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Home Lab Beginners guide

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Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#271

Post by sandreas »

isopede wrote: post #241

I have a rather extensive homelab, painstakingly set up over time. It works great, I love it. Few questions for you guys: - My real problem is disaster recovery. It would take me forever to replicate everything, if I could even remember it all. Router configurations, switch configurations, NAS, all the various docker containers scattered across different vlans, etc. I mapped out my network early on but failed to keep…

I think the complexity of your infrastructure is not helpful - so I would start in reducing it.

I personally use one single server (Fujitsu D3417-B, Xeon 1225v5, 64GB ECC and WD SN850x 2TB NVMe) with Proxmox and an OpenWRT Router (Banana Pi BPI-R3). The Proxmox draws ~12W and the OpenWRT around 4.5W in Idle and with NodeJS I can run MeshCommander on OpenWRT for remote administration.

Since I use ZFS (with native encryption), I can do a full backup on an external drive via:

  # create backup pool on external drive
  zpool create -f rpoolbak /dev/sdb

  # create snapshot on proxmox NVMe
  zfs snapshot -r "rpool@backup-2024-01-19"

  # recursively send the snapshot to the external drive (initial backup)
  # pv only is there to monitor the transfer speed
  zfs send -R --raw rpool@backup-2024-01-19 | pv | zfs recv -Fdu rpoolbak
An incremental backup can be done by providing the -I option and two snapshots instead of one to mark the starting point and the stop of the incremental backup:

  # create new snapshot
  zfs snapshot -r "rpool@backup-2024-01-20"

  # only send everything between 2024-01-19 and 2024-01-20
  zfs send -RI --raw rpool@backup-2024-01-19 rpool@backup-2024-01-20 | pv | zfs recv -Fdu rpoolbak
That is easy, fast and pretty reliable. If you use this `zfs-auto-snapshot` you can rewind the filesystem in 15 minute steps.

This is also pretty helpful on rewinding virtual machines[1]. Recently my NVMe (a Samsung 980 Pro) died and restoring the backup via zfs (the backup shell command in reverse order from rpoolbak to rpool) took about 2 Hours for 700GB and I was back online with my server. I was pretty happy with the results, although I know that ZFS is kind of "experimental" in some cases, especially encryption.

1: https://pilabor.com/series/proxmox/restore-virtual-machine-v...

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#272

Post by leoqa »

I have two gaming computers that I’d like to vent up into my attic. Anyone tried this?

I considered moving them to the garage and then running USB-over-fiber to access them but have a ton of flight sim gear I need powered as well.

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#