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title: Blueprint — Lab Blueprint
slug: blueprints
status: draft
excerpt: Custom Proxmox homelab architecture plans built around your goals, budget, hardware, and skill level. See the full sample blueprint before you buy.
yoast_title: Custom Proxmox Homelab Blueprint | Lab Blueprint
yoast_metadesc: Get a custom Proxmox homelab blueprint covering hardware, VM/LXC layout, storage, networking, backups, security, build order, and expansion roadmap.
yoast_focuskw: proxmox homelab blueprint
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Your Homelab, Designed For You
A complete Proxmox architecture plan — hardware, layout, storage, networking, backups, security, and a step-by-step build order — custom-built around your goals and budget. Fill out one form. Get your blueprint in days. Build with confidence.
How it works
Three steps. Zero meetings.
1. Tell us about your lab. After you start, you’ll answer a focused intake: your goals, your budget, the hardware you already own, and your skill level. It takes about 10 minutes. The better your answers, the better your blueprint.
2. We design it. Your lab is architected and then personally reviewed, corrected, and approved by Charles Montago. Nothing ships without sign-off.
3. You receive your blueprint. A complete written plan (PDF + private link) covering all ten sections below. Then you build — at your pace, with a roadmap that’s actually yours.
What’s in every blueprint
- Goals Summary — proof we understood what you’re actually trying to do
- Hardware Plan — exact models with prices, or how to best use what you own
- Proxmox Layout — install decisions and host configuration
- VM / LXC Plan — every guest, its resources, and why it’s a container or a VM
- Storage Plan — ZFS layout, datasets, capacity math, growth headroom
- Networking Plan — VLANs where warranted, firewall posture, safe remote access
- Backup Plan — what to protect, where, on what schedule, and how to test it
- Security Recommendations — hardening matched to your skill level
- Build Order — numbered phases from unboxing to fully running
- Expansion Roadmap — where your lab goes over the next 6–18 months
Compare blueprints
| Mini $20 | Starter $79 | Builder $149 ★ Most Popular | Advanced $299 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Fast direction | Your first complete lab | Career builders & serious self-hosters | Clusters, cyber ranges, K8s, AI |
| Nodes | 1 | 1 | 1–2 | Multi-node or complex single-node |
| Guest plan | Up to 6 VMs/LXCs | Up to 12 VMs/LXCs | Custom scoped | |
| Hardware options | One direction | Best pick per part | Primary + alternate | Primary + alternate, incl. used enterprise |
| Network design | Basic recommendation | Sensible flat or simple VLAN | Full VLAN segmentation | Segmented, range-grade |
| Career mapping | — | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Cyber range / detection lab design | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Kubernetes / GPU passthrough design | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Automation starter pack | — | — | ✓ | |
| Expansion roadmap | Short next steps | 6 months | 12 months | 18 months |
| Turnaround | 48 hours / next batch | 5 business days | 7 business days | 10 business days |
| Revision rounds | 0 | 1 clarification round | 1 | 1, founder scope approval |
| Get Mini → | Get Starter → | Get Builder → | Get Advanced → |
Not sure which tier? Pick lower — if your intake answers need a bigger scope, we’ll tell you and you only pay the difference. We’ve never silently downgraded anyone’s lab.
See before you buy
We published a complete Builder Blueprint — every section, every table, every recommendation. Judge the work before you spend a dollar.
View the Full Sample Blueprint →
Why no calls
Calls are where good plans go to die. They’re unscheduled-future-you’s problem, they’re unrecorded, and they cost you another week of waiting for a calendar slot.
A written blueprint is permanent, precise, and skimmable at 2 a.m. when you’re actually building. You communicate in writing through the intake form and your revision round — and you get answers you can keep.
FAQ
What if my budget is small?
Good. Constraints make better labs. We’ve designed great learning labs around a single used mini PC. The Starter tier exists exactly for this.
Do you build it for me?
No. This is a plan, not an implementation service. The build order is written so you can execute it step by step — that’s where the learning happens, and the learning is the point.
What if I get stuck or want changes?
Every blueprint includes a written revision round (two on Advanced): send your questions and adjustment requests, and you’ll get updated answers in writing.
What if I already own hardware?
Tell us in the intake. We design around what you own first and only recommend buying what genuinely improves the lab. We will happily tell you to buy nothing.
Why Proxmox?
It’s free, open-source, production-grade, and runs everything: VMs, containers, Kubernetes nodes, GPU passthrough. It’s also what employers increasingly migrate to post-VMware. If your goals genuinely point elsewhere, your blueprint will say so.
Are the hardware links affiliate links?
Yes, and it’s disclosed in every blueprint. Commissions never change a recommendation — the recommendation comes first, the link second. Read our disclosure →
Refunds?
Full refund anytime before delivery, no questions. After delivery there are no refunds, but your revision round will be honored generously.
Who actually writes my blueprint?
Drafting is AI-assisted; every blueprint is reviewed, corrected, and approved by Charles Montago personally before delivery. His name is on it.
The most expensive part of a homelab is the second attempt.
Skip it.