I'm currently using a Windows machine as the "server" in my home lab, but I just ordered some new hardware and I'd like to change things up to add some more flexibility and capability.

Based on my research so far, my plan is to install Proxmox on the bare metal and use it to run any regular VMs I need. However, I am still trying to figure out what to do about containers.

I know Proxmox also, supports LXC containers, but based on everything I've read, I think I'd like to use something more "industry standard". I was thinking Docker, but it sounds like Podman is lighter and more secure, so I am now leaning that direction. I plan on setting up an Ubuntu server VM in Proxmox and running Podman on that.

I'm thinking of running full blown VMs for more complex applications (Plex for example), but containers for simple applications (Pihole, ddclient, cloudflared, etc).

Does that all sound like a reasonable plan? Are there any obvious gotchas I might be missing? Any tips or resources you'd

A user on Reddit asked me how I monitor for outages on my Plex server. Since I no longer have any inclination to use Reddit, I decided to post the answer here and point them to it.

As a prerequisite, I am going to assume that you already have Remote Access setup correctly for your Plex server. If you don’t, that’s a whole other thing that you will need to get working first. However, if you see a green check mark next to Remote Access, and "Fully accessible outside your network" on the Remote Access page for your Plex server, then you should be good to move forward.

Step 0 - Set up Dynamic DNS

First, I recommend getting dynamic DNS (DDNS) setup. This isn't a requirement per se, but it does mean you won't have to redo everything any time your public IP changes.

I personally use https://freedns.afraid.org/, but there are quite a few options for free DDNS services. The idea is that you can tell the service your public IP address and they will assign a