Why a Homelab?
For an IT professional working on any Cloud technologies, a homelab is a must! I used to be a skeptic as well and question the need for a homelab citing various reasons
- CapEx vs OpEx — With cloud computing readily available, why buy h/w that will become outdated overtime?
- Work vs Personal — Why must i spend time and money on setting up a lab when work provides or should provide these for me?
- Procrasitnation — I can alway start when and if i put my mind into it
I decided to make the jump and get into this space, Let’s explore why..
Upskilling
Having access to a Homelab with a few servers can enable you and help with your career by providing a readily available environment for Hands on Learning.
By getting your hands dirty with the Homelab, know that you are gaining invaluable experience that you can carry forward with you. You are only limited by your will and commitment.
Hobby
A lab keeps you occupied as does any other DIY projects that you may embark on in your life. When you find out your goals for your lab and set the steps in motion, there are going to be number of learnings, undos, cool stuffs that you are going to learn and share with the rest of the world!
Look forward to more blogposts and articles from me :)
Self hosted home utilities
One of my goals for the lab is to setup a development kubernetes cluster for me and my wife (who is doing a coding bootcamp) as well as setup my own cloud backup solution (pretty common). The lab will also be serve my learning quests with automation and give me much needed experience and i won’t have to think twice about embarking on a new software project.
BOM
- 2 Dell PowerEdge R620– 2xE5–2650, 32Gb RAM, 2 150Gb HDD- $450
- 1 Dell PowerEdge R730– 2xE5–2620v3, 32Gb RAM, 4 500Gb HDD- $450
PS: This is not a post to justify the purchase of 3 rack servers to my wife.
