All-in-One Homelab: Proxmox OPNsense 26.1 & TrueNAS Virtualization (Part 1) | ZimaBoard 2 16GB + NAS

In this video, I demonstrate how to set up Proxmox and two VMs for OPNsense and TrueNAS. The goal is to create an energy efficient all-in-one homelab. I'll be using the ZimaBoard 2 (16GB model) and the NAS kit accessories sent to me from IceWhale Tech. This is Part 1 of 2. For Part 1, the focus will be getting the hardware, Proxmox, OPNsense, and TrueNAS set up. In Part 2, a deeper dive into more advanced networking and firewalling topics will be explored. The ZimaBoard 2 features the Intel N150, 8 or 16GB of soldered RAM, 64 GB of soldered eMMC storage, dual 2.5 GbE interfaces, dual USC 3.1 interfaces, 2 external SATA interfaces, and an external PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. The external SATA ports allow you to easily use the ZimaBoard as a 2 bay NAS and the external PCIe slot allows for using a number of PCIe cards including GPUs, NICs, NVMe to PCI adapters, etc. Keep in mind that 16GB is the absolute bare minimum that you should attempt to run OPNsense and TrueNAS on the same system. The Proxmox OS consumes nearly 2 GB of RAM, a comfortable minimum for TrueNAS is 8 GB of RAM, and OPNsense without running heavy weight services can run with 2-4 GB of RAM. Add that up and you're sitting at 12-14GB of RAM usage (if OPNsense and TrueNAS is using all of its allocated RAM). You should be able to run a few lightweight services in addition to the 2 VMs. With Proxmox, you may overprovision resources because most of the time not all the RAM is being consumed at the same time. However, you still need to be mindful of overprovisioning too much of your hardware resources. The ZimaBoard 2 plus the two 3.5" hard disks only consumes about 15-16W when idling. Word of caution: If you build an all-in-one homelab such as this where you are virtualizing your router and NAS, be sure to have a backup plan for your network and your data just in case of hardware failures. That is good practice in general and is not specific to using the ZimaBoard for such as homelab. As mentioned in the video, here is the link to the Level1Techs PCIe Bifurcation video which inspired me to try ditching the included PCIe extension cable when encountering the AER correctable errors in Proxmox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd6-BzDyb4k&t=729s Disclosure: IceWhale Tech, the makers of the ZimaBoard and other Zima products, sent me the ZimaBoard 2 and the NAS kit. They didn't get to see the video before I published it. Chapters: 01:08 ZimaBoard 2 02:14 ZimaBoard 2 NAS kit 04:26 Installing Proxmox 06:27 AER correctable error message 13:03 Setting up OPNsense VM 25:19 Setting up TrueNAS VM 31:57 Disclosure #homelab #zimaboard #opnsense #truenas EP90 Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdHQkQv8KpwMnKkitmUVTQ/join