Homelab Adventures: Nested Proxmox on a Budget Laptop

Key Principles

• Start small, iterate often. Rapid experimentation leads to quicker learning.
• Use secondhand/affordable gear. Proves you don’t need expensive hardware to explore advanced topics.
• Hands-on troubleshooting over perfection. Real learning comes from fixing things that break.

Day 0: Acquiring Budget Hardware

Action: Bought a Dell Latitude E7240 Ultrabook for AUD 75 via Facebook Marketplace.

Reason: Low-cost entry point for a dedicated homelab—2 cores, 16 GB RAM, and an SSD are enough to run nested virtual machines and experiment with various tools.

Value: Portable, quiet, and inexpensive to run in a home environment, making it ideal for both portability and 24/7 operation.

Hardware Specs Recap:
• Purchase Price: AUD $75
• CPU: Intel Core i7-4600U (2C/4T)
• RAM: 16GB DDR3L
• Storage: 500GB SSD
• Approx. Power Draw: 15W idle, up to 45W under load

Deciding on Base OS & Virtualisation

Chosen OS: Windows 10 Pro

Reason: Familiarity (still run Windows tools), plus Hyper-V integration for quick VM provisioning. Using Windows also enables convenient snapshotting and easy bridging with the rest of the home network.

Alternative Consideration: Bare-metal Proxmox. Ultimately, we decided on Windows 10 first to minimize downtime and keep certain workflows. Proxmox will run as a nested VM inside Hyper-V.

Day 1: Proxmox on a Potato (Nested!)

Action: Installed Proxmox inside Hyper-V.
Reason: Proxmox is a popular hypervisor for homelabs, offering extensive features like clustering, ZFS support, and advanced networking.
Outcome: Ran into tricky network complications related to bridging and NAT in a nested environment.

Identified Network Complications

Problem: Bridging for Proxmox VMs inside Hyper-V can cause connectivity issues—like trouble obtaining IP addresses or exposing services externally. Nested virtualisation often restricts certain kernel-level features and can add complexity to networking.

Decision: Continue with Windows 10 + Hyper-V for now, but refine network config meticulously.

Step-by-Step Setup & Troubleshooting

1. Create the Internal Virtual Switch in Hyper-V

1. Open Hyper-V Manager → Virtual Switch Manager → New Virtual Switch.
2. Name it: Proxmox-Lab.
3. Select Internal.
4. Check "Enable virtual LAN identification" if you plan on using VLANs later.
5. Click OK.

Example Configuration:
Switch Name: Proxmox-Lab
Type: Internal
VLAN ID: Optional (future use)

2. Download & Create Proxmox VM in Hyper-V

1. Download the Proxmox VE ISO.
2. Open Hyper-V Manager.
3. Right-click your host → New → Virtual Machine.
4. Name: Proxmox-VM (or similar).
5. Generation: 2 (required for UEFI support).
6. Memory: 8 GB static allocation (dynamic can cause odd issues with nested VMs).
7. Network: Select the Proxmox-Lab internal switch.
8. Virtual Disk: 128GB (or as large as your SSD can handle).
9. Installation Source: Point to the Proxmox ISO.

3. Adjust VM Settings

3.1 Enable Nested Virtualization

# In Administrator PowerShell:
Set-VMProcessor -VMName "Proxmox-VM" -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

If you skip this step, you may encounter errors indicating that Proxmox can’t detect virtualization extensions during installation.

3.2 Allocate More Virtual Processors

Set-VM -VMName "Proxmox-VM" -ProcessorCount 4

Adjust based on your laptop’s CPU core/thread availability.

4. Install Proxmox

Boot the VM and follow the on-screen instructions. When prompted for network configuration, use the table below.

Networking: Detailed Troubleshooting

After installation, you might discover that your Proxmox VM can’t access the internet or the local network. Here’s the deep dive on fixing that.

Check /etc/network/interfaces

nano /etc/network/interfaces

# Example Configuration:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
  address 192.168.10.10/24
  gateway 192.168.10.1
  bridge-ports eth0
  bridge-stp off
  bridge-fd 0
  dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8

Verify Proxmox-Lab NAT on Windows Host

# In PowerShell, check if the NAT is set correctly:
Get-NetNat -Name "ProxmoxNAT" | Select InternalIPInterfaceAddressPrefix

# Expected: 192.168.10.0/24

If not configured:

# Remove existing NAT (if any)
Remove-NetNat -Name "ProxmoxNAT" -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Create a new NAT rule:
New-NetNat -Name "ProxmoxNAT" -InternalIPInterfaceAddressPrefix "192.168.10.0/24"

Assign Static IP 192.168.10.1 to vEthernet (Proxmox-Lab)

# Remove existing IP (if any)
Remove-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "vEthernet (Proxmox-Lab)" -Confirm:$false

# Assign static IP
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "vEthernet (Proxmox-Lab)" -IPAddress 192.168.10.1 -PrefixLength 24

Enable Internet Sharing on the Host

1. Open Control Panel → Network Connections.
2. Right-click your main Wi-Fi/Ethernet adapter → Properties → Sharing.
3. Check "Allow other network users to connect" and select vEthernet (Proxmox-Lab) from the dropdown.
4. Restart the Proxmox-Lab adapter:
   

   Restart-NetAdapter -Name "vEthernet (Proxmox-Lab)"
   

Firewall & DNS Checks

1. Enable ICMP inbound:

   New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow ICMPv4" -Direction Inbound -Protocol ICMPv4 -IcmpType 8 -Action Allow
   

2. Edit DNS settings in Proxmox:

   nano /etc/resolv.conf
   
   # Add or confirm:
   nameserver 8.8.8.8
   nameserver 1.1.1.1
   

3. Open Proxmox Web UI port:

   New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Proxmox Web UI" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 8006 -Protocol TCP -Action Allow
   

Now, ping 192.168.10.1 and ping 8.8.8.8 from the Proxmox VM. If both work, you’re in business!

Final Network Configuration Summary

Why Enable VLAN ID on the Hyper-V Switch?

Even if you don’t need VLANs right now, enabling VLAN ID will help you practice advanced networking scenarios in the future:

• DirectConnect Emulation: Simulate AWS/Azure DirectConnect (private VLANs over dedicated lines).
• QinQ (802.1ad): Experiment with VLAN stacking for carrier-grade network scenarios.
• Multi-Tenant Labs: Isolate different Kubernetes clusters or DevOps tools in separate VLANs.

# Applying VLAN ID to a Hyper-V VM
Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -VMName "Proxmox-VM" -Access -VlanId 10

# In Proxmox, ensure:
bridge-vlan-aware yes
bridge-vids 2-4094

Next Steps: Kubernetes, IaC, & VLAN Experiments

With our nested Proxmox environment running on a humble Dell Latitude, we now have a flexible setup for more advanced projects:

• Kubernetes Deployment: Spin up a small cluster in Proxmox VMs, explore a CNI (e.g., Calico or Flannel), and delve into Pod networking in a nested lab.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Use tools like Terraform and Ansible to automate provisioning and configuration. This is an excellent next step to refine your DevOps skillset.
• Deep VLAN Config: Separate labs or apps on different VLANs to practice more advanced networking and micro-segmentation.

There’s still plenty to learn, and the entire networking arena can get overwhelming. Take it one step at a time, and remember the principle: fail fast, learn relentlessly.

Do you have any Cloud Native projects in mind that you’d like to see tested on this potato-laptop lab? Feel free to share your ideas—whether it’s ephemeral Kubernetes clusters, custom CI/CD pipelines, or specific open-source platforms. Let’s explore them together!