Is anyone running a homelab?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Is anyone running a homelab?

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109 posts

Master Geek

#2313254 8-Sep-2019 21:31

Oh you sound just like me haha

Here is my work in progress:

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/d13026/rack_day_finally_terminating_my_patch_panel/

It is a 18u rack. I've got a 4u rack mount case that needs to be painted and my old i7-2600 mITX system to go in it. It has Ubuntu server on it and I was thinking of running a few VMs on it to do various tasks.

The RPi is running Unifi controller for the UAP AC Pro and also PiHole.

I'm looking to ditch the ISP modem and maybe get a Unifi USG, then replacing the NetGear ProSafe with a Unifi switch.

Trying to build this rack with future proofing mind and keeping cost down is proving challenging.

Lias

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#2323122 23-Sep-2019 07:44

I've been lazy and not finished reassembling mine since I moved house a few months ago, but here's what I have put back in the rack.

I did something nasty to my back yesterday so it might be awhile before I finish racking all the other servers lol.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

JimmyH

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#2329495 4-Oct-2019 10:36

While I’m not an IT professional, I would love to have a homelab and play around with Linux and Docker etc.

However, at the moment I’m a bit short of both time and money (a new house/mortgage and a newborn will do that!), so actually setting one up will have to wait.

At the moment, my setup is pretty basic. A couple of PCs, a network of smart/connected speakers, media streamers, and a NAS with 42TB of raw disk, 36TB usable); and two other smaller single drive NASes (5TB and 3TB) that I use for scratch space and testing stuff.

It does annoy me how, compared to overseas, the price and availability of kit (especially hard drives and second hand server gear etc) is stupidly expensive. In particular I would love to expand my disk pool – I will need to add at least another 30-40TB over the next 2-3 years, and then grow it by 15-20 TB per year ongoing. I drool over the drive pricing US residents are getting by shucking Easystores, compared to what we have to pay here. I also need better backup, and would love to add an LTO tape drive. But both new and second hand LTO 5/6 drives seem stupidly expensive here, and far more expensive than overseas.

Apart from that I am quite keen to add a better Plex server (with a decent processor, graphics card for hardware transcoding, and NVMe SSD for metadata), and a proper rack mount setup. On top of that, upgrading my network would be nice. My current Plex setup is underpowered and struggling. A dedicated emulation PC connected to my main TV would also be nice - my Raspberry Pi (Retropie) is struggling with some consoles such as N64.

On top of that I want to start adding a bunch more smart devices (camera, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide sensors etc) to my network.

dt

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#2329511 4-Oct-2019 11:17

Lias:

I've been lazy and not finished reassembling mine since I moved house a few months ago, but here's what I have put back in the rack.

I did something nasty to my back yesterday so it might be awhile before I finish racking all the other servers lol.

wow thats a lot of switching for a home !

Lias

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#2329567 4-Oct-2019 12:32

dt:

Lias:

I've been lazy and not finished reassembling mine since I moved house a few months ago, but here's what I have put back in the rack.

I did something nasty to my back yesterday so it might be awhile before I finish racking all the other servers lol.

wow thats a lot of switching for a home !

Yeah I need to get rid of some of it lol. I got a bit carried away acquiring stuff when I was first studying for my CCNA, what's in the rack is probably only half of it.

I think what's in the photo is as follows:

Cisco ASA 5510 x2

Cisco 28xx ISR x5

Cisco 3845 ISR

Then 5 Cisco Switches, HP Switch and an IP KVM. The top two Cisco switches are antiques but Cisco Layer 3 switches aren't easy to come by (If anyone wants to donate or sell me some cheaply feel free lol)

Off the top of my head I've also got some more old Cisco gear, a couple of Allied Telesin switches, a Juniper SSG 550, and god only knows what else.

prat33k

182 posts

Master Geek

#2329577 4-Oct-2019 12:46

Damn so jealous of your stack. Are you giving away any of your "extra" stuff.? Please count me in :))

Lias

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#2329582 4-Oct-2019 13:02

prat33k: Damn so jealous of your stack. Are you giving away any of your "extra" stuff.? Please count me in :))

Yeah if you are in Welly I can probably hook you up with some antiques :-)

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xpd

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#2329583 4-Oct-2019 13:06

Ive got 3 servers sitting at home at the moment that I'll prob be throwing on TM soon...... will do GZ pricing as well.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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mentalinc

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#2329661 4-Oct-2019 15:03

What are you wanting to get rid of?

