Proxmox Lab¶
🖥️ What Proxmox Is¶
Proxmox VE is an open-source virtualization platform built around KVM virtual machines and LXC containers, with a web UI that makes the whole thing much less miserable to manage.
In my lab, Proxmox is the layer under almost everything. It is the OS running the homelab itself: a small multi-node setup, currently two nodes and probably more later, hosting VMs and LXCs around the clock so the rest of the self-hosted stack can exist at all.
🌱 Why I Like It In A Homelab¶
Proxmox has become a really popular homelab choice, and I get why. It gives me the "real infrastructure" feeling without demanding enterprise-budget pain or a giant pile of proprietary tooling.
What I like most is that it feels practical. I can run full VMs when I want stronger isolation, LXCs when I want something lighter, and manage the whole thing from one place without making the lab feel overcomplicated just for the sake of it.
Why Proxmox instead of VMware or something else?
Part of it is simply fit.
VMware-style stacks have gotten a lot more awkward to justify in small environments, especially after the Broadcom acquisition and the shift toward subscription-only packaging.
Proxmox feels friendlier for a homelab: open source, widely used, well-documented, and much easier to experiment with without feeling like I am borrowing a datacenter just to run a few machines.
📝 What This Section Will Be¶
This section is where I want to keep the platform-level notes: the setup process, the small architecture decisions, the networking quirks, the cluster bits, and the backup side of things.
I do not have a neat pile of little config files to share here the way I do with Docker. Proxmox notes are usually more about process than copy-paste: what I set up, why I did it that way, what worked, what annoyed me, and what I would do differently next time. It is less a polished manual and more an infrastructure notebook for the underlying platform that keeps the whole homelab alive.
Expect more setup notes than templates
This is where I want to document the boring-important stuff while it is still fresh: network setup, cluster changes, backup habits, odd Proxmox behavior, and the infrastructure decisions that are easy to forget once everything is finally working.