Association for Computing Machinery: Homelab Workshop

The Homelab Workshop series aims to give students the skills and knowledge needed to build their own homelabs.  This workshop series is intended to give CS/CEG/IT students a chance to apply and use what they learn in classes at home.  A homelab is a server that many run in their own homes, providing a safe environment to experiment, learn, and run services they can use regularly, even when away from home.

This workshop series is split up into multiple parts.  For the first part of this workshop series, we'll be installing Proxmox, a Linux-based hypervisor.  This is the basis upon which the homelab will build upon.  Proxmox is a free, open-source operating system and hypervisor (KVM/QEMU/LXD) that offers a web-based administration interface, and includes many out-of-the-box features including ZFS support, scheduled backups, snapshots, VM templates, and more.  Future workshops will introduce many of these features, as well as get students familiar with building their own VM templates and services, including Ansible, Nextcloud (using the LAMP stack), and more.  We'll also be introducing networking with routers running OpenWRT firmware and setting up a Wireguard VPN to allow access to your network while away from home.

While students who have completed CEG-2350: OS Concepts and Usage will have an easier time following along, this series is aimed to accommodate anyone with interest, including freshmen, regardless of what degree they're pursing.

It is encouraged (but not required) for students to bring their own homelab devices, so that they can take what they build home and continue using it.  Proxmox supports a wide range of hardware, such as old laptops and desktops. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email acm@wright.edu