20 Ways to Use a Virtual Machine (and other ideas for your homelab)
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- Looking for new ideas on how to use your virtual machines? Well, here's the top 20 ways to use your virtual machines in your homelab.
Be sure to check out my follow up video on Virtualization vs Containerization
👉 • Virtualize vs. Contain...
Video Notes: technotim.live/posts/20-ways-...
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00:00 - Intro
00:55 - Why
01:08 - 20 Ways to Use A Virtual Machine Countdown
14:22 - Conclusion
Follow Up - • Virtualize vs. Contain...
Thanks to these great products for existing.
Distrowatch: distrowatch.com/
Ubuntu: ubuntu.com/
Home Assistant: www.home-assistant.io/
Homebridge: homebridge.io/
Wordpress: wordpress.com/
Kong: konghq.com/
Blue Iris: blueirissoftware.com/
ZoneMinder: zoneminder.com/
Plex: www.plex.tv/
pfsense: www.pfsense.org/download/
UniFi: www.ui.com/
OpenVPN: openvpn.net/vpn-server/
Rancher: rancher.com/
Kubernetes: kubernetes.io/
Docker: www.docker.com/
FreeNAS: www.freenas.org/
Pi-hole: pi-hole.net/
NextCloud: nextcloud.com/
FileZilla: filezilla-project.org/
Grafana: grafana.com/
Backblaze: secure.backblaze.com/r/01vnb8
UrBackup: www.urbackup.org/
Minecraft: www.minecraft.net/en-us/downl...
Steam Remote Play (In Home Streaming): store.steampowered.com/remote...
Folding at Home: foldingathome.org/
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#Proxmox #Homelab #Virtualization #FreeNAS #TechnoTim #selfhosted #OpenSource
Description Tags: Techno Tim, technotim, learning, active directory, dns, mail server, manjaro, popos, pop os, home automation, web server nginx, apache, ghost blog, angular, react, vuejs, reactjs, api, golang, python, php, api server, api gateway, home security, home entertainment, plex, emby, kodi, network firewall, network appliance, pfsense, opensense, opnsense, xg firewall, sophos, untangle, home network, unify ubiquity, access point, docker, rancher, kubernetes, rancher, rancher 2.0, database server, mongodb, posgresql, mongo, mysql, sql, file server, samba, smb, freenas, open media vault, ad blocking, whole home adblocking, pihole server, personal cloud, public cloud, google drive alternative, ftp server, reporting server, indexing graphing, visualize data, kibana, torrent server, backup server, backblaze, urbackup, syncthing, duplicati, game server, minecraft server, gpu passthrough, gpu proxmox, remote gaming, remote gpu, steam in home streaming, steam remote play, crowdsourcing compute, crowd source research, fah, folding at home, k8s at home, docker at home, virtualize all the things, alexa, google home, homekit, apple, ios, android, open source, selfhosted, self-hosted, /selfhosted, home-lab, homelabber, /homelab selfhosting ideas
Thank you for watching! 
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What do you run on your virtual machines?
Also, if you're new here, welcome! Don't forget to subscribe for more content like this!
Techno Tim maybe a video on running a UNIFI Controller using the Proxmox container (CT) feature. Would also like to see how you use Rancher in your workflow.
@@j.r._7416 Thank you! I have a video on how to set it up here! More soon! ruclips.net/video/oILc0ywDVTk/видео.html
What server do you have for proxmox?
@@Jimmy_Jones in the description!
For Game servers, I like to use an opensource software called Pterodactyl. It runs anything from Minecraft to ARK, Rust and much more.
You're welcome (btw most of these are similar and sometimes included in each other, so it's pretty obvious that it was intended)
1:08 Learning New OS
2:12 Home Automation
2:57 Self-Host Web Server
3:18 Self-Host API
3:42 Home Security
4:26 Home Entertainment
4:54 Network Firewall
5:57 Home Network
6:03 VPN Servers
6:52 Docker
7:23 Database Server
7:58 FIle Server
8:34 Ad Blocking
9:15 Personal Cloud
9:50 FTP server
10:27 Reporting Server
11:03 Torrent Server
11:30 Backup Server
12:23 Game Server
13:37 Crowdsourced Compute
Thank you!
