Trying Proxmox VE 9 and should I virtualize my router?

I’d heard about Proxmox a few times in online forums and videos about “home labs.” I always wondered why people went through the trouble of a complex VM setup instead of just using Docker containers. While I still don’t fully understand the need for VMs everywhere, my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try.

With the recent release of Proxmox VE 9, it seemed like the perfect time to experiment. I had my old ASRock DeskMini A300, which was mostly unused, so I decided to install Proxmox on it. I put the installer on a USB stick, got it all set up, and then downloaded an Ubuntu ISO directly to the Proxmox host to spin up my first VM.

My first real challenge was figuring out why the VM was only getting an IPv6 address. It turns out my network setup was a bit too complicated. I finally solved it by assigning a VLAN ID that I also use for a second SSID on my ASUS APs, which also act as a network switch. Yes, it’s a bit messy, but my Beryl AX router only has two ethernet ports. I also had to manually set a smaller MTU.

But through all that troubleshooting, I think I finally started to get the appeal of using VMs. You can run things without putting everything behind a reverse proxy or on different ports, as each VM gets its own IP address. It allows for better separation of services, especially for things you don’t fully trust. Plus, you can easily take a snapshot and restore an old state if you mess something up.

This new understanding sparked another idea. For the, my old homeserver (an old HP EliteDesk 800 G1 USDT, which I originally bought as a “coding server” 4 years ago) has been running 24/7 just for Home Assistant. After a few network hiccups last year, I moved most of my other self-hosted services, like PicoShare and Vaultwarden, back to my stable and always reachable Hetzner VPS. Now, the homeserver’s main job is just to control a few smart plugs using Zigbee, which feels like a waste of resources.

So, why not combine my Beryl AX router, which runs OpenWRT with SQM, and the homeserver with Home Assistant into a single device? Maybe I could use a cheap mini PC with an Intel N150 and four 2.5 GbE ports. I could put OpenWRT into one VM, Home Assistant into another, and perhaps try out other services like Jellyfin in another. Since electricity is expensive in Germany, this could also reduce power consumption and the electricity bill. I would also get rid of the continuous (but not annoying) noise in my office, as the new mini PC would be fanless.

However, playing with Proxmox for a bit has shown me that I definitely need more experience before I embark on this adventure. Internet access is much more critical infrastructure (also for my fiancée) than my homeserver. Let’s see what happens…

And what do I do with the old hardware of my homeserver and the DeskMini A300? Just keep it in case I want to try setup a Kubernetes cluster locally? Or enable high availability with Proxmox? 😅 Does anyone of my readers out there use a virtualized OpenWRT router in their home? I’d love to hear about your experience!

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