2025 Home Lab: Nutanix, Cisco, TrueNAS, and Testing

Welcome to my 2025 Home Lab: Where Ideas Are Built, Broken, and Rebuilt Better. A constantly evolving playground where I simulate customer environments, test disaster recovery strategies, and push platforms until something breaks (and then fix it… usually).

I've always enjoyed reading these posts, but have never put one of my own together. So why not, halfway through 2025, finally put out my own version!

Before we get into the blinking lights and blown-up configs, I have to say that I’m very fortunate to have a wife who (mostly) understands what I do and is incredibly forgiving when it comes to the realities of home lab life. The garage gets hot (South Carolina summers don’t play around), the fans are loud, and the power bill… well, let’s just say it occasionally raises eyebrows. But through it all, this space has become my sandbox for learning, designing, and occasionally, making glorious messes in the name of innovation.

I'm lucky to have a garage that can hold 2 cars, a full gym setup, and the additional toys needed for the trade.

Since I have a Rivian R1T (electric truck) and wanted the ability to charge the vehicle at home, a good friend was able to install additional capacity off my breaker box to give me not only dedicated 208v circuit for the R1T, but also another dedicated 208v circuit for the lab equipment.

• Rack & Power: Everything’s mounted in an APC 24U half rack, powered by both a 208V and 110V APC PDU.

Let’s take a tour through the four pillars of the setup: Networking, Security, Storage, Virtualization—and a new addition: Automation.

Networking: Backbone Built for the Real World

A solid lab starts with a rock-solid network, and I've probably overdone it a bit, but hey, go big or go home!

• Switching Core: A Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX provides plenty of 10/25 GbE ports, with a Cisco FEX 2248TP hanging off it for additional 1 GbE ports and other devices.

In addition to physical gear, the lab includes a dedicated Dell R640 server running Cisco Modeling Labs. This allows for full network topology simulation, testing, and validation without requiring additional hardware. It has proven to be an essential tool in the toolbox, enabling rapid iteration on designs and scenarios that would otherwise require a significant hardware footprint.

Security: Defense in Depth, Deployed (and Occasionally Defeated)

Security is where things get messy in a good way. The goal? Replicate real-world conditions, test Zero Trust strategies, and see where they break.

• Firewalls: A Meraki MX84 handles the dedicated lab internet connection from AT&T. Additionally augmented by two Cisco Secure Firewall 1010s that rotate between HA and standalone modes.
• Management: Cisco Virtual Secure Firewall Management Center (FMCv) drives central policy and visibility for the Firewalls.
• Cloud Security Stack: Cisco Umbrella protects DNS layers, while Duo MFA supports multi-factor testing scenarios.

Storage: NAS, SAN, and All the “What Ifs”

Data in the lab isn’t just stored, it’s duplicated, broken, snapshotted, replicated, and occasionally lost (on purpose).

• Primary Storage: A TrueNAS system runs on a Dell R640, serving iSCSI and NFS for lab virutal workloads.
• Secondary/Legacy NAS: A Synology RS217 is used for less critical storage, old ISOs, and whatever mischief I’m cooking up.

Virtualization: Full-Scale Simulation, Real-World Chaos

This is the engine room of the lab, where I model full-stack environments to test, break, and rebuild the platforms I work with every day.

• Nutanix at Scale: The three Cisco C240 M5SX servers and the Nutanix NX-1465-G5 give me the horsepower to run separate Nutanix environments. I use these for everything from feature deep dives to validating DR strategies, multi-cluster configurations, and network microsegmentation with AHV and Prism Central, and the occasional VMware or Hyper-V deployment.
• VMware & Proxmox: The two Dell R440 servers act as flexible platforms for VMware vSphere or Proxmox, depending on what I’m exploring. They’re ideal for learning new hypervisors or simulating VMware environments.
• Data Protection Testing: I also run backup scenarios using Rubrik and Cohesity Virtual Editions to simulate data protection across workloads and tiers.

Automation: Because Rebuilding by Hand Gets Old Fast

Let’s be honest... If you’re running a home lab and not blowing things up now and then, are you even doing it right?

Over time, I’ve started building out automation to bring order to the chaos. After crashing and burning more than a few environments, I’ve learned the value of being able to tear everything down and rebuild clean, quickly and consistently.

• Active Directory: I’ve scripted full AD rebuilds with PowerShell, including domain creation, OU structure, users, groups, and GPOs.
• Nutanix Automation: After Foundation imaging, I use Terraform to automate the post-deployment configuration of Nutanix clusters—everything from storage containers to protection domains and network config.
• VMware Configuration: For ESXi and vCenter, I combine PowerCLI, Terraform, and Ansible to automate host setup, cluster creation, and vCenter provisioning. Perfect for rapid re-deployments and config testing.

Looking Ahead: What Will 2026 Bring?

Who knows what next year will hold? Maybe a hardware refresh (though I’ll pretend I didn’t say that in front of the power bill), or maybe deeper cloud integration. I’ve already got active VPNs to both Azure and AWS, so expanding those cloud connections into full hybrid workflows or extending disaster recovery testing could be next.

Only time (and thermals) will tell.

Thanks for checking out my 2025 lab tour! Got ideas for your own lab? Share them, I'd love to see what you’re building, breaking, and automating in your corner of the tech universe.