I recently discovered Canonical’s MicroCloud while “doomscrolling” through various options for home lab platforms. Initially, I expected it to be similar to EasyNAS or XigmaNAS – decent but lacking in features and design flexibility. However, after spending over a week with MicroCloud, I was pleasantly surprised by its capabilities.
MicroCloud provides the essential components of a home lab platform: virtual machines (VMs) and containers. What sets it apart is its inclusion of containerization provisions, which are often missing from other popular virtualization distributions and platforms. This makes it an attractive option for those who want to run both VMs and containers on their home servers.
One of the standout features of MicroCloud is its high-availability clustering capabilities. While not everyone may need this level of redundancy, I appreciate the extra resilience and fault tolerance that comes with HA clusters. MicroCloud uses micro-service versions of popular tools to offer clustering support, which works well despite my personal preference for snap packages.
The platform also handles networking and storage with ease, thanks to its integration with MicroOVN and MicroCeph. For users who love ZFS, like myself, the support for this data pool format is a welcome bonus.
MicroCloud’s web interface is minimalist and user-friendly, making it easy to deploy the server and add cluster nodes without fuss. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that it runs seamlessly on Raspberry Pi devices, which is not a common feature among home lab platforms.
While MicroCloud has its minor issues – such as lacking external backup support for virtual guests – it’s still an excellent option for those looking for a free home server platform that can run VMs and containers. Its clustering capabilities and low-power Raspberry Pi compatibility make it a compelling choice, even if it’s not perfect.
Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/canonicals-microcloud-turned-out-to-be-an-amazing-addition-to-my-home-lab