I think most folks (here and elsewhere) would use virtual machines for those relatively lightweight services. That is one hell of an investment for a beginner homelab. Consolidating machines onto a host or three could probably get the entry point down to around $1000 for mostly gigabit, and budget 10G gear shouldn't up that too much. Have you checked out STH's Project TMM?
POE for management ports and backups? That is not where POE comes into play in the homelab. Possibly misinterpreted that sentence.
I'm sorry I need to clarify a couple of points and probably add some more context on my current setup.
I'm new to networks and designing a network and I wanted to see if I make any sense, how logical the plan I made is, and if my goals are even accomplished.
The plan wasn't to buy it all at once. I went with older business machines I can buy one at a time and add the dedicated service. I plan on running them in VMs at the beginning but I would like to add dedicated machines, buy gear slowly and develop the lab as time moves on. I wanted a way to increase the scalability and also learn how to network and manage a small infrastructure. The next step for my setup is to add the 24 port switch to add the other random devices like consoles and TVs and learn VLANs.
I got a Pi Zero, before the shortage, that I have a PoE adapter on. I bought the switch for the Pi and my small network. I wanted a way to implement it into my homelab plans and I thought using for management would be good. I planned on eventually running PiKVMs using the 4 PoE ports.
I already had 5 machines. 2 are old business machines. The Pi listed above. My personal machine, and a very old Macbook pro. I wanted a way to grow and implement them. For the business machines, one is a NAS and the other one is running debian with docker with all the services currently. I use the Pi as a back up DNS. I'm learning how to linux with the old macbook since I can just reinstall when I mess up without caring about the data on it. All of that connected to the PoE switch with 4 ports PoE and 4 regular.
I would love the project you're talking about. I am currently using Wendall's guide from Level 1 Tech but its a little bit of a struggle as I'm still fairly new.
To sum my questions:
I wanted to know whether or not its a smart plan?
What are good brands to implement?
Would you happen to have a guide on nfs, permissions and how to make them work together that would be awesome. Its been a struggle so far. Does Ubiquiti gear still require the account registration? Getting a solid answer on the internet has been frustrating.
Finally, good resources on making a network more secure?
Let me know if you have more questions.
Thank you.