Thanks! However all of them (except the first one) is available as a Docker Container, which way is more efficient (using less resources).
Incredible video. Thank you for the time you put into this. I’ve been looking to get into virtualization for a while now, and this video committed me to learning. Subbed!
Thank you Mr. Techno T, this has cleared up my questions for my IT class & virtual machines.. "WE ARE THE DISCLOSURE!"
I am a total newbie in homelab and stuffs and your video helped me a lot to visualize a path i can take. Thanks a lot
Glad it was helpful!
How’s your homelab doing after 2 years? I just started a few weeks ago. I have two 2u enterprise servers with 128gb of ram each and two physical cpus each. So I got the powaaaa. Just need the ideas lol
Two more suggestions:
syslog server. Many systems can generate syslog data, like your router. Having a central log repository lets you monitor, archive, or react to the data.
IDS, such as Security Onion. This is similar to syslog, but your IDS can be set up to monitor for intrusions and alert you.
Thanks for the tips!
I have no idea what you said but sounds cool.
@@Zubayer_Islam_Rezoansame
Wow, you are answering all the questions. Good RUclipsr.
Haidar thanks, and thanks for noticing!
I haven't started my own server yet, but this kind of content help me to start dreaming what I want... Thanks!
14:00 I thought at a glance the option to stop folding "Only when idle" as "Only when I die." I thought "Man, these home folders are hardcore!" This is a great list and resinspires me to continue my proxmox setup. Tim, after watching several of your videos I can tell you do this out of passion. Thank you for being a great resource. I don't know what royalty free track is in the background but it's catchy and not annoying like most of them!
Hey Tim thank you for the hard work and your time.
Im beginning to love this guy more and more... I just subbed to him like a day ago. Everytime i need some answers i come on youtube and search and there he has the video answering my question.
Thank you!
Yeah, Hitman, I agree. I just found out about TechnoTim today. And, like WINNING THE LOTTERY. I really like what content he is producing. Doesn't make me feel clueless like LInus.
I'm new to the concept and need to learn more about it use and application this was really helpful,thanks a lot!
Well Done, big-picture w/o deep-driving into anyone category of endless details.
Thank you!
Dude, thank you.
Been hunting for homelab ideas and found your channel. Subbed big time
Thank you!
Yeah, Nike, just found out about him too ... Yes, I subbed big time, too.
Watched this on my lunch break; definitely subbed and will be checking out more videos.
Awesome! Thank you!
Love this! So helpful. Thanks Tim!
You're so welcome!
Amazing video. I really think this can help people to understand the importance of privacy in technology. I think this gives the best options!
Thank you! I agree.
Excellent list. A software package caching server for Debian, Ubuntu, Steam, Windows Updates, etc. Really helpful for nearly instantaneous updates to multiple machines, which happens when you're virtualizing a lot. Nginx does this really well.
Thank you!
I literally built my home lab so I can help seed debian torrents. Because I'm a good person. Yeppp.
If u get virus when using the virtual machine, does that effect the rest of the pc?
@@pse2020 It could possibly if someone was actively running commands and using exploits. But most viruses are completely automated and not designed to break out of virtualization. Probably if the virus spreads via local network via some exploit it could use the VMs networking to affect your network. It's all very unlikely because no one designs viruses expecting to have to break out of a VM but technically possible.
@@deViant14 ok sounds good. I wonder if i should do this or buy another laptop... This would be a more economical option. So "hypothetically" :) if i stream a movie or watch adult content it should be safe to do so?
@@pse2020 Tor browser is good for this kind of stuff
@@cursed_potato7604 you sure you cant get viruses using tor?
Thanks for all of your videos. I feel like a king. I successfully got passthru to work for both of my graphics cards and now I can do other things what I want. Pretty effing cool I have to say.
