How to start a home lab server?
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Hi everyone,
I'm very much a newbie here. About the only area of IT I know anything about is building computers, plus I have a little bit of experience with Linux. I am currently studying for the A+ Core 1 at a painfully slow pace.
I work for a small non-profit organization. I'm the closest thing to a "techie" that we have here, hence why I'm working on the A+. My company has a server so old that when it was functional it was likely running Windows '98. My boss is hoping that I can eventually build a new one so that A) we can do nightly back-ups of every computer and B) so we don't have to be so reliant on cloud storage, which is where most things are kept.
Before I spend company money on building a new computer, however, I want to first practice by converting an old computer of mine into a server (10 year old custom rig, cheap Intel i3 CPU, DDR3 RAM). More specifically, I would like to turn it into a file server for some Raspberry Pi projects I'm working on at home.
My question is... Where do I even begin with this? All I currently know would be to start with installing the Ubuntu Server OS. I have poked around and didn't see anything I would call "IT Pro's Introductory Guide to Servers." Am I in over my head with this until I make it to the CompTIA Server+ certification level???
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
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Hey @Mike-Berry great question! If you would like to get started with a home lab environment, here are a few steps and resources:
1 - Be sure to enable hypervisor support in the UEFI/BIOS of your PC (may be enabled by default)
2 - If you have a Windows 10/11 Pro edition you can install client-side Hyper-V :https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v
3 - If you do not have Windows 10/11 Pro you can use something like free like https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads (this was my first virtualization technology to create a lab environment on.)
4 - Obtain your installation media for your VMs. You can use open source such as Ubuntu https://ubuntu.com/download or you can get an evaluation copy of Windows 11 Enterprise: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-enterprise or Windows Server 2022: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2022 (these operating systems are for evaluation, licensing terms apply)
5 - Finally consult the vendor documentation for the virtualization platform you choose:
Hyper-V: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/educator-developer-blog/step-by-step-enabling-hyper-v-for-use-on-windows-11/ba-p/3745905
VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/DocumentationHappy building, look forward to hearing from you. Also, if you need help during your studies reach out to me!
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I completely forgot about VMs. I have a big fancy gaming PC but not enough time to play anything! For a while I've been meaning to find some good use for these extra resources that I'm not utilizing (I think you even discussed that in the Virtualization and Cloud computing section of the A+ video series).
I happened to watch a video earlier today where a guy said that computer hardware has advanced so quickly in recent years that a cheap Intel i3-13100 from today is better than a high end server CPU from 10 years ago. I'm guessing then that even if I only allocate 25% of my current computer's resources to a virtual NAS that it'll run better than building a NAS on my old.
Thank you for the advice.
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Hi @Mike-Berry!
Exciting that you get to start on this journey! @wes-bryan has brought up a lot of what I would say. Pick a hypervisor, get some ISO's and get started poking around. I have recently started my journey with creating a Home Lab as well and I am documenting everything in this ITPro TV forum post right now (with plans to through them onto a Google Site using my personal Google Workspace domain):
https://forums.acilearning.com/topic/4515/home-lab-for-skills-buidling/24
I just finished Episode 2 where I go through installing a VM using Proxmox. I try my best to explain my rationale with whatever choices I make and go through my troubleshooting steps when I run into issues.
For backup software I can recommend Veeam for Home for your learning. Veeam is a backup solution that is used by a good chunk of Enterprises in the wild and could very well be a good solution for your NfP, depending on pricing of course.
I would also like to advise you that if you have questions on a server technology to check out the Server+ videos on the ITPro Platform. Wes and Ronnie do an amazing job with that series and they helped me pass my Server+ exam back in October 2023. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions here on the forum! I'm trying to be active here and would be more than happy to give my expertise, or at the very least, my Google-Fu skills for any question you may have.
Good luck with your journey, and, most importantly, have fun!