For those unaware a homelab is a setup at home by tech enthusiast’s that can start off quite small and well grow and can contain servers, switches etc.
One of the main purposes of a homelab is to be able to learn about enterprise tech and be able to tinker without breaking a live production system at work.
My homelab in 2025
My Homelab has grown over the years it started with a Windows Server 2003 box running on an old PC then upgraded to a HP Microserver running Server 2012 then I started getting managed network switches a 19U network cab and it expanded further when I moved into my own house in 2019.
You can see my previous videos for the past 6 years here.
My latest video tour for 2025 you can find below (or if it does not load click here)
What my current Lab consits of
My homelab consist of a 42U rack in my garage+ a 19U cab in my office in the house.
In the 42U rack I have:
24 port Cat 6 patch panel serving the garage
24 port fibre patch panel
MikroTik CRS 317-1G-16S+ 16 port 10GbE SFP+ switch which is my core switch running in Switch OS mode.
In the MikroTik Switch I have a WAS-110 SFP+ XGSPON ONT stick which is my 5Gbps FTTP line.
I also have a MikroTik CSS326-24G-2S+ which runs anything in the lab needing RJ45 1Gbps or lower (Mainly IDRAC/IPMI interfaces )
3x PDU two of which are Excel.
Sophos XG430 Rev 2 appliance running PfSense I use the 2 SFP+ slots in LAGG giving 20Gbps connectivity. It handles my 5Gbps FTTP just fine and can route at 10Gbps speeds between VLANs. I have a number of VLANs setup including DMZ Server, Internal Server, Internal Net (for my workstations phone etc) Guest etc.
8 port KVM switch
Dell R730 top one runs my TrueNas Core which has:
4*12TB WD Gold running in Raid Z1 used for Documents, Photos, Videos, Music, XCPNG Backup etc.
2*20TB Seagate running in Raid-1/Mirror this has my TV Shows and Films on.
2*500Gb NVME SSD for Cache
2x 10GbE NIC’s in LAGG
2nd Dell R730 is my spare/2nd XCPNG host with 2*1TB NVME SSD for local storage not usually powered on. Has 2x 10GbE Nic in LAGG
Dell R740 which is my main XCPNG host this runs all my VM:
XOA VM
Domain controller 1 running on Windows Server 2019 (Runs Internal DNS, AD, DHCP etc)
Domain controller 2 running on Windows Server 2019(Runs Internal DNS, AD, DHCP etc)
PRTG Server running on Windows Server 2019 (Running free licence with 100 limit)
Plex running on Windows Server 2019
Nextcloud running on Turnkey VM imported from ESXi
Windows Server 2019 VM for cloudflarred tunnel.
PiHole running on a Ubuntu Server VM
Unifi controller running on Windows Server 2019
2* Cyber Power 1500W UPS running the rack
3.5KwH Solar system
Solis Inverter
Pylontech US5000 5KwH battery (in rack)
I have a backup circuit that powers three sockets in the garage which powers my homelab and one socket in the house to power my cab in the office this works even when the grid is down provding i have enough battery/sun.
Back of Rack:
BNC Patch Pannel for CCTV/Wildlife cameras
Annke CCTV DVR
TVI>HDMI conveter
2*HDBASE-T HDMI to Cat 6 convertors POE (this feeds two hdmi camera feeds to my office to my live streaming setup for wildlife camera.)
PDU*2
2* WD Elements 24TB external HDD’s for offline backups of my Truenas pools
In my house I have :
three 5G router connected to external antenna this is my backup internet connection which is trunked though to the pfsense router in the garage on its own VLAN
Office Cab:
48 port Cat6 patch panel severing the house with 4 Cat 6 lines out to the garage (2 being used for HDBASE-T and one for PTZ control over rs485)
MikroTik CSS326-24G-2S+running stuff in my house
PDU
HDBASE-T Receivers for wildlife cams
POE injector for Yealink Phone
POE injector for my WIFI AP which is a Unifi U6-LR.
DR Site:
I also have a DR site at a relatives house:
- Dell T430 Server running XCPNG running
- DR domain controller
- .Plex DR (also cloudflarred tunnel)
- PRTG DR
- Truenas core virtulised with passthrough for HDDs (4x 14TB)
- Sophos XG 125 Rev 3 running PfSense this has a wireguard site to site vpn back to my house.
- Cyber power 1500D UPS
- 2x netgear managed 8 port switches in the main house running my relatives network and trunking 2 internet connections to the pfSense router with multi wan setup.