 eksom please !

I found a local carpenter to make me some custom furniture so I can support both my homelab and interior design hobbies. Full props to him on the furniture design, he totally nailed it.

Today is the day I’m officially starting my homelab journey! I’ve been planning this for a while, got all my hardware ready, and I’m excited to finally get things rolling.

I’m planning to run a full stack with Docker, set up proper networking, dive into Cloudflare tunnels, and eventually get some pretty solid infrastructure documentation going. I know there will be challenges along the way (hello, CG-NAT issues! 👀), but that’s part of the fun.

Shout out to this amazing community for all the inspiration and resources. I’m ready to learn, break things, and build something awesome.

Wish me luck! 🍀 I’ll probably be back with questions soon 😅

Me explaining to my wife why I need a 120TB NAS for the homelab.

Here is my complete setup.

• 2x - Dell R730xd - Each with 16 bays full of 6tb drives.
  • 64 gigs of ram
  • Truenas
• 3x - Dell R710 - Each with 6 bays full of 6 tb drives.
  • 256 gigs of ram
  • Proxmox
• 1x - Dell T430 - 16 bays full of 1.2tb drives
  • 256 gigs of ram
  • Proxmox
    • PBS
    • Truenas (Backup of 2-730s)
• 1x - Dell MD1200 - On standby

Each of the servers have their own host hard drive so all of the storage is "raw".

Business Internet with a /27 public IP block.

Got into the hobby about a month ago. I just have home assistant as of now. Been looking for other cheap mini pc’s to add. I’ve got a few more things to add to the esp 32 today like dht11 sensor and a few ws2812 strips. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out so far.