Hello Tim
Thankyou for pleasant music... and I can hear you easily! You are awesome!
Thank you so much!
learning a lot from your videos keep making them please :)
That's the plan!
Great ideas! Thank you!
Lots of thanks for your video 20 ways to use a virtual machine.
Great video! Other fancy things to host would be your own monitoring service, like Nagios, Icinga, ELK stack etc. Also hosting your own GitLab instance is fun :)
Thank you!
It useful and Objective Video! Thank you, Tim!
A lot of great ideas. Thanks
Glad you like them!
Great vid! Gave me some good ideas.
Great video - lots of excellent ideas !
Hey man! Your videos are awesome. This is the perfect channel for me and where I am at in my home lab and technical development.
Thank you so much! Glad you like them!
Shawn: Yeah, I just found out about TechnoTim today, and he feels so approachable and cares about his Viewers. I know this Channel is gonna go far. Sky's the limit for Tim !!!
I run my own Unraid server. It's absolutely awesome. Unraid manages my NAS requirements with parity protection, docker runs my Plex, Sonarr, Adblock, torrents and more and KVM runs my VM's for home assistant, Ubuntu, throwaway VM's and I run a gaming VM with a GPU passthrough with near bare metal performance. The entire system is absolutely awesome. 👍
Nice!
@@TechnoTim Agree totally ... Unraid literally covers many of the items you mentioned and provides the docker management/virtualization environment + great parity based backup (which has many advantages that I prefer), & high performance drive sharing capabilities, etc. It's absolutely the best investment and the most fun thing I 've added to my environment in years....
Unraid runs my HomeAssisant VM + MariaDB + Influx DB + Grafana.... while at the same time it also runs Rosetta @ Home via BOINC (similar to Folding at Home), Nextcloud, Cloudflare-DDNS updater, LetsEncrypt/NGINX, Unifi controller, Handbrake, Plex media server, and several other key elements of my HTPC environment. Oh and it hosts the CrashPlan Pro docker so my most important data from the Unraid Array is always redundantly & securely backed up to the cloud -- just by syncing it onto the Unraid Server.
Hey Tim, I decided to jump on the rack / home lab train. I have no idea what I'm doing but that's why I started XD. Got my startech 12U 4 post rack last week. Now im waiting for a poweredge r710 and a switch plus god knows what else. The wife ain't to happy. Any who love the video been binge watching them for a while now and the adventure I randomly decided to go on doesn't seem to daunting now.
Great video thanks Tim
Glad you enjoyed it
lot of points here for further exploration, thanks.
Just WOW! I don't leave comments often but this is a great video. Good job.
Thank you! I have plenty more!
Great ideas bud! Just built a virtual pi machine as an airprint server. Couldn’t get the other apps to work on my windows pc.
Cool video. New Sub! VM are something I'm just learning about. Seems pretty nifty.
Awesome bro!!
Thanks ✌️
i just stumble upon this video and I think it is really informative. Give me an idea to build my home router /firewall
Glad it was helpful!
Good ideas.
For backup, I'm using backuppc in VM.
Very nice tool, and I run it on a second proxmox node (cluster) with low important VM's on. This way, also a nice hardware split for backup split...
It would be amazing if you did a video on deploying ZoneMinder (or another home security software) in a Docker VM - this is a space that is under-covered and could use some of your pedagogic magic ! In the meantime, thanks for all you do, your channel is amazing
Awesome video man
Thank you!
Excellent video :)
Thank you very much!
That's video is very Informative. Because you also suggested many software. Which is best part of video.👍
Glad you liked it
I used ZoneMinder years ago. Running power to the cameras is what killed the idea.
It was a pain to find the correct settings for generic cameras, but worked really well.
I love your content!
I tried hosting a web server from home a few years ago. I got exhausted after configuring gateway settings and syncing dynamic IP addresses with DNS.
I would love to see you setting a home web server with containers on the next video.
