I recently installed Proxmox on my home lab server. I wanted to start deploying network apps and services on the Proxmox instance, but something didn't feel quite right. I knew everything wasn't fully ready. I wondered what I should do to make it solid. Then it hit me: I needed to ensure all my data and configs were safely backed up and recoverable at any moment. My first thought was RAID1. The challenge? I didn't know how to set it up properly in Proxmox. After some searching and learning, I discovered it's actually super simple :) I just reinstalled Proxmox with the right settings. I pulled two 1TB SSDs out of my laptop (I had four total) and installed them in the home lab server. During installation, on the target harddisk screen I just selected the ZFS RAID1 option, chose the correct disks, and that was it :) Now I've got RAID1 up and running. Of course, I should test the recovery process next, but I'm too excited and want to start playing around right away!

For years, I've wanted a straightforward way to create and manage virtual machines. I tried VirtualBox, QEMU/KVM, and a few others, but none felt right for the long haul. My final hope? Proxmox. A few years back, I snagged a cheap used Lenovo ThinkPad. I added a 1TB SSD (I already had two smaller ones), plus 32GB of RAM. Suddenly, I had everything I needed. Preparing the USB stick was a breeze with this command: caligula burn <iso_name> I installed Proxmox, and I have to say, my first impressions are fantastic. I spun up an Ubuntu Server VM in no time, and the simplicity blew me away. Now, I'm excited to experiment more: setting up a backup server, DNS, build pipelines, and whatever else catches my eye. Stay tuned as I dive deeper!