What a minimal homelab actually needs

“Homelab” photos online tend to show racks of servers with blinking lights. Mine eventually got there, but none of that is where you start, and most of it isn’t needed for the builds on this site. Here’s the honest minimum.

The one machine you need

Every beginner build here runs on one always-on Linux box with Docker. Good options, roughly in order of how often I’d recommend them:

• A used mini PC (business models like Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny, Dell OptiPlex Micro, HP EliteDesk Mini). Quiet, sips power, often $80 to $150 used. An Intel chip from the last several generations also gives you hardware video decoding for free.
• A new budget mini PC with an Intel N100 or similar. Around $150, silent, low power. One of my kiosks runs on exactly this.
• An old laptop. Free if you have one, and it comes with its own battery backup. Leave the lid open or change the lid setting so it doesn’t sleep.
• A Raspberry Pi. Fine for many things, but some Docker images don’t support its ARM chip, so check before you buy for a specific build.

For memory, 8 GB is comfortable for several small containers. For storage, any SSD of 128 GB or more beats a spinning disk for the system drive.

Install Ubuntu Server (or Ubuntu Desktop if the machine will also drive a screen, like the poster display does), then install Docker.

A fixed address

Your server needs an address that doesn’t change, or every link and config pointing at it breaks the day it changes. Don’t set a static address on the machine itself as your first move; set a DHCP reservation in your router instead. That tells the router to always hand the same address to that machine’s network card. Look for “DHCP reservation”, “static lease” or “address reservation” in your router’s settings.

I learned this one the hard way: a machine of mine had an old static-address config file left over from a previous life, which fought with the normal network settings, and it collided with a different device using the same address. The symptom was SSH working, then refusing, then working again, for hours, until Claude spotted two different devices answering for the same address. A reservation in the router would have avoided all of it.

Things you can skip at the start

• A rack. A shelf works.
• A separate NAS. If you already have one, great. If not, the builds here don’t need it.
• Multiple VLANs. Useful later (see the next page), not needed day one.
• Enterprise switches and access points. Your current router is fine.
• Proxmox or other hypervisors. Fantastic tools, but an extra layer to learn. Plain Ubuntu plus Docker covers every beginner build here.

Things worth doing from day one

• Write down what you set up, even in a plain text file: what’s installed, which ports, where the config lives. My own notes file is the only reason I can write this site.
• Back up your config folders. Containers are disposable; the folders you map into them are not. Even a weekly copy to another disk or machine is far better than nothing.
• Keep it off the open internet. None of the builds here need to be reachable from outside your house. If you later want remote access, use a VPN like Tailscale or WireGuard rather than opening ports on your router.
• Plug it into a UPS if you can. A small battery backup turns a power blip into a non-event. When a failing UPS of mine cut power to the machine running my home automation, it rebooted cold, and my camera system quietly lost its connection to it for most of a day.

Rough budget

That’s a complete homelab for the price of a couple of months of streaming services. Everything after that is the fun part.