Yes, I had to sneak containers in here. But the reality is containers usually rely on VMs. Since containers share the host kernel, the best practice is to run them on a dedicated virtual machine. Why? VMs give you flexibility, snapshots, and isolation that bare metal just can’t match. In my home lab, I use Ubuntu Server 24.04 as my go-to container host. I even automate it with a weekly Packer build, so my template is always fresh and updated—ready for new containers at a moment’s notice
Talos Linux is a lightweight, purpose-built OS made just for Kubernetes. Unlike typical Linux distros, it has no SSH access—everything is managed through an API interface. It’s modern, minimal, and immutable, which makes it extremely secure and reliable. Spin up a VM with Talos, and you can quickly build a dedicated Kubernetes control plane or worker node—perfect for learning how real-world clusters are deployed.
f you’re running Proxmox in your home lab, you’ll want Proxmox Backup Server too. It’s the perfect companion VM, giving you fast, deduplicated backups for your VMs and LXC containers—so your lab stays safe and recoverable.