My first attempt at hosting my own website was what some would call a successful failure. I hosted the website on my NAS4Free server which comes with LIGHTtpd out of the box. This was an acceptable approach since I was not hosting any dynamic content (IE. my blog) locally. As you can imagine this created a lot of hassle when it came to linking and updating any of my blog posts which were hosted on Google Blogger.

So it was time to make a change. It was my goal from the beginning to host everything internally for ease of access, customization, and bragging rights. So I took an old HP Net-book and loaded Ubuntu Server on it. I must admit that before all of this I was not a believer in Ubuntu, needless to say I have done a 180. Once Ubuntu is up and going, just go ahead and install Lamp Stack with Webmin and your well on your way to having everything at your disposal.

A few weeks later, I transferred the web files and databases over to my Main Kodibuntu box in my living room. I used this machine for watching/recording television, streaming movies, hosting multiple websites, hosting an instant messenger server, and generally being the centerpiece to my “lab”. The problem with this setup is that backups were tedious, time-consuming, and reliability was not to the standard I wanted it to be.

I needed a feasible way to virtualize my data-center so that I could backup/update without having to induce extended downtime. Virtualization also allows me to scale up and test anything in a secure environment without breaking production machines.

With a little research and testing I found just what I needed in ProxMox. From there I needed some worthy hardware to use for virtual hosts. I was a big fan of the Intel Core2Quad Q9650 3.00GHz after using it in my Kodibuntu box. A quick search of ebay and I purchased two Dell Optiplex-780’s with these chips in them and capable of up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM. I clicked along with these hosts for a couple of years until I changed jobs and Microsoft became my life. Let me be clear, Linux is solid and I had no intentions of changing.

Such is life, I needed Microsoft experience and decided to convert over to Hyper-V for virtualization and IIS for web hosting. During this time, I also decided to organize, consolidate, and upgrade my hardware to something that resembles a professional environment. I purchased a half relay rack and some rack cases, along with some cable management.

I have converted nearly everything in our house to Windows and have really dialed things in the way they should be for a proper functioning home environment. These days I don’t stay up to the wee hours of the morning messing with my lab anymore. Occasionally I come across a little project that grabs my curiosity but for now my home environment is stable and fairly self sustaining.

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