Proxmox vs. TrueNAS: My Homelab Setup 2026

How I organize my homelab with Proxmox and TrueNAS and why I stuck with this combination.

In this article I show you my complete setup: From the Proxmox cluster with ZFS pools to TrueNAS integration for network storage to Docker orchestration with Portainer. After three years of experience I can say: This combination is the sweet spot between flexibility and stability.

The hardware consists of two Dell OptiPlex Micro as Proxmox nodes and a Synology NAS for cold backups. TrueNAS runs as a VM on the main node with a passed-through HBA controller — yes, this actually works reliably.