The First Services I Always Spin Up in Any Home Lab

When I set up a new home lab, there are always a few key services that come first before anything else. In this video, I’m sharing the exact workflow I use and why these services matter so much. I’ll walk you through how I handle layer 2 switching and layer 3 routing to build a solid network foundation, why DNS is always the very first service I bring online, how DHCP makes managing IP addresses painless, and the reverse proxy setup that keeps access both simple and secure. We also talk about the importance of monitoring and VLAN security once the basics are in place. Read the written post on this topic here: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2025/09/the-first-services-i-always-spin-up-in-any-home-lab/ Check out the VHT forums to get your questions answered: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/community/ ★ Skool Community https://www.skool.com/homelabexplorers/about?ref=25f64c297b724689ae81c7dd30ba2c21 https://www.skool.com/homelabexplorers/about?ref=25f64c297b724689ae81c7dd30ba2c21 ★ Substack URL: bleevht.substack.com ★ Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrxcWtpd1IGHG9RbD_9380A?sub_confirmation=1 ★ My blog: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com ★ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vspinmaster ★ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-lee-vht/ ★ Github: https://github.com/brandonleegit ★ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/VirtualizationHowto/100092747277326/ ★ Discord: https://discord.gg/Zb46NV6mB3 ★ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/brandonleevht/ Introduction - 0:00 What is "service" in the context of this video? 0:46 Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing - 1:15 DNS - 3:06 DHCP - 5:25 Reverse Proxies - 7:27 Monitoring - 9:38 Last video - 9:45 Security - 10:00 Why prioritize these services? 10:32 My personal workflow - 11:15 Wrapping up - 11:52