What's Running in My Homelab? A Look at My VMs and Docker Containers

Virtual Machines (VMs)

• Ubuntu Server: This is my choice for Linux, I through about using a RHEL based Linux like Alma or Rocky Linux but now that Centos is no longer going to be supported i'm not sure about the long-term support. Ubuntu is a great OS because its widely supported and with the introduction of Ubuntu Pro it can live patch a running kernel for security patches.

• Windows 10: Used for testing software, AD, and running some non-essential software like MCEBuddy

• Windows Server: Testing AD and group policies along with Blueiris my security camera software

• CentOS/RedHat: Used for testing

Docker Containers

Here are some of the Docker containers that I currently have running:

• WordPress: Currently just use the official WordPress Docker image for testing, I though about hosting this blog on there but I decided that wasn't a good idea so now its hosted in the cloud.

• Nextcloud/NGINX: self-hosted "cloud storage"

• OpenSpeedTest: speed testing VMs or NAS connections

• HomeAssistant: self-hosted "apple homekit"

• Portainer: Portainer is a user-friendly web interface for managing Docker containers.

• Plex: self-hosted media server

• Tautulli: Plex dashboard and monitor

• Uptime Kuma: Monitors VMs and containers, sends an alert if a service is down

These are just a few examples of the VMs and Docker containers that I currently have running in my homelab. It provides a playground for learning and experimentation.

What's running in your homelab? Feel free to share your own setup and experiences.

Here is my vCenter dashboard

In this blog post, I will give you a glimpse into my own Homelab and share the virtual machines (VMs) and Docker containers that I currently have running. It allows me to experiment with different technologies, test new software, and gain hands-on experience in a lab environment.

Currently, I have 50 VMs and about 25-30 are used daily and the rest I create and destroy or roll back to a snapshot at for testing and learning. As you can see I had a power outage the other day and I lost the secondary PSU on all hosts, PSU 1 is on the APC SRT2200VA UPS.

A really cool VM/plugin is Dell's Open Manage Enterprise Integration for VMware vCenter. It allows me to get proactive HA, so if there's a memory or CPU error on a certain node it can proactivity migrate VMs running on that host by putting it into quarantine or maintenance mode.