The best home lab projects are small services you will actually use, built one at a time. Start with a network ad blocker, a VPN and backups. Then move to a media server, Home Assistant, monitoring, a Kubernetes cluster or a local AI model. Each project below says if it fits a VM or a container, how hard it is, and what it needs.
Updated October 2026. This guide replaces the 2009 version with current tools and a home lab focus.
Who this is for: you have a hypervisor running (or you plan to), and you want ideas for what to put on it.
Before you start a project
Every project here assumes one host with a type 1 hypervisor. Most examples use Proxmox VE, because it runs VMs and LXC containers from one web interface. If you do not have a host yet, read what a home lab is and how to start one first. If you are new to Proxmox, read what Proxmox VE is and why home labs run it.
Three rules make every project easier:
- One project at a time. Get it working, back it up, then start the next one.
- Write it down. Note the IP address, the VM or container ID and the login method for each service.
- Pick the right box. Small Linux services suit a container. Anything with its own OS, a custom kernel or untrusted code suits a VM. The guide to containers vs virtual machines explains the trade-off.
Home lab projects at a glance
"Difficulty" assumes you can use a Linux shell. "Resources" is relative to the other projects. Check each project's docs for real needs.
| # | Project | Example tools | VM or container | Difficulty | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Network ad blocker | Pi-hole, AdGuard Home | Container | Easy | Low |
| 2 | Smart home hub | Home Assistant OS | VM | Easy to medium | Low to medium |
| 3 | Monitoring | Uptime Kuma, Grafana | Container | Easy to medium | Low |
| 4 | Windows test VM | Windows evaluation media | VM | Easy | Medium |
| 5 | Reverse proxy | Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy | Container | Medium | Low |
| 6 | VPN for remote access | WireGuard, Tailscale | Container or VM | Easy to medium | Low |
| 7 | Media server | Jellyfin | Container or VM | Medium | Medium, more with transcoding |
| 8 | NAS in a VM | TrueNAS | VM with passthrough | Hard | High (disks, memory) |
| 9 | Kubernetes lab | k3s | VMs | Hard | Medium to high |
| 10 | Local AI models | Ollama | VM | Medium | High (memory, GPU helps) |
| 11 | AI agent sandbox | Hermes Agent, OpenClaw | VM | Medium | Medium |
| 12 | Backups | Proxmox Backup Server | Separate machine or VM | Medium | Disk space |
Easy home lab ideas to start with
1. Block ads for the whole network
Pi-hole and AdGuard Home are DNS servers that refuse to resolve ad and tracking domains. You point your router's DNS at them, and every device on the network gets the filter. That includes phones, smart TVs and game consoles. Both are open source as of October 2026.
A small unprivileged LXC container is enough. Give it a fixed IP address. Do not add a public DNS server as a second entry in your router. Devices may use it at random and skip the filter. For uptime, run a second Pi-hole or AdGuard Home instance on another host, and set both in the router.
2. Run Home Assistant in a VM
Home Assistant is a local hub for lights, sensors and heating. The full Home Assistant OS includes its add-on system. The Home Assistant project publishes a ready-made disk image for KVM, which is the hypervisor Proxmox uses. See the Home Assistant alternative install page for the current image and steps.
Use a VM, not a container, for Home Assistant OS. It is a full operating system with its own updates. If you use a USB radio stick (Zigbee or Z-Wave), pass the USB device through to the VM.
3. Set up monitoring
Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted tool that checks if your services respond and alerts you when one goes down. It runs as a single Docker container. Point it at every other project on this list.
When you want graphs, add Grafana. Grafana draws dashboards from data sources such as Prometheus or InfluxDB. Proxmox can send host metrics to an external metric server, which Grafana can then chart.
4. Build a Windows test VM
A Windows VM is a safe place to test software, scripts and updates. Microsoft offers evaluation versions of Windows and Windows Server on its Evaluation Center. Check the license terms of the version you download.
On Proxmox, attach the VirtIO driver ISO when you install Windows. Windows needs those drivers for fast disk and network access. Take a snapshot right after setup, so you can roll back after each test.
Network and remote access projects
5. Put a reverse proxy in front of your apps
A reverse proxy gives each service a name, such as jellyfin.home.example, instead of an IP address and port. It also handles HTTPS. Nginx Proxy Manager gives you a web interface and built-in Let's Encrypt support, and it runs as a Docker container. Caddy is a single program with a short config file. By default, it gets and renews TLS certificates on its own.
Keep the proxy on your home network at first. Do not forward router ports to it until you understand what you expose.
6. Reach your lab from anywhere with a VPN
A VPN lets your phone and laptop join your home network from outside. It is the safe way to reach admin pages. Two common choices:
- WireGuard. A fast, simple VPN protocol that runs over UDP. You run a WireGuard server and forward one UDP port on your router.
- Tailscale. A service built on WireGuard that connects your devices with no port forwarding. As of October 2026, it has a free Personal plan. Check the current limits on the Tailscale pricing page.
Never expose the Proxmox web interface to the internet. Use the VPN. The home server setup guide covers remote access safety and the first services in more detail.
