Using Proxmox as a Home Server Part II - SSHFS NAS

In part 2 of this series of guides, we will create a ZFS pool on our storage media, and then create our first LXC container to provide access to them over the network.

What is ZFS?

ZFS, short for Zettabyte File System, was first released 20 years ago next month (November 2025). It provides not just the functions expected of a filesystem, which manages the data thats stored on a volume, but also functions as the physical volume manager, allowing us to take multiple physical disks, and present them to the OS as a single, formatted, device.

Using Proxmox as a home server part I - Installing PVE

This will be the first in a series of blog posts describing how I use PVE as a base for my NAS, and to host other services. In this installment, I’ll discuss the the hardware required, the installation of PVE, and the initial post-install configuration.

Why use Proxmox?

There are plenty of choices for an OS to build on. Picking one is going to depend on what you want it to do. If all you want is something to host media files on, OpenMediaVault is an excellent choice, as is LibreELEC. I want to goa little further, with a single server to act not just as a NAS, but to run Home Assistant, and several other services. This means I want a hypervisor, where I can virtualise each of these services. While the above choices can all be made to act as a hypervisor, they lack the ease of use of systems designed specifically around it.

IKESP-Air: Calibrating the BME280

After making a few IKESP-Air air quality units an interesting issue became apparent. Due to the heat given off by the D1 Mini, the internal temperature of the unit was consistently a few degrees higher than the ambient temperature of the room in which the device was placed. This is honestly to be expected, airflow through the box is slow, the board sits at the top of the unit as does the BME280, and the heat has to go somewhere. If we want accurate room readings then, we need to account for this.

IKESP-Air

On a trip to my local IKEA for some other project supplies, I happened upon an intriguing item, a Vindriktning air quality sensor. Unlike its big brother, the ZigBee enabled Vindstyrka, it is a relatively simple box, with just a few diffuse LEDs on the front, indicating the “air quality” of a room. In its stock form, its really that simple. It piqued my curiosity as I wondered what metrics it used to determine the local air quality, and more importantly, if it could be hacked.