Stepping up my home lab setup - Advice needed
Hi all,
I’ve been running a “mini” home-lab for the last 3-4 years, mostly experimenting and learning from it. But, I’ve fallen into the trap of homelabs. It runs through my blood now. Ok, it’s about time to get serious
First of all, here is my current setup that I’ve had for quite a while now. Raspberry Pi 4B+ (RAM: 4GB), running:
- OMV (1.5TB eHDD connected via USB 3.0)
- Docker
- PiHole
- Jellyfin
- Portainer
- Forgejo
I need a better NAS solution, so I can backup both my PCs mine and my dad’s PCs. I recently got a Mac mini to replace my old desktop, so I’m planning to repurpose the old desktop as my new main server.
The old desktop was a Dell Vostro 3888 (specs below)
- Intel Core i5-10400
- 48GBs of RAM
- 1Gbe Ethernet built-in
- 1TB nVME
- 3 SATA Ports
- 2x PCIe x1
- 1x PCIe-x16 (currently occupied with a NVIDIA GT1030)
- 1x PCI Slot
The server would primarily be used for: NAS, Virtual Machine(s), and some docker apps (Jellyfin, Forgejo, n8n, etc)
I am planning to buy either 4x 4TB HDDs or 4x 8TB HDDs (depending on budget). This means that I need to get an HBA card to connect the fourth HDD. Moreover, I’m considering of buying a 2.5Gbe NIC so I can benefit from the NAS speeds.
From my understanding, I think the best approach would be to
- Install Proxmox first
- Run TrueNAS as a VM
- Passthrough the HBA Card/HDDs directly to the TrueNas VM
- Use TrueNAS to manage my storage (RAID 10 maybe?)
I’m unsure about the boot layout. Should I install Proxmox directly on the 1TB nVME, and use that drive too for VMs? Or, would it be better to get a separate 64GB SSD to install Proxmox on?
My other major concern is network security. I consider myself a bit paranoid “ADHD” and I do not want to expose anything unnecessarily, especially that the server will contain personal backups and family data. I’d like to structure the network in a way that lets me benefit from the hardware while keeping the NAS and important services as secure as reasonably possible.
Thank you in advance for reading this long post. I’d consider myself intermediate with homelabs, but I always have this feeling that I’m missing a lot of skills and that I’m missing important fundamentals, so any guidance or criticism is very welcome.