I wanted a place to break things without breaking anything that mattered — so I built a homelab.

Why a Homelab?

Certifications and coursework teach you the theory, but nothing beats configuring a firewall, standing up a domain, or chasing down why a service won’t come back online at 1 am. A homelab is where that hands-on learning happens on your own terms, and it’s the project I keep coming back to outside of class.

The Foundation

The lab runs on an old computer repurposed into a Proxmox VE host — proof that you don’t need a rack of enterprise gear to start learning virtualization and networking seriously. Proxmox turned that single machine into a flexible playground for spinning up, breaking, and rebuilding virtual environments as often as I want.

What’s Running (and What’s Coming)

Right now the lab is a Proxmox host with an evolving list of services I’m actively building out:

• pfSense (running) — a virtual firewall to practice network segmentation and traffic control Read the build log →
• Parrot Security VM (running) - a pentesting VM, accessed over SPICE for remote desktop Read the build log →
• Active Directory — a domain controller paired with a Windows 11 workstation, for hands-on AD administration and Windows domain security
• A SIEM — for centralized logging and log analysis practice
• A k3s cluster — lightweight Kubernetes, for container orchestration experience

Each piece adds a new layer to defend, monitor, or exploit — which is the point.

The Real Value: A Pentesting Sandbox

Beyond infrastructure practice, the lab doubles as a sandbox for ethical hacking. In this safe, isolated environment, I can practice offensive techniques against systems I own and control, then flip perspectives and think about how I’d detect and defend against the same attack. That back-and-forth between building and breaking is where a lot of the real learning happens.

What’s Next

As each component comes online, I’ll be posting build logs here — what I configured, what broke, and what I learned fixing it. Next up: getting pfSense running as the network’s edge firewall.

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Got a homelab of your own, or curious about a specific part of the setup? Reach out — [email protected].