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An Infrastructure Engineer's First Home Server: Setting Up Proxmox on Real Hardware
In my previous article, I discussed "why I insist on using physical hardware instead of the cloud."
This time, I'll continue that story—specifically, how I actually chose my server and how I got it up and running.
It Was My First Time Operating a Home Server
Even with experience in infrastructure at work, it’s a completely different story when you have to choose, buy, and set up a server at home yourself.
"Is a rack-mount or a tower server more realistic for home use?" "Do I handle iLO settings myself?" "Should I configure RAID?"—you have to think about everything that someone else usually handles in cloud or enterprise environments. The more I researched, the more options I found, and initially, I didn’t know where to start.
However, at a certain point, it actually became fun. Adopting the mindset of "If I'm confused, I'll just buy it," I decided to get the physical hardware. I figured it’s faster to learn by actually touching the equipment than by just thinking about it.
Why I Chose the HPE ML30
After comparing several entry-level tower servers, I decided on the HPE ML30 Gen10. There were three main reasons for this.
① Relatively Affordable Price
As a dedicated server, it sits in an entry-level price range, making it a decent choice for "just trying it out."
② The Convenience of iLO (Remote Management)
HPE servers come standard with iLO (Integrated Lights-Out), a remote management feature.
This turned out to be incredibly useful. You can power on the server or view the console remotely via a web browser. Being able to operate the server without physically standing in front of it is a huge advantage for home server operations.
Before I knew about iLO, I thought "servers = machines you always have to connect a screen and keyboard to," so I was quite impressed when I discovered it.
③ Buying Just the "Frame" and Sourcing Parts on eBay
Actually, I used a little cost-saving trick: I bought only the chassis and sourced the specific parts separately on eBay.
When you look for the same parts on eBay, memory and storage can often be acquired more cheaply than buying them as a bundle. The fact that enterprise-grade used parts are readily available is a blessing for this kind of project.
By the way, when it arrived, it was larger than I expected. Even though it's a tower model, it has too much presence to keep right next to my desk. For now, I've managed to tuck it away in the corner of the room (lol).
The Problem Where ESXi Became Unusable
When the server arrived, it already had ESXi (VMware's hypervisor) installed. VMware has long been the de facto standard for virtualization.
I thought, "I'll just use this as it is," but that didn't work out.
Between 2023 and 2024, Broadcom acquired VMware, and the licensing model changed drastically. The free version of ESXi for personal or small-scale use was discontinued, making it impossible to even download it.
*"It's honestly too harsh for a hobbyist to use."
This was a problem faced by many homelab operators, and it was a hot topic on X and Reddit at the time. Since I intended to use it as infrastructure for creating content, I had to seriously look for other options.
Proxmox or Nutanix?
When I looked for alternatives to the hypervisor, two candidates came to mind.
Proxmox VE and Nutanix.
Nutanix is a hyper-converged infrastructure for enterprises and is feature-rich. However, as I researched it, I saw many comments saying it has "strong, unique quirks" and a "high learning curve." That isn't inherently bad, but my goal this time was "to create an environment for students to learn Linux," not to dive deep into the hypervisor itself.
Proxmox VE is an OSS (open-source) hypervisor used by many individuals and small to medium-sized organizations. The community is active, and there is a wealth of documentation and information available in Japanese. The fact that it is "easy to look up information when in trouble" was a very important selection criterion for someone starting from zero knowledge.
So, I chose Proxmox VE.
Installing Proxmox
HPE servers come with an installation pack called SPP (Service Pack for ProLiant), which bundles drivers and management tools. Thanks to this, OS installation was smooth, and it was unlikely for the "driver problems you don't understand" to occur.
Installing Proxmox VE itself is also straightforward if you follow the steps. The official installer is GUI-based, and you simply enter network settings and storage allocations as prompted on the screen.
When the installation was complete and I opened the management interface (Web UI) in my browser—I had a feeling of, "It's actually working."
The list of virtual machines was displayed, and there was a button for "Create New VM." I was in a state where I could build virtual machines myself on a server I had configured myself.
Considering it was only a few months ago that I had zero server knowledge, it felt a bit unbelievable.
The Day I Ran My First Virtual Machine
I loaded an Ubuntu Server ISO from the Proxmox management screen and created a virtual machine. When the installation finished and ubuntu login: appeared on the terminal—
*"This is Linux running on a real server."
It felt somewhat different from setting up a virtual machine in the cloud. There is a tactile sense that the physical server is right there. The experience of "Linux running inside a box where you can hear the fans spinning" is certainly different from booting an EC2 instance.
This might have been the true reason why I wanted to "insist on using physical hardware."
Current Configuration
On top of this ML30, I am currently running the following virtual machines:
- TrueNAS (Storage management / providing disks over the network via iSCSI)
- Guacamole (A jump server for accessing training servers from a browser)
- Linux Training Server (An environment that students actually interact with)
- L3 Router VM (For network exercises / FRRouting)
Multiple virtual machines are running on a single server, each with its own role, working in coordination. It didn't take as long as I thought to be able to build this kind of configuration myself.
However, I ran into various stumbling blocks along the way—I will write about that another time.
Summary
- Even with zero server knowledge, you can get it working by researching as you go.
- I chose the ML30 for its iLO, cost-performance, and ease of sourcing parts.
- ESXi became difficult to use for individuals due to Broadcom's policy changes.
- Proxmox is easy to choose because it is OSS, has many users, and is rich in information.
- The feeling of the moment Linux runs on physical hardware is indeed different from the cloud.
Next: Until TrueNAS iSCSI goes live (includes stories of failure)
I also post about the production process on X. Please follow me if you like.
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