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[netadmin]

Home Lab 1.0 - Update 22/05/2022

So it's been around a week since I started this project and a little progress has been made.

For starters I've found out my VM Host can't handle hosting a Windows 10 VM. I tried but found that it was much too slow to be useful. Nevermind though as I do still plan on experimenting with Linux in the near future.

However, most of my time has been taken up setting up a Plex server. I'm sure everyone knows what Plex is by now but for those who don't, Plex is a media streaming service that you host locally on a server.

I've spent the past few days transfering 40 GB of media that I've had stored locally on my desktop to my Cintra server and organising it in Plex.

Plex does most of the work for me. It has a huge library of Metadata that it uses to organise any well known movies, TV shows and Music. However I've got a small collection of YouTube videos and other media that I've downloaded and all of these don't exist in Plex's database. For these I've had to manually organise them into different series, seasons and add a name and description to each episode.

It's worth it in the end though when the result looks like your very own Netflix :)

[netadmin]

Home Lab 1.0 - VM Host - 15/05/2022

With a just little hassle, I've set up my VM Host. The Optiplex I used is up and running without any major issues. The next step will be to create some VMs.

Below you'll find an outline of my configuration process...

First Boot Problems

Upon first boot I found that the computer wasn't POSTing. I could hear the fans going but nothing was appearing on the screen. When I turned the computer off it would immediately turn itself back on again.

After some testing with the HDMI i realised the power light was flashing in a pattern. Premade computers have these fun little features to make troubleshooting 10 times easier.

Above is the page I used to find out what the blinking meant. Apparently there was a problem with the RAM. This is an old desktop from my office that was no longer fit for purpose, it clearly worked in the past but something may have been knocked or damaged in the transporting process.

After some testing I found that two sticks of RAM were having problems. Great, now we're down to 8 GB.

Windows 10 Configuration

I used a USB stick with the ISO burnt onto it using Rufus to install Windows 10.

I then created an offline account for myself in the OOBE.

I renamed the computer to Cintra. I'm going to use the names of locations from The Witcher series for my computer names in this project.

I enabled Remote Desktop in Settings. As mentioned in previous posts, my workspace is small so being able to work on this device from my main computer is a big plus. Now I don't need two sets of mice and keyboards.

I enabled Hyper-V in Programs and Features. I also checked the BIOS but Virtualisation was enabled already.

I was currently using Windows 10 version 1709 which is around 5 years out of date, so my next step was to bring the computer back up to date.

Using lusrmgr.msc, I configured the local Administrator account. I set a password and enabled the account. I then took myself out of the Administrators Group and added myself into the Remote Desktop Users Group.

To finish off the day I removed all the Bloatware that comes with Windows 10.

[netadmin]

Planning Phase - The VM Host

So, to begin this project I'm not looking for much. I plan to start by configuring a device capable of running a VM domain controller for some practice and a VM to test out Plex to see if it suites me.

What am I working with?

The VM host device and centrepiece of this project will be a Dell Optiplex 5040. Running Windows 10 Pro on an i3-6100 (3.70 GHz) with 16 GB RAM.

To be honest, for now I'm just working with what I can get my hands on I don't expect this device to be capable of hosting more than one VM at a time and even then, it might struggle.

However, what the Optiplex lacks in performance, she makes up for in good looks. The computer fits perfectly into my shelving which is great for my small workspace.

I'm going to use Windows 10 Pro due to it having Hyper-V. One of my final projects in my apprenticeship involves setting up a virtual network of 3 virtual computers, using Hyper-V. Whilst using a lighter OS might help with long term performance, I would really love some more hands-on experience with Hyper-V.

Finally, let's talk Virtual Machines

The most important one to me is the Domain Controller. I'll be using an education licence from Microsoft for my OS. These last 180 days and should be more than enough for me to get some first-hand practice with my own server OS before I need to upgrade. I am selecting Windows Server 2022 as it is the latest in the server line up.

There's some different services I'd like to try hosting on my home lab. I plan to begin with Plex, a media streaming service. With this I'll digitise some of my DVDs and have a place to store and stream all the videos taking up space on my main hard drive.

If you have any questions or suggestions for me, feel free to leave a comment. I'm documenting this for my own purposes but any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[netadmin]

Welcome :D

Hi there, and welcome to my page.

A bit of backstory on me. Over the past few years I’ve achieved a Level 3 BTEC in IT (Networking and systems support), and now I’m about to finish a two year apprenticeship.

I've decided to begin this project as a way to give me experience in the field, but also to allow me to expand and experiment with other technologies that I wouldn't normally get the chance to.

I'm going to document my thoughts and processes on this page so I can look back in the future.

Lets talk about this project

I am aiming to create a small home lab for testing, troubleshooting, and experimenting with different tools. Because of my lack of resources this will most likely be a small and temporary set up until I can expand to a larger one. I have quite a small workspace and the spare equipment I have is a little outdated.

Well then, thank you for reading and I hope you stick around.

Bye for now.