Homelab Part 2 — VMware Setup and VM Planning

Setting up VMware Workstation 17 Pro, planning the VM layout, configuring networking, and creating the two VMs that power the entire homelab.

Posted May 24, 2026

By Muhammed Omar Makhlouf

6 min read

Why VMware and Not Proxmox

The reference homelab uses Proxmox — a bare-metal Type 1 hypervisor you install by wiping your machine. I’m not doing that. I use my laptop daily for everything, and I’m not ready to commit to a full OS replacement.

VMware Workstation 17 Pro is a Type 2 hypervisor — it runs on top of Windows like any other application. I can start and stop my VMs whenever I want, pause them when I need full performance for other work, and keep my normal Windows setup untouched.

The trade-off is a small performance overhead. For a homelab running media and file storage, that overhead is irrelevant.

VMware Networking — Which Mode to Use

VMware gives you three network modes for VMs. Picking the right one matters.

Mode	What it does	Use case
NAT	VM shares host’s IP, hidden from network	Default — good for internet access but other devices can’t reach the VM
Bridged	VM gets its own IP on your real network	What I’m using — devices on your network can reach the VM directly
Host-only	VM can only talk to the host	Isolated testing, no internet

I’m using Bridged mode for both VMs. This means each VM gets its own IP address from my router — they appear as separate devices on my home network, just like a physical computer would. My phone, iPad, and other devices can reach them directly.

[SCREENSHOT] — VMware network adapter settings showing Bridged mode selected

VM Planning

I’m creating two VMs. Everything in the homelab runs inside one of these two.

VM 1 — AdGuard Home (DNS)

Setting	Value
Name	`homelab-dns`
OS	Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
RAM	1GB
CPU	1 core
Disk	20GB
Network	Bridged
IP	Static — `192.168.1.50`

Small and lightweight. It runs 24/7. I’ll give it a static IP by reserving it in my router’s DHCP settings.

VM 2 — K3s Node

Setting	Value
Name	`homelab-k3s`
OS	Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
RAM	24GB
CPU	8 cores
Disk	200GB (thin provisioned)
Network	Bridged
IP	Static — `192.168.1.51`

This is the main VM. Everything — Jellyfin, Nextcloud, all Kubernetes pods — runs here. I’m giving it 24GB RAM (leaving ~15GB for my Windows host and other work) and 8 cores. Thin-provisioned disk means it only uses actual space on my SSD, not the full 200GB upfront.

Creating the VMs

Step 1 — Download Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS

I download the ISO from ubuntu.com (server edition, not desktop — no GUI, lighter).

[SCREENSHOT] — Ubuntu downloads page with Ubuntu Server 22.04.x LTS selected

Step 2 — Create VM in VMware

File → New Virtual Machine → Typical

Installer disc image file (ISO): select the Ubuntu ISO
Guest OS: Linux → Ubuntu 64-bit
Name: homelab-dns (or homelab-k3s)
Location: somewhere with enough disk space

[SCREENSHOT] — VMware new VM wizard — guest OS selection screen

Step 3 — Customize Hardware Before Finishing

Before clicking Finish, click Customize Hardware:

For homelab-dns:

RAM: 1024MB
Processors: 1
Network Adapter: Bridged (Replicate physical network connection state)

For homelab-k3s:

RAM: 24576MB (24GB)
Processors: 2 sockets × 4 cores = 8 logical cores
Network Adapter: Bridged
Hard Disk: 200GB, thin provisioned

[SCREENSHOT] — VMware hardware customisation screen showing RAM and processor settings for the K3s VM

Step 4 — Ubuntu Server Installation

Power on the VM and walk through the Ubuntu installer:

Language: English
Keyboard: your layout
Network: leave as DHCP for now (I’ll set static IP after)
Storage: use entire disk (the virtual disk only)
Profile: set your username and password — I use homelab as the username
SSH: check Install OpenSSH server — essential so I can SSH in from Windows

[SCREENSHOT] — Ubuntu server installer — OpenSSH server option checked

Installation takes about 5 minutes. Reboot when done.

Setting Static IPs

I don’t want the VM IPs changing. Two ways to do this:

Option A — Router DHCP reservation (easier) Go to my router admin page, find the VM’s MAC address in the DHCP leases table, and assign it a fixed IP. The VM still uses DHCP but always gets the same address.

Option B — Static IP on the VM itself using Netplan (Ubuntu)

  
# /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml
network:
  ethernets:
    ens33:                        # check your interface name with: ip link show
      dhcp4: false
      addresses:
        - 192.168.1.50/24         # change for each VM
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 192.168.1.1        # your router IP
      nameservers:
        addresses: [8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1]
  version: 2

sudo netplan apply
ip addr show ens33               # verify new IP

[SCREENSHOT] — Terminal showing the VM’s new static IP after netplan apply

I use Option B — it’s self-contained in the VM and doesn’t depend on my router’s admin panel.

SSH Access from Windows

Once the VMs have static IPs, I SSH into them from Windows Terminal instead of using VMware’s console window. Much more comfortable.

  
# From Windows PowerShell or Terminal
ssh homelab@192.168.1.50         # AdGuard VM
ssh homelab@192.168.1.51         # K3s VM

First time connecting, accept the host key fingerprint. I also copy my SSH public key so I don’t need a password:

  
# Generate key if you don't have one
ssh-keygen -t ed25519

# Copy to VM
ssh-copy-id homelab@192.168.1.51

[SCREENSHOT] — Windows Terminal with two SSH sessions — one to each VM

Post-Install Setup (Both VMs)

I run these on every fresh Ubuntu VM before doing anything else:

  
# Update everything
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install useful tools
sudo apt install -y curl wget git htop net-tools unzip

# Disable swap (required for Kubernetes)
sudo swapoff -a
sudo sed -i '/ swap / s/^/#/' /etc/fstab   # comment out swap in fstab permanently

# Set hostname
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname homelab-k3s   # or homelab-dns

Verify swap is off

free -h
# Swap line should show 0B total

[SCREENSHOT] — free -h output showing Swap: 0B 0B 0B

VMware Tools

VMware Tools improves performance and enables features like copy-paste between host and VM. On Ubuntu:

  
sudo apt install -y open-vm-tools
sudo systemctl enable open-vm-tools

Resource Management — Running Alongside Daily Work

Since I’m using this laptop daily, I configure VMware to not let the VMs starve my host:

VMware → VM Settings → Processors → Advanced

Check: “Limit processor usage” if needed

The approach I use: I suspend the VMs when I’m doing heavy work (video, compiling, etc.) and resume them when I just need them for browsing or writing. VMware suspend/resume is instant — the VMs come back in 2–3 seconds exactly where they left off.

VMware toolbar → Suspend (pause icon)  → resumes from exact state later

[SCREENSHOT] — VMware showing both VMs — one running, showing power/suspend controls

Where I Am Now

At the end of Part 2 I have:

✅ Two Ubuntu 22.04 VMs created in VMware 17 Pro
✅ Both on Bridged networking with static IPs
✅ SSH access from Windows working
✅ Swap disabled on both
✅ VMware Tools installed

Next: set up AdGuard Home on the DNS VM so I have internal DNS for my homelab hostnames.

You can find me online at:

X (Twitter): Md3omer
GitHub: Mhdomer
LinkedIn: mhd3omar
Tryhackme: nonlouy

Homelab

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.