Home Lab Server / NAS | Benjamin Graydon

Overview

This project started as an attempt to turn unused hardware into something practical. Instead of buying dedicated server hardware, I reused old laptops to build a lightweight home lab platform that could serve two purposes: give me a Linux administration environment to learn on, and provide network-attached storage for my local network.

16 GBRAM installed

500 GBNVMe drive for OS

1 TBHDD for shared storage

Ubuntu + Webminmanagement stack

Hardware Repurposing

Final repurposed laptop hardware with RAM and storage installed — The final base system after repurposing parts from old laptops into one working machine.

Donor laptop hardware used during the repurposing process — One of the donor systems used to make the final home lab build possible.

Reusing the hardware gave me experience beyond software setup. It required me to think through what components were still usable, how to combine them into one functional machine, and how to turn limited hardware into a practical home server instead of leaving it unused.

CasaOS to Webmin

CasaOS dashboard running on the home lab server — Initial CasaOS setup used to evaluate a more dashboard-focused management approach.

Terminal output showing CasaOS removal from the server — Removing CasaOS after deciding to use a more barebones administration tool.

I initially installed CasaOS because it offered a quick, polished dashboard experience. After testing it, I decided to remove it and switch to Webmin. That change was intentional. Webmin felt more barebones and closer to the actual system, which made it a better fit for learning Linux administration instead of relying on a more abstracted interface.

Webmin dashboard showing system information for the server — Webmin dashboard used for lightweight server management and system visibility.

NAS Setup and Samba Configuration

Terminal output showing Samba group and user setup — Creating the Samba user and restarting the SMB service.

Windows map network drive dialog pointing to the NAS share — Mapping the share from a Windows client to verify real network access.

Once the base system was ready, I configured the 1 TB hard drive as shared storage and set up Samba so the server could act as a NAS on the local network. I created a share, added the user to the appropriate group, set the SMB password, restarted the service, and then verified access from Windows by mapping the network drive.

Windows File Explorer showing successful access to the NAS share — Successful Windows-side access to the NAS share after configuration and authentication.

Storage Troubleshooting

Terminal showing NTFS mount failure due to unclean filesystem state — Initial mount problem caused by an unclean NTFS state from Windows.

Terminal showing ntfsfix and successful mount of the drive — Using repair steps and successfully mounting the storage drive afterward.

The drive would not mount normally because the NTFS filesystem had been left in an unclean state by Windows. Solving that issue was one of the most useful parts of the project because it turned a basic setup task into a real troubleshooting exercise.

Firewall and Access Control

UFW status output showing firewall rules for SSH, Samba, and Webmin — UFW rules allowing only the services needed for administration and file sharing.

I configured UFW to allow the services I needed for this build, including SSH, Samba, and Webmin. This gave me experience thinking through service exposure instead of just making everything reachable by default.

SSH for remote administration
Samba ports for file sharing
Webmin for browser-based management

Skills Demonstrated

Hardware repurposing and practical home lab design
Ubuntu Server setup and basic Linux administration
Evaluating and changing management platforms based on learning goals
Samba / SMB share configuration and user setup
NTFS mount troubleshooting in Linux
Firewall configuration with UFW
Client-side validation from Windows

Next Steps

This project is the foundation of a larger home lab. Future additions may include backup workflows, monitoring, self-hosted services, and game server hosting. As the lab grows, those expansions can become related portfolio projects of their own.