Storage and media projects
7. Run a media server
Jellyfin streams your movies, TV and music to TVs, phones and browsers. As of October 2026, the Jellyfin project says the server and official clients are free, with no paid tier.
The hard part is transcoding. When a device cannot play a file as it is, the server converts it on the fly. The CPU can do it in software, but that is heavy. A built-in graphics unit (such as Intel Quick Sync) or a passed-through GPU makes it practical. A Docker container in a VM is a common setup. Mount your media from a NAS share, not from inside the container.
8. Build a NAS in a VM
As of October 2026, TrueNAS Community Edition is a free, open-source storage OS built on ZFS. Running it in a VM on Proxmox is a popular project. It is also the one most likely to lose data if you set it up wrong.
Pass the whole disk controller (HBA) through to the TrueNAS VM. Do not pass single disks or virtual disks. ZFS needs to see the raw disks and their health data. If you cannot pass through a controller, use ZFS on the Proxmox host instead, or put TrueNAS on its own machine.
Learning projects for your career
9. Build a Kubernetes lab with k3s
k3s is a lightweight, certified Kubernetes distribution. It ships as a single binary. As of October 2026, it is a CNCF sandbox project. Its own docs list home labs as a use case.
Create three small Linux VMs on your host. Install k3s on one as the server, and join the other two as agents. You now have a multi-node cluster to break and rebuild. Use VMs, not LXC containers, because Kubernetes needs kernel features that are hard to give to a container. The k3s documentation has the install steps.
10. Run a large language model locally
Ollama runs open large language models on your own hardware. On Linux, the official install script sets it up as a systemd service. See the Ollama Linux docs for the current command. Then you pull a model and chat with it, or call it from other apps over a local API.
This project is about memory. Small models run on a CPU, slowly. Larger models need more memory, and a GPU makes them much faster. In a VM, that means GPU passthrough, which is a project of its own. Start with a small model in a CPU-only VM.
11. Sandbox an AI agent in a VM
Treat an AI agent like untrusted software with your keyboard. Give it its own VM, and keep your real files out of reach. A bad command then breaks the VM, not your host. A snapshot lets you roll back in seconds.
Two guides on this site walk through it step by step. Read how to install Hermes Agent on an Ubuntu virtual machine, or install OpenClaw in an Ubuntu VM with Docker Compose. If you cannot choose, see Hermes vs OpenClaw on virtual machines.
12. The project that protects the rest: backups
Do this project early, not last. Proxmox VE has backup jobs built in. Proxmox Backup Server adds incremental backups, deduplication, compression and encryption. As of October 2026, it is open source under the GNU AGPLv3, with optional paid subscriptions. See the Proxmox Backup Server documentation.
Put the backup server on a different machine from the host it protects. A backup on the same disks dies with them. An old PC or a small mini PC with a large drive works. Then follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, two kinds of media, one copy off site.
Most important: restore a VM from backup and boot it. Do this once now and once a month after. An untested backup is a hope, not a plan.
Which order should you build them in?
Here is a sensible path for a new lab:
- Week 1: ad blocker and backups. You learn containers, DNS and restores.
- Week 2: VPN and monitoring. You can now reach the lab safely and see when things break.
- Week 3: reverse proxy and one "fun" service (media or Home Assistant).
- Later: NAS, Kubernetes, local AI and agents, as your hardware and interest allow.
In my view, the order matters more than the tool choice. Backups and remote access first make every later mistake cheap.
Common mistakes
- Running the family's DNS on a test box. If the ad blocker goes down, the whole house loses the internet. Run a second instance on another host, or know how to point the router back to your provider's DNS in one step.
- Exposing admin pages. Use a VPN, not port forwarding, for Proxmox, TrueNAS and Home Assistant admin pages.
- Virtual disks under TrueNAS. ZFS on top of virtual disks hides disk health and can hide errors. Pass through the controller.
- Backups on the same host. One dead machine then takes the data and its backup.
- Ignoring memory. Memory runs out before CPU in most labs. Local AI and NAS projects use the most.
FAQ
What is the best first home lab project?
A network ad blocker such as Pi-hole or AdGuard Home. It is small, it runs in one container, and you see the result on every device. It also teaches you DNS, which every later project needs.
Do home lab projects need a powerful server?
No. Most projects on this list run on a mini PC or an old desktop. Only a NAS with many disks, a Kubernetes cluster and local AI models need more memory or a GPU.
Should each project get its own VM?
Not always. Small Linux services fit in containers and use less memory. Use a VM for a full OS such as Home Assistant OS, TrueNAS or Windows, and for anything you do not trust.
Can I run these projects without Proxmox?
Yes. Most of these tools run on any Linux host with Docker. A hypervisor such as Proxmox adds VMs, snapshots and backups in one place, which helps as the lab grows.
Is it safe to expose home lab services to the internet?
Only with care. Use a VPN such as WireGuard or Tailscale to reach admin pages. If you must publish a service, put it behind a reverse proxy with HTTPS, keep it patched and never publish the hypervisor itself.
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