Multi-Server Home Lab

Problem#

Needed a hands-on environment to develop and test deployments before they go live — work environments don't allow that kind of experimentation.

Background#

Production is not a safe place to find out whether a new deployment script actually works, and work environments don't offer a sandboxed alternative. Rather than testing against live devices, the lab exists to absorb that risk instead — every iteration of the NetDocuments and AppUpdater tools ran here first.

Implementation#

Built and maintain a three-server environment with Proxmox virtualisation and a Dell EMC 740xd. Windows machines connect to Intune using the same baselines as work. Includes Portainer, Grafana dashboards, N8N alerting, and Nginx Proxy Manager.

Challenges#

Running enterprise-grade infrastructure on multiple servers required careful resource allocation. Testing against real ASR (attack surface reduction) policies and Intune baselines required matching production configuration accurately.

Results#

Every iteration of the NetDocuments deployment tool was tested here first. Directly contributed to achieving the Sophos Firewall and HPE certifications through hands-on practice.

System structure

How the parts connect

1. Three Proxmox hosts

   Physical servers provide virtualisation capacity, including a Dell EMC 740xd.

2. Test machines

   Windows VMs connect to Intune with baselines matching the work environment.

3. Deployment trials

   NetDocuments and AppUpdater iterations are tested before use on work devices.

4. Monitoring + services

   Grafana, N8N and Portainer support monitoring, alerting and containers.