As a true hardware enthusiast, I have a reluctance to virtualize systems. However, Proxmox Virtual Environment has been a complete game changer for my homelab since I first ran it.
Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE, or just Proxmox), is a hypervisor. That is, it runs and manages virtual environments. This is often in the form of virtual machines and containers, but it also handles virtualization of networking, network devices and much more.
I initially setup my homelab with multiple computers each running one or two services. There was almost never any real issue with this. I would just use the same IP address with different ports to access the different management interfaces. However, once I started segregating my network with virtual LANs (VLANs) and subnetting, I ran into some issues. Again, I was reluctant, but once I saw a handful of my services running on a single physical machine, isolated, with their own IP addresses and network setups, I was hooked.
Not only am I able to run these services from one interface in isolation, PVE has also allowed me to reduce my power consumption. Instead of having 3 or 4 systems to run 5-6 services, I can now run all of them and more on a single, low power mini PC with ease.
One other area I had previously struggled with was backups. I have had a backup strategy, but it wasn't automatic. That leads to missed backups and eventually no backups. Which is why Proxmox Backup Server is another main reason why I moved most of my services over to PVE. I'm sure I'll get that up and running soon.
