In this episode of SysAdmin Weekly, Andy and Eric dig deep into how to build a fully functional home lab without selling a kidney. We cover picking hardware on the cheap, virtualization (Proxmox, Hyper-V, etc.), managing storage, navigating Microsoft licensing, layering in free cloud tiers, network tricks, and the kind of “what if I push this button?” experiments that keep us awake at 2 a.m.
Whether you’re starting from a pile of old PCs or trying to mix in cloud credits, this show gives you the blueprint, the trade-offs, and, most importantly, the sanity checks.
In this episode:
- How to stretch every dollar on lab hardware
- When to go physical vs. virtual (or hybrid)
- Proxmox tips, license workarounds, and pitfalls
- Cloud free/low-cost tiers you can use for testing
- Network, storage & routing hacks we swear by
- Real talk about maintenance, scaling, and failures
Episode Resources
- SysAdmin Weekly Companion Newsletter
- Azure Free Services / Free Tier
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