I mostly filter for >20 minute videos. If I could set it for 1hr that would be super. 👍 love the pace of this too. Good for keeping attention. When I'm ready for a bedtime story I prefer ASMR.
Saw this video on Saturday while searching for some good content on making my first home lab. Today I reached out to our Service Desk Manager at work to ask if they had any items I could use. Now I have a meeting with him for Thurs to go over any pieces or whole items they have available for me to pick up. I was stressing about cost before seeing this video. You're awesome for sharing these tips. I've been begging people for advice/tips for years (largely being ignored) & only recently found all of the info is available on RU-vid. I'm absorbing it all like a sponge now. Thanks again!
I picked up a Compaq desktop from a university surplus sale for $50, bought a cheap wireless card for it and now I use it as a virtual machine host. Thanks to that, I've done network traffic experiments, set up an IDS and taught myself the basics of BSD sysadmin work! The best money I've ever spent.
This was an extremely well put together video. While watching, I realized I've done some similar first steps towards this when I was younger. I tinkered a bit but had absolutely no guidance on how to continue it further than inspecting some wires. No that I'm older and can understand the value of documentation (which this video is awesome enough to include) I can see how I can take all the old computer parts laying around my house and purposefully explore some of these concepts. You including that tidbit about the Raspberry Pi at the end is also insightful. I got one during my time in programming class and considered it only useful as a tool to program to. I didn't consider the possibility of using it as experience for an IT career. Thank you so much for your shared wisdom!
just fyi to everyone starting their home lab, expect your light bill to go up if you're running multiple computers or even a server(s) so budget it monthly. It's the cost of doing business but I thought I'd mention it, lol.
Man, thank you so much for what you do. I’m a baby sysadmin trying to learn solo during the pandemic, and I can’t tell you how helpful this is. It made things much easier for me to understand.
AMEN BRO!! What you are telling folks this is the new way to INTERVIEW for those sought after TECH POSITIONS that you may not have worked for/on at previous companies but you took the initiative and spent your money in upgrading your skills at home and then getting that cert!
So i have a question about all the wires and things... in a home lab is there any draw backs to cutting the wires shorter for things like swiches routes exc..?? Y does everyone have long wires just looped instead of cuting the wires shorter?? Do wites have to be a minimum length to work properly??
@@beccaboo9960 Hello. I'm not an expert or something but I guess 'coz it's easier if you have to move/change in your setup. Cutting the cables shorter doesn't have a drawbacks as long as you crimped it properly. Some cables like fibre cables have fixed length and cannot be cut shorter. (Sorry for my bad engrish)
This tells me as someone brand new to IT that going to university for a fast track 2 year IT degree is the best thing to do, cant wait to learn the foundations
Amazing video and great insight on supplementing your experience with lab work. I'm doing just that and have a virtual lab setup and bought a server for only $40.00!! I'm going get a couple more PC's and a switch etc. The link for experience tip is priceless! Thank you
Thank you for this video! I'm currently applying around and studying for my CCNP from Cisco (after the certpocolypse I should start saying the CCNP ENCOR) and I do have my own home lab. This video helped me get ideas on how to document what I do and share with potential employers. Keep up the good work!
Pro tip: If your virtual machine is too slow bc of your limited pc specs (like mine), just rev it up, leave it alone, minimize it and use PuTTY to ssh into it. Sometimes a low budget develops your resourcefulness, which is maybe the most important skill in IT...
The great thing is now that you can use the cloud as a lab. Yes there is a cost, but you can spin up and then power up any instances as and when you need them and only get charged for when you are using them.
Bro I'm in my junior year of CS, you won't touch any of this lol. Study for the CompTIA A+ and Net+ exam in your free time / summer and use a home lab with networking gear, a cheap laptop, a cheap desktop, peripherals, and some spare computer parts. Unfortunately, CS is mostly computer architecture theory, calculus (lots of calculus), and programming (which is the only good part, but unfortunately programming is only like 4, maybe 5 classes tops). It's 2 years of gen ed, extra math courses, etc and then your core work finally. I wish I had just gotten my certs up front and gotten into IT directly. My friends are getting hired for better IT positions that I qualify for just with a few years experience as a PC tech and a few certs. If you want to do IT (not the same as comp sci) then do your research. I'm going to finish my degree just because I have 2.5 years in so far, but I probably won't use it. Good luck!