Cheerio
Thank you! In the pipeline!
Truenas makes it quite simple!
Ok, now I totally understand why your home-server is having 24 CPU Cores. :) Great video btw.!
To run a lot of services! TBH if I weren’t running Home Security PVR I wouldn’t need half of the resources 😀
I'd like more information running obs on a virtual machine. That sounds interesting to me. Lots of possibilities.
¡Gracias!
great video,
didnt know we could do so many thing with virtual machine,
i only use a virtual machine in my computer because i do some programming (C#,javascript etc) and dont want to install all those thing in my computer (juste use them like 2 day in a week)
Another great add-on for home server addition can be 3CX Server for communication within the family or small office.
Good call!
PFsense on a dedicated box (for it's firewall and network management), and Unraid on a dedicated box (for it's NAS, Docker, And VMs) is the way to go! Best of all world's.
Sounds good!
very cool video you make !
Thanks for the visit
I actually used your other video to help set up my PARSEC based VM for remote gaming and content making. That VM is also synced up to a Nextcloud instance on another server.
As far as other uses for VMs, I have a DNS server, VPN, and Proxy server for most of the other services I run. The proxy server is awesome so I don't have to keep opening ports on my router for external access. I do use that through SSL as well.
great idea!
you are awesome ❤️
Thank you!
Hi!
I like your content, keep up the good work. I will wait for a video about installing and configuring all of the above.
Thank you!
Дмитрий most if them already exist as well as a follow up about containerization! Check out my other videos!
Hi Tim, I'm drafting my plans for HomeLab, (re)doing network cabling, etc.
What are your suggestions on the self hosted Smart Home software and hardware?
Great video! Do you plan to do a video on your setup and what services you run?
Thank you! That's the plan! I run most of the services I mentioned in this video! I didn't go into specifics though (API workloads, encode work loads, gaming workloads) but they are also mentioned and covered in some of my other videos!
Thanks Tim! Great Ideas!
Glad you like them!
Just found your video and I am very happy that I stopped and watched.
At 2 am it’s probably not a good idea to ask questions and boy to I have questions. Your top 10 list had me drooling like a kid at a candy store.
Anyway I save and down loaded your video and tomorrow I will do a deep dive into your channel and learn all I can, then I will put a list together.
Until then thanks for sharing.
Thank you!!!
That was amazing, I want to setup a home lab and you give me so many ideas. Thank You!
You can do it!
You earned your like/sub. This was a cool video, thanks for your time and effort! :)
Thanks for the sub!
Great video, one service I just discovered is LinuxGSM for self hosting game server
I got a lot to learn
hey there Tim, any tips for a home server that is able to provide on the fly VDI's ? Or deploy AD forest for Red Team exercises? I love the ability to be able to spin on a virtual machine somewhere, save important data to a persistent storage and destroy the VM.
Other suggested apps?
A huge one that is evolving, is managing the modern home electrical ecosystem.
With; variable grid prices & solar panels & EV charging / home batteries etc., we are faced w/ many of the same complex problems once the preserve of the grid operators
Thanks a ton for the great content. I have found your videos quite helpful as I find my way around this “new world” of self-hosting / home lab setup.
In a Proxmox + TrueNAS or OMV setup, what is best approach for ZFS Storage Pool. Is it best to setup the zpool in Proxmox for use by the NAS software or is it better to setup the zpool from within the NAS software?
Damn. U gotta love all the likes with no response
Setup a disk controller with pass through to your Truenas VM.
Thank you so much for this video, you have a great way of explaining things! You mentioned virtualizing Freenas and also NextCloud. Does this mean you are using virtual hard disks to build storage ?
I am but I pass through my HBA controller to FreeNAS so it can have direct access to them
@@TechnoTim great thank you
Appreciate
0:10 - Don't forget Windows10 and 11 Both run Hyper-V witch comes preinstalled by default. Although you will have to enable it through "Programs and Features" This is by far the best option for anyone wanting to actually implement this knowledge into the industry.
