023 - Budget Home Lab Setup for IT Pros

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 failuresEpisode 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