In this episode of SysAdmin Weekly, Andy and Eric dig deep into how to build a fully functional home lab without selling a kidney. We cover picking hardware on the cheap, virtualization (Proxmox, Hyper-V, etc.), managing storage, navigating Microsoft licensing, layering in free cloud tiers, network tricks, and the kind of “what if I push this button?” experiments that keep us awake at 2 a.m.

Whether you’re starting from a pile of old PCs or trying to mix in cloud credits, this show gives you the blueprint, the trade-offs, and, most importantly, the sanity checks.

In this episode:

- How to stretch every dollar on lab hardware

- When to go physical vs. virtual (or hybrid)

- Proxmox tips, license workarounds, and pitfalls

- Cloud free/low-cost tiers you can use for testing

- Network, storage & routing hacks we swear by

- Real talk about maintenance, scaling, and failures

Episode Resources

- SysAdmin Weekly Companion Newsletter

- AndyOnTech

- Project Runspace

- Windows Server Eval

- Proxmox Installation Guide

- Azure Free Services / Free Tier

- Azure Free Account / $200 Credit

- Azure Free Services Documentation