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prat33k

182 posts

Master Geek

#2329682 4-Oct-2019 16:43

xpd:
Ive got 3 servers sitting at home at the moment that I'll prob be throwing on TM soon...... will do GZ pricing as well.

Please update this thread in case I miss the pricing as I am looking to buy my first server machine to test and learn a lot of things. Much appreciated.

I am in Auckland though, will need to sort that deal too. :)

JaseNZ

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#2329704 4-Oct-2019 18:49

This is my current mess

Qnap TS-451+ with 40tb which I used to run a plex server on but now I use an Apple TV and Infuse to watch all our media content.

The open pc in the slot is an 8700k which has windows and Kali linux on it for mucking around.

The desktop pc also has an 8700k in it and is a hackintosh.

1 x Hades cannon nuc and a bean canyon nuc sitting on my test gear for mucking around with.

Everything in the pic runs into the 10 port switch on the wall which runs back to a Asus RT AC88U.

All the cables are just because I do a lot of repair in my spare time and it is just handy to have the cable sitting there you need.

This is all just in our spare room that my wife and I share but I have taken most of it over.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

BadCo

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Master Geek

#2330010 5-Oct-2019 13:24

BadCo:
Oh you sound just like me haha

Here is my work in progress:

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/d13026/rack_day_finally_terminating_my_patch_panel/

It is a 18u rack. I've got a 4u rack mount case that needs to be painted and my old i7-2600 mITX system to go in it. It has Ubuntu server on it and I was thinking of running a few VMs on it to do various tasks.

The RPi is running Unifi controller for the UAP AC Pro and also PiHole.

I'm looking to ditch the ISP modem and maybe get a Unifi USG, then replacing the NetGear ProSafe with a Unifi switch.

Trying to build this rack with future proofing mind and keeping cost down is proving challenging.

Recently picked up a Dell R220 and installed pfsense (instead of using a USG as I wanted to play with pfsense).

Started to look through the webui and was overwhelmed with the options, started to read the pfsense book and realised I needed to do some networking reading. Ordered TCP/IP Illustrated from the Book Depository.

Did someone say something about a rabbit hole?

xpd

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#2331016 5-Oct-2019 14:34

prat33k:
xpd:

Ive got 3 servers sitting at home at the moment that I'll prob be throwing on TM soon...... will do GZ pricing as well.

Please update this thread in case I miss the pricing as I am looking to buy my first server machine to test and learn a lot of things. Much appreciated.

I am in Auckland though, will need to sort that deal too. :)

No prob, just testing them to see if any suitable upgrade for my existing setup.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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xpd

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#2331017 5-Oct-2019 14:39

mentalinc:

What are you wanting to get rid of?

Theyre all HP - cant recall exact models, will have to dig those up :)

G8 = Dual E5-2620v2 CPUs. 6 core
G6 = Single Xeon L5520 4 core
G7 = Single Xeon E3-1220 4 core

Two will come with some HDD's (SAS 10k) the 3rd uses 3.5" SATA drives

All with RAM if I remember to install it again 🚱

But just going through them at the moment to see if I want to keep one, so once Im done I'll get full specs etc.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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Lias

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#2331170 5-Oct-2019 20:49

xpd:

mentalinc:

What are you wanting to get rid of?

G8 = Dual E5-2620v2 CPUs. 6 core
G7 = Single Xeon E3-1220 4 core

Hell I'm keen for those too.... most of mine are G5/G6 or equivalent era IBM/Lenovo's

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