HOME LAB BOM

Generation 9 HOME LAB Bill of Materials

Last Updated 05/05/2026

My current Gen 9 Workstation BOMs are based on Windows 11, with VMware Workstation 25H2 used to host nested VCF 9 environments. The primary purpose of these BOMs is to run VMware Workstation, with general Windows desktop applications as secondary use cases.

Below are the current BOMs, along with an Archive section containing my previous physical home lab builds. Going forward, my primary home lab will be based on VMware Workstation virtual machines.

Have questions? Check out the FAQs about the Gen 9 BOM.

Note: There really isn’t a playbook or documentation for what I am attempting to do with Workstation, VCF 9, and the BOMs below. I’m pushing them beyond it limits and it’s going to be a bit of hit or miss. As I move forward these blogs and BOMs may be updated or corrected.

VCF 9 Testing Updates

Status — 05/05/26 BOM2: Currently noticing some vSAN network latency warnings I added a 4th nested Workstation ESX 9 node with Window 11 21H2. Tried Workstation on Ubuntu 25.10 and it actually preformed worse that Windows 11 21H2. Additionally, I tried Windows Server 2022 and it had the same performance issue. Currently, testing Windows 11 25H2, but working through some compatibility issues. If Windows 11 25H2 doesn’t improve performance I may have to move to nesting on ESX. For now I have pulled down my blog content around BOM2 and will post it once I have finalized it. This may take some time and I will post when I can.

Gen 9 – VMware Workstation BOMs

Gen 9 BOM2 – (Not Final Under Development)

Gen 9 BOM1 – ( Not currently in use, runs VCF Simple install, this does not include VCF Automation)

Common items to both BOMs:

Other Devices

Storage (NAS, Backups, and File Shares):

Network (Currently Unused):

Battery Backup UPS:

ARCHIVE: Gen 8 Workstation Posts

VMware Workstation Generation 8 : Nested vSphere 8 Home Lab (2023-2025 Archived)

ARCHIVE: Previous Home Lab Information

Home Lab Gen 8: (01/2023 – 12/2024)

Home Lab Gen 7: (09/2020-02/2023)

Home Lab Gen 5: (01/2020 – 09/2020)

Home Lab Gen 4: (10/2016 – 2019)