Cawifre

I’d recommend dnsmasq for a DNS/DHCP server component. It is time tested, used on some consumer routers as a daily-driver industry component. It has a far easier learning curve compared to the like of ISC’s offering, and the feature gaps are not going to affect you until you have a firm grasp on many deeper DNS or DHCP nuances.

I’m a Nova refugee, and I’ve been satisfied with Lawnchair as a replacement. It isn’t as feature rich, but it hits the key notes.

Edit: Lawnchair site: https://lawnchair.app/

I’ve had similar thoughts some several months ago, but I haven’t even figured out how to get a stable desktop environment in a VM (my experience with Linux is mostly in server-land). My overall approach for idempotency is a git repository that has a Terraform blueprint and an Ansible blueprint, and the whole kit is pointed at my home ProxMox cluster.

With this workflow I can lift and shift my entire localnet wherever I want in the future.

You could use a much simpler blueprint approach to accomplish your Desktop Environment VM. You’ll want to externalize any data that won’t get included in a blueprint rebuild (databases, games save files, media libraries, etc.).