@@samuelmontypython8381 I'm in this exact situation. I'm a sophomore about to finish my 3rd semester and I really dont want to do it anymore. I'm taking my second Comp Sci course and they're fun, I love them, but I know they wont serve me in cyber security, which I eventually want to work my way into. I'm considering just dropping out snd starting with Net+ and Sec+, and maybe decide where I want to specialize once I get in.
i work in a datacenter and i’m starting to learn all this 😂 this video was very insightful i’m gonna have to see if i can get some equipment cause we got a lot
Great video. A simple thing to remember for those just thinking about it.....get some advice....then just do it! I've had a home lab "of some sort" for 13+ years. So many ways as shown in this video, and more, to get started. As someone else suggested, $500! Even spread out over 3 months is not a huge investment to get started.
Oh my god I’m kind of blown away here... so I’ve just been made redundant from my old workplace as an electronics recycling center... and we get HUNDREDS of network switches, towers, servers, RAM and CPU’S like high end stuff. Some SUN servers and Cisco switches and I’ll be honest we weren’t trained in what these things actually do? We just sorted them into cages to be shredded. But now I’m looking at getting into IT, I start a course in September and I’m going down the Cisco certification route and starting my own home lab. The thing I always knew then but realising more now I hear you say it’s worth THOUSANDS is this. Industry secret *whispers* (this stuff is pretty much WORTHLESS! I’m not kidding by the time it hits us at the recycling place it’s literally worth the iron price and a tiny bit more for the board which is even classed as low grade boards which gets sent to Germany after its shredded and sorted. And they’re happy for it to go in with low grade as it bumps the price when it’s sampled 🤨 sneaky sneaky) Man I can’t wait, once my notice is over and it’s been a few months I might just bump my old boss £50 and snag me some switches 😊 they get exposed to the elements a bit but on the whole they’re still working! They come from a company that specialises in upgrading office setups and just sells the stuff they remove as scrap.
I have started with an old Dell Latitude E5400 with Win7 Pro and VirtualBox (enabled Intel VT in BIOS prior to installation), and using a pfSense (firewall) and Ubuntu VM (PiHole Server). To prevent slowdown, I used a 4 GB USB thumbdrive for Windows ReadyBoost.
This is one if not the best Video I have seen how to set this stuff up. You have just gained another like and a new subscriber. I will definitely be setting this stuff up and trying it out in the next couple weeks!
I have went by tech companies and found expensive and operating equipment in the trash. Try to get the stuff that hasn't been rained on. Switches, routhers, RFID readers, VOIP, you name it. Very good advice, list the model numbers an software versions on your resume.. Prowords that search engines find for head hunters.
Hey Zach! Just nabbed my CCENT last Saturday and on my way to the ICND2. Definitely considering building a home networking lab for that final hurdle before the CCNA!
I got a modern rack server and a synology nas with two 6 tb hard drives for free from my friend's job. He's the head of IT/Networking and he was upgrading equipment, so they just gave it to me and said it was "recycled". I play with vmware a lot and bought a ubiquity udm pro router. I like to play with this stuff, I should actually try to get a career started based on it.
Find someone who talks about you, with the same passion Zach talks about computers and routers! Always a pleasure watching your inspirational videos. Greece is watching you
At current I have 4 Cisco 3750X-48P-L switches, 2 C3951 Servise Routers also 2 2951/K9 routers, 3 Dell PowerEsge T-410 Tower Servers and a few more Cisco switches which asyou said I got them for free. The reason for the home Lab would be to get that experience of how to UnF**K a network which went down, with no reeal down side. Thanks for all your hard work.
I started on my HomeLab last Sunday. Right now it's nothing more than a server, router, 2 desktops. Using *buntu fo rthe server, which is running apache, mysql, php, jellyfin, and file transfers/storage (10TB). All the devices (cellphones, tablets, notebooks), in the home, connect to the server, except for the xbox (for now). This way we can use jellyfin to watch movies anywhere and on any device, we want. Soon to be adding security cameras, and anything I can, to make the home lab bigger/better. I think this is a decent start though.
