Home Lab Weekly 14: Real World Experiments, New Gear, and Community Discussions
This week is full of hands on experiments with new hardware, new tools, and real community lessons.
This week on VirtualizationHowto, the focus continues to be on hands on experimentation, practical hardware decisions, and thoughtful infrastructure design. The blog posts explore everything from unconventional workloads to compact lab hardware and secure container management. In the forums, the community is actively sharing lab builds, troubleshooting real networking challenges, and discussing important security developments that affect home labs just as much as enterprise environments.
Blog Posts
The Weirdest Things I’ve Successfully Run in My Home Lab
This post takes a fun but very educational look at workloads and services that most people would never expect to see running in a home lab. Beyond the novelty, it explains why experimenting with unusual software can sharpen troubleshooting skills, expose weak points in infrastructure, and make you far more comfortable dealing with unfamiliar systems. It is a reminder that not every lab workload has to be practical to be valuable.
https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2026/01/the-weirdest-things-ive-successfully-run-in-my-home-lab/
Beelink ME Pro NAS Review: Small Box, Huge Storage Power in 2026
This in depth review looks at the Beelink ME Pro NAS and how it performs as a compact but capable storage platform. It covers hardware specifications, storage density, thermals, networking, and real world usage in a home lab setting. The post is especially useful for anyone trying to balance limited space with growing storage needs without jumping straight to full rackmount systems.
I Bought a 10 Inch Home Lab Rack for 2026 and It Surprised Me
Small form factor racks are becoming increasingly popular, and this post explores whether the 10 inch rack trend is actually practical or just visually appealing. It walks through mounting options, compatibility concerns, airflow considerations, and the types of gear that realistically fit this size. If you are working with limited space but still want a clean and organized lab, this article offers grounded insights.
Run Proxmox Datacenter Manager in a Docker Container for Home Labs and Testing
This article explores a creative approach to learning and demonstrating Proxmox Datacenter Manager by running it inside a Docker container. It explains when this approach makes sense, its limitations, and why it can be extremely useful for testing, demos, and content creation without standing up additional clusters. It is a great example of using containers to accelerate learning rather than replace production deployments.
Why Dockhand Is One of the Best Docker Management Tools for Secure Operations
Docker dashboards are everywhere, but this post focuses on what makes Dockhand stand out from a security perspective. It covers hardened images, controlled updates, and safer operational workflows that help reduce risk in container environments. This is a solid read for anyone who wants better guardrails around Docker usage without adding unnecessary complexity.
Forum Posts
Best Home Lab Server Pics and Gear in 2025
This ongoing forum thread showcases real home lab builds from the community, highlighting a wide range of server hardware, networking gear, and creative setups. It is a great source of inspiration and a reminder that there is no single correct way to build a home lab. Seeing how others design and evolve their environments can spark new ideas for your own setup.
Technitium DNS: How Is It Best to Structure Networks With VLANs and Avoid Asymmetric Routing
This discussion dives into a common but often confusing networking challenge when running VLANs and multiple gateways. Community members explore best practices for structuring networks with Technitium DNS while avoiding asymmetric routing issues that can cause subtle and frustrating problems. It is a valuable thread for anyone leveling up their lab networking design.
Let’s Encrypt Is Adding SSL Certs for IP Addresses and What This Means
This forum post breaks down a significant change from Let’s Encrypt and what IP address based certificates actually enable. The discussion looks at practical use cases, limitations, and how this impacts home labs that rely heavily on internal services. It is a timely conversation for anyone thinking about improving TLS coverage in non DNS based environments.
Closet Ventilation Ideas
Running lab gear in closets and tight spaces is common, and this thread focuses on real world ventilation solutions from the community. Members share passive and active cooling strategies, lessons learned from heat related issues, and creative ways to manage airflow. It is a practical reminder that cooling and airflow planning are just as important as hardware selection.
Docker Has Released Hardened Images Free and This Is Interesting for Home Labs
This tech news thread discusses Docker’s release of free hardened images and why this matters for home labs. The conversation explores what hardened images actually provide, how they differ from standard images, and whether they are worth adopting for lab workloads. It is a useful discussion for anyone thinking more seriously about container security at home.
Video this week
Wrapping up this week
This week focused a lot on hardware throughout the week. I was excited to get into my first 10 inch rack and also get hands on with the Beelink ME Pro. 2026 is going to be an exciting year for the micro-lab layout. Looking forward to seeing how far I can push this setup as well as expanding the lab in other ways.