This will be a series of posts updated with each major change or novelty as this project progresses.
Since I started working with information security a few years ago and, consequently, with IT infrastructure, I’ve planned to build a home lab to host some little personal projects, test out some applications and other shenanigans. I now believe that the time has come to get this project off the ground.
The Hardware
As this is my first activity of its kind, I decided to start simple. You see, I have a limited physical space and budget, which means I can’t afford to have a big rack with dedicated equipment (yet). With this in mind, I enumerated a few options: use an old cabinet computer hidden somewhere in the house, build a small rack with smaller equipment and camouflage it among the living room furniture, or buy a mini pc. I chose the third one.
The equipment used will be a Beelink Mini S12 Pro with a 12th generation Intel N95 processor, 8 Gigs of DDR4 RAM memory and 256 Gigs of M.2 NVMe SSD storage. It was purchased on AliExpress just under a month ago. I’m waiting for delivery by the local Postal service, which should happen later this month (I hope).
The Software
As the ad description highlights, the computer comes with Windows 11 pre-installed. To suit my needs, I’m going to dump this installation and put a Linux version in its place. I still haven’t decided which distro exactly to use, but I imagine I have two more obvious options: A simple Debian/Ubuntu server or some hypervisor-focused distro (like proxmox). Anyway, I already have in mind that most of the applications executed will be container deployments (probably through docker compose).
Until I get my hands on this machine, that’s all I have to say. See you soon.