Hi Wow great Video! Thanks! I need help I want to build 2 servers...one for freenas and the other for virtualization. I'm thinking Supermicro for motherboard but not sure which ones for each also which CPU for each. Thanks for your help.
the Steven Seagal of RUclips:
1 facial expression for every emotion :D
(just kidding, I love your videos)
haha! thank you! Sorry, this was an early video! I promise, I smile.... :|
Hello, great content! This video was very informative. I have a question in regards to creating a virtual machine. I am not really sure about the correct terminology. But, it fits somewhere between a VM & VPS. Is there a way to create a virtual computer that only exists in the cloud? To be more specific, I trying to keep a computer access point localised whilst accessing that virtual computer anywhere in the world.
That’s just a vm with a publicly routable Ip. You either need multiple IPs or port forwarding 😀 then you have a VPS, self hosted
A lot of things on this list you can run inside of docker containers.. for example I run a old repurposed i5 3470 machine using OMV, but I have dockers that run a local minecraft server, jellyfin, and a few other things and my weak system isn't stressed out by it.
I have been kicking around the idea of setting up a server to run a few virtual machines from, for example replacing my current w10 torrent box with a virtual one that saves straight to my nas instead of on a local HDD, which I then have to transfer over lan to nas storage. but on the flip side I can just run utorrent or transmission in a docker container and have a browser/ip based front end for it.. one of those projects I haven't gotten around to yet. Docker really is a great thing. maybe you could do a deep dive video into docker like this one for people who are unfamiliar with it.
Great vid tho, I appreciate it :)
Thank you! Check out Portainer! It's an easy way to get started with Docker and it has a web GUI!
You covered the apps side very well ... BUT.... how much hardware is needed to put all these apps into active status?? Any thoughts... a close guess??
I really enjoyed the video, any chance of below:
Virtualization vs containers e.g. docker, kubernetes, openshift?
my question would be, are containers replacing hyper-v/vmware, where do containers fit into infrastructure, and the uses they bring.
If containers are running side by side on vitualization server e.g. vmware or hyper-v what are the benefits, if any?
ruclips.net/video/pxwUXJmAER4/видео.html. :)
can you make a video on how your vm for blue iris is configured (how many cores and ram you give it). I want to do this but heard that blur iris should be on a stand alone pc not in a vm. I want to build a dedicated vm computer but dont know how many cores will need and how many i should give each vm for them to work without performance problems.
Check out my Windows + Proxmox guide, then just treat it like a normal PC. I’ve virtualize Blue Iris for 6 years and no issues ruclips.net/video/6c-6xBkD2J4/видео.html
I'm having a lot of those services home like 10 and more. And with docker containers it's growing by the day.
Nice!
cool content :3
thank you!
Tim your videos are the best! Keep doing videos. Some recommendations : FREE OPTIONS YOU KNOW ARE OUR FAVORITE TRUST ME PAID OPTIONS ARE GREAT IF YOU CAN AFFORD THEM, EDGE ROUTERS , KVM, SPACEWALK (OR ALTERNATIVE)
Thank you!!!
It could be wrong, it could be right, but I use mainly two VMs. One for "AdGuard Home" (migrated from pi-hole) as snap on ubuntu, another VM as nextcloud snap + openvpn server. I tried the latter two with docker on host itself, made a mess. Snap packages could be a bit resource hogging, but at least for my purposes, they work as charm, never ever had problems.
Another idea for VM could be to create one exclusively for your family to be used on local network, if their PC is crappy. RDP/VNC to the VM from their PC could be game changer. Tried it, results are good. Mother is happy she can now use full MS Office on her Mac with win10 VM machine I created exclusively for her. No longer questions like "Can I use your PC to use Word/Excel".
Nice idea for your Mom!
Great succinct video and great list of useful services, but why is it advisable/beneficial for these particular services to run in virtual machines VS them just running as services on the main OS of an always on PC? Thanks!