Hi, thanks for this awesome video. I am a newbie to the IT space and looking to get hands-on experience in Networking and Security, please are you able to recommend the relevant equipment and their specifications one needs to set up a home lab so I exactly know what to start collecting? Secondly is there a step by step guide/video you can recommend on how one puts these equipment together? Thank you
I enjoyed your video on Home Labs. I am just getting started on my HomeLab. So far I have a couple of domain controllers, with one having a couple of child domains attached to it. I have one server running Hyper-v Core 2019 for virtual machines, which I have both linux and Windows machines running on it and thank you for mentioning Kali. It looks like a cool linux machine
You don't really need anything fancy. If you have a couple of old PCs laying around, you can use them to learn. That's how I got started in learning about PCs; just taking apart an old PC as a kid.
Great Video! Just recently was asked a question about a home lab from a student I'm tutoring. Definitely sharing this link! Great Job Zach! P.S. My lab made it in the video :)!
@@johnmadsen37 If you run VMware ESXi or Proxmox VE on this one PC and have a Router, Switch, Firewall, Fileserver etc. as a VM you can call this a Lab :^)
@@Felix-ve9hs hey, if you wanna exaggerate and call it a lab, since this must of hurt your little feelings, go ahead. People with labs know what a lab is. A file server is what - a file share or block level storage (if you know what that is) - a qnap device... no. A single machine with vmware is a single machine. What are you experimenting? How to install linux or windows 10 times on the same machine? But if it makes you feel better. Youre kinda desperate. When I run a development, staging, and production farm that is 24 machines for each environment, running shared services that interact with service accounts, email, and other shit -- that is barely a lab. But yes, your single machine is a lab. Sure buddy. How about get a job in IT first, then learn what a lab is.
Great video zack loved every second of it. I was wondering if you could make a video or a reddit post about cyber-security home lab. That would be amazing thanks
I retired from IT in 1-1-11, so I'm more interested in maintaining a VM museum of OSes and software. I'm only interested in learning new things, if it is useful for me, like using modern file systems like ZFS and BTRFS. So I boot and run ZFS on all my systems! To run Virtualbox I use a Ryzen 3 2200G on 16GB (3000MHz). It can run say 4 modern Linux desktops or 2 Windows desktops (Vista, 7, 8 or 10) at the same time. Before May 2019 I used a Phenom II (4 x 3.2GHz) with 8GB of DDR2 (800MHz) in a 2008 HP dc5850 :)
I just finished a home lab with some old P55 chipset hardware to build a home lab. I think I spent $100 for what I was lacking. It can be very affordable and easy.
The processor will need to support Intel VT-x or AMD-V to run as a virtualization host. Most modern CPU's support it but it is often disabled in the system BIOS or UEFI by default.
Like for great explenation of documentation. As a QA this is sth that many underestymate a lot and then waste so much time recalling the same data again and again
All great, but these windows VMs you have they are free temporarily and you'd have to keep installing them or buy licenses as I know, any suggestions on that and how to get some licenses so we don't have to bother further?
Hey Zach, I'm about 2 years from retiring from the military. I'm looking at getting into I.T. when I retire. I am VERY VERY new to I.T. I obtained my Sec+ and Net+ certs about a year ago. I'm scheduled to get my ethical hacking cert this spring. Watching this I'm thinking I should start pre studying with a home lab. Should I start this lab with a laptop which I have or should I get a decent desktop to start building my lab?
Where's the best place to start when it comes to virtualization? I have multiple operating sytems in vm and dont really know what to do with them. Sorry if this seems basic, im just starting the journey.
Why are you wanting to virtualize? What do you need multiple OSes running at the same time for? I virtualize a NAS os, PiHole OS, Plex os server, torrent os, and a few downloading lxc containers.
These search terms will get you far: ESXi, Proxmox, XCP-ng, QEMU/KVM, Hyper-V, bhyve. I long ago abandoned and refused to use Virtualbox, but it’s recently found a home on my local Win10 machines, and I’ve found it very useful and dead simple to setup even with multiple, oddly specific virtual interfaces. For a network virtualization slant, GNS3 is unbelievably great. I also think containers are really sensible in a lot of cases, so LXC, LXD, and Docker may all be worth discovering, too.
The one thing I don’t like about RU-vid videos is that you can’t expand the video to get a real good close up of what’s being presented by the content creator
Great Video! Is there any basic video tutorials for setting up my first homelab? About to search now but just wondering if anyone has seen any good videos :)
