Homelab – Software & Hardware I use

Introduction
Today, Iād like to tell you about some of the hardware and software I use in my homelab to stay up to date. Since my clients often ask me for recommendations on hardware and software, I find it essential that I use those tools daily. Practice what you preach! Also, it is vital in the IT field to constantly stay informed about emerging trends, new technology, and the pros and cons.
My Homelab
Hardware:
Poweredge T440
Specification |
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Whenever I order a server, even for a homelab, I ensure it can be managed remotely. I have used IDrac, HP ILO, and Supermicro IPMI. They are all great features that allow me to manage my servers remotely. Idrac is my favorite because it supports HTML5. HP ILO and Supermicro IPMI are also great, but Idrac is the best. It costs some extra money, but it is totally worth the price.
- Intel NUC Dawson i5, 32GB Memory, 300GB SSD, 4TB SATA, ESXi 6.7
- Firewall Fortigate 60E
- 2 FortiAP 221E (Wireless Access Points)
- APC Back UPS RS 150
- 2 Cisco SG300-10PP POE Switch
- Synology NAS DS720+
A plea
If you’re planning to buy products listed on this page please do use my affiliate link to purchase them. Absolutely no additional cost for you (I would earn a commission from the seller), but definitely a huge help for me, as your gesture will contribute to covering the costs of maintaining this website and adding more great articles. Thanks in advance for your support!
Software:
- Windows 2016 Server
- Windows 2019 Server
- Windows 2022 Server
- Vcenter 7.0
- Veeam Backup & Replication 12a
- FreePBX
- Ubuntu 20.04 server/name server Apache, bind, MariaDB
- Windows 11, Edition Pro, and Enterprise
- ISPconfig (open source)
- Office 365 Busines Premium
- Affinity Photo 2
- Affinity Designer 2
- Camtasia 2022
- Snagit 2023
- Quickbooks Desktop 2019 (Windows and MAC)
- Quicken
- Glorify, ecommerce product image online design tool, design app
I use Glorify more for my creatives than Canva or VistaCreate - Canva
- VistaCreate
My WordPress toolbox
SEO is my hobby
I love to optimize my blogs to get a better chance to rank on the 1st page on Google. Who doesn’t want their website to be on the first page of Google anyways? It’s like a dream come true when your website appears on the first page of any search engine. My best tool is Outranking and I use it for all of my projects.
Outranking is the best tool for optimizing your website to get a higher ranking on any search engine. It gives you an edge over your competition by helping you identify and fix any issues that may be holding your website from getting the top spot. With Outranking, you can quickly and easily improve your websiteās ranking on any search engine.
Do you have any tips on how to get better rankings? Let me know in the comments below!
Some thoughts
To stay updated with the homelab hardware and software I use, Iāve decided to blog about what I use and how it has helped me.
Home labs are worth investing in if you want to learn more about virtualization, networking, storage, and clustering or get your feet wet with home projects like playing around with applications. I also host my WordPress website at home with my Dell Poweredge server.
Home labs allow everyone to play around with different configurations without affecting real-life production. If homelab hardware breaks or fails, itās not a big deal since nobody runs their business on it!
My best-ranking blogs
WordPress on Synology
Step by step Guide on how to Install and Run WordPress on Synology NAS A NAS is a network-attached storage device that allows you to access files from any computer on your network. Itās a great way to back up your files, and itās also a great way to host websites on your domain. With…
homelab rack
Homelab Server Rack: What to consider and what I recommend If you’re like me, you love playing with technology. A homelab is a great way to learn new technologies and test ideas. But what’s the best way to set up your home lab? This article will discuss the available homelab racks and what works best…
Vmware to Proxmox
Migrating from Vmware to Proxmox can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. This article will discuss the benefits of using Proxmox and walk you through the steps necessary to make the switch.
Proxmox to VMware
This article tells you how to convert a Proxmox VM to VMware in 3 steps (Proxmox to VMware)[SK1] . You convert the virtual disk and not the whole virtual machine. You should have some basic knowledge about SSH and Linux shell. All you need to know is how to navigate the directory structure in the…
oVirt (RHV) is another enterprise-grade solution that uses KVM as the hypervisor. Just because it’s enterprise doesn’t mean you can’t use it at home. oVirt offers a powerful web interface and an API and can handle hundreds of nodes (if you are running that many servers, I don’t want to be your neighbor!). The potential problem with oVirt for a home lab is that it requires a minimum set of nodes: You’ll need one external storage, such as a NAS, and at least two additional virtualization nodes (you can run it just on one, but you’ll run into problems in maintenance of your environment).