Proxmox is often regarded as the definitive operating system for home-lab operations, and for good reason. Whether you’re planning to build a dedicated home lab or just learning the basics of DevOps, Proxmox lives up to its reputation with its simple yet feature-laden UI, KVM+LXC support, ZFS file system, and loads of other useful facilities.

However, Proxmox has plenty of applications besides testing out new operating systems, and here are a couple of fun things you can do with the virtualization platform.

5 Build a container paradise

Featuring a dedicated container for every possible home lab task

Unlike virtual machines, containers are a lot less resource-intensive on your host machine. As such, you can easily whip up multiple containers in the average home lab without taking too many hits to the performance.

While most beginners may not be familiar with LXC containers, they’re surprisingly efficient at running normal containerization tasks. For example, you can easily configure Plex, Nginx, Navidrome, Pi-Hole, Radarr, Guacamole, Wireguard, and a handful of other services on Proxmox. And that’s before you include nesting Docker containers inside their LXC counterparts.

4 Establish a NAS, personal cloud, and media server combo

Why build a separate NAS when you can turn your home server into one?

One of the best aspects of Proxmox is how easy it is to deploy virtual machines and interface additional peripherals like storage drives to them. In fact, there are several ways you can use your Proxmox server as a NAS hub.

For instance, you can deploy a Debian/Ubuntu VM and set up SMB shares on the OS after allocating some extra drive space to it. Next, you can install CasaOS or Nextcloud to turn the basic NAS into an easy-to-access personal cloud. If you’re into self-hosting TV shows and movies, you can choose between Kodi, Plex, Jellyfin, and a handful of other services to scratch that media streaming itch.

Alternatively, those who prefer dedicated NAS operating systems can go the TrueNAS Core/Scale route. Sure, it may be a tad overkill, but at least you’ll get robust app support for your Proxmox-powered NAS.

3 Make Home Automation easy

Home Assistant for the win!

If you’re the proud owner of a battalion of smart gadgets and IoT products, you may be familiar with how tedious it is to manage each device individually. Thankfully, operating systems like Home Assistant can make automating your smart home a breeze with their add-ons and scripting tools.

The best part? You don’t have to relegate an entire device to Home Assistant, as you install it on top of a Proxmox VM on your home server!

2 Build a Hackintosh

Despite sounding complex, it's quite easy to set up

A Hackintosh was the very first project I tried out when I put together my Proxmox home lab – and let me tell you, the results were mind-blowing. That’s because I ran macOS on a Ryzen processor and an Nvidia GPU, which are pretty much the worst combination for a Hackintosh. To put that into perspective, I’d previously used the same system to install macOS via several methods, including directly on top of the hardware, and the procedure had failed miserably every single time.

Proxmox, on the other hand, was able to run macOS on my outdated system. Emboldened by this success, I even ran some popular macOS applications on a more powerful Proxmox server, and I’m happy to report that over half of these applications worked without any issues. What’s more, the Hackintosh setup procedure is fairly simple, as all you have to do is run a script in the shell and wait for Proxmox to set up Apple’s flagship desktop operating system on your home lab.

1 Create a gaming server

A real pain to configure, but it's worth all the effort

As ridiculous as it may sound, it’s possible to run most modern games inside a Proxmox VM and expect high frame rates without any performance issues expected from gaming on a virtual machine. Of course, the process is nowhere close to simple, as you have to embark on a tedious journey to enable GPU passthrough, which can take a lot of trial and error. After that, you’ll have to subject yourself to the pain of fine-tuning a Windows 11 VM to stream your games to other devices on your home network.

But if you have the grit to see this project through to the end, you’ll be rewarded with a powerful Proxmox virtual machine that’s as impressive for gaming as it is for everyday home lab tasks!

What’s your favorite Proxmox project?

With Proxmox’s incredible virtualization prowess, there’s a lot more you can do besides these five projects. For example, you can set up Pterodactyl on a separate Debian virtual machine and use it to run Minecraft, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive servers inside your home lab. If you’re fond of playing with obscure Linux distros, you can use your Proxmox machine to run all your favorite operating systems – at the same time, I might add. While it’s always better to run OpenWRT on a separate system, you can still set up the OS inside a Proxmox virtual machine and use it to calibrate firewall rules to keep your home safe from cybersecurity threats.