Good question! So that you have separation of concerns. I like to keep the main OS just for virtualization (the hyper visor), then create guest machines that have a specific role. I then containerize everything I can on one guest machine with something like Rancher / Docker/ Kubernetes. That way I can move my VMs or rebuild any piece I want without having to reinstall everything. on the host machine (main OS). Hope that makes sense!
@@TechnoTim ahh, I see. I appreciate you taking the time to explain.
VM's - they also help with malware analysis - like if you got a dangerous program and you want to run it in an isolated environment.
Great idea!
For true opensource, I wouldnt use Emby. They had some static binaries that some users didnt like, so they forked it to Jellyfin. Jellyfin has worked great for me, and better with 4K streaming.
Good call! Jellyfin should have been mentioned!
@@TechnoTim honestly not a lot of people know about Jellyfin, so no biggy. Emby is still a good project to use, but they limit use of their app to a subscription last I checked.
I just love your shit dude.
Thank you so much!
I've been virtualising for years. I setup network storage pools on my nas and run the vm's off there. Mostly for coding and hosting efforts. I'm not going to pay a 3rd party x dollars a month for something which is trivial to setup and run myself. Plus, I get to mess around as much as I like without quickly reaching limits set by 3rd parties that might otherwise incur additional charges on top of your monthly. Alternatives to VPN and Cloud for me are ssh tunnels and scp. Plus monetising any of it is really easy. So I do.
I agree!
Docker video would be useful!
You got it! ruclips.net/video/oILc0ywDVTk/видео.html
Woah Johnny Depp does tech videos too..wild.
Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
Lol... 😂
My first VMs are a Windows XP and a Windows 2000 Professional VM running on a Windows 7 Professional host via Oracle Virtualbox. Now, I run Ubuntu and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (LAMPStack - Moodle eLearning).
Nice!
I'll give you another one:
21. Opposite to No.19, another use for virtual machine is to game on your desktop but browse the internet on your virtual machine. The benefit is that your web browsers will not eat all the resources on your desktop and slows down your gaming experience. Plus, you can reboot your desktop all you want without losing the webpages you opened.
GhostZodick great idea! With VPN you could also do it from anywhere!
What song are you playing in the back ground?
Further use cases would be to host self-written websites, a Git server, an e-book server, a repository server, code review servers, etc.
Great ideas!
What are the specs of your server? Im curious about the amount of memory and cores need to run all the services you mentioned.
I setuped miniItx box with amd cpu (2 cores, 64 bit, vt support). Memory 8gb (32 max). 10 watt consumption. Win2008 with vmware 12. Can run 2-3 VMs. Very cheap config - 80$.
Yes, definitely go over docker, rancher or at least what your setup looks like :)
I have a video already on Docker, Rancher, and Kubernetes already 😄 ruclips.net/video/oILc0ywDVTk/видео.html
Pihole is a good one
12:44 Thank you for video, a lot of good ideas, by the way - what is the game on you screeen talking about game server?
I "googled "Hakuto's Bow" by the name of the item you can see on 12:52, and it led me to dicover the name of the game: "Dead Cells".
BTW If you like this kind of pixel art graphics and dungeons, I recommend Noita - a game masterpiece.
with regards to pf sense, what would be the benefit of using this instead of the typical home router? in my case I use a Netgear R7000. or do they compliment each other?
You read my mind. Look for a video on this exact topic.
Don’t run pfsense and another router cascaded, unless you convert the router to AP mode. Pfsense is way more powerful than any commercial home router. I’ve been using it for 3 years now. However you have to be comfortable with IT concepts to operate pfsense. If you are looking for “pull out of box and plug it in, never look at it” experience, stay with a commercial home router.
in case you have enough storage, good network and almost 100% uptime you can mine storj. You can get it by providing storage to Companies for storing data securely on your server. its very simple to set up. done in an hour (if you dont count one step that fan take longer since its generating a key).
Thank you!
Hi! Is it possible to stream to twitch on one lesser of in a different room and remote connect to the virtual machine to play the game?
Should be possible with NDI