Homelabbing 101: From One Box to “Why Do I Have 12 Subnets?

Ever wondered what a homelab is, or how a single spare computer somehow turns into a rack full of blinking lights and mysterious VLANs?

In this session of The (Mis)Adventures of a SysAdmin series, we’ll take a high-level journey through one sysadmin’s evolution of homelabbing — from a single machine running Windows for Workgroups to enterprise grade virtualization servers and networking equipment running Proxmox. Along the way, we’ll explore how to turn one computer running Linux into multiple virtual machines running services.

This talk focuses on:

What a homelab is (and what it isn’t)
Why you should build one
How to start today with a single Linux desktop using QEMU/KVM and virt-manager
Lessons learned from years of “mis-adventures”

This session is beginner-friendly and designed for anyone curious about IT, systems administration, networking, cybersecurity, or virtualization. No enterprise hardware required — just curiosity and a willingness to break things (safely).

If you’ve ever asked, “How do I get started?” — this is where your homelab journey begins

About the Speaker: Romano Woodfolk is a seasoned systems and security professional specializing in High Performance Research Computing (HPRC) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). With extensive experience managing large-scale supercomputing clusters and secure infrastructure for regulated research, he specializes in Linux architecture, GPU computing, and parallel file systems like Lustre. Romano is a key technical lead in bridging high-performance engineering with federal security compliance, frequently contributing his expertise to the Richmond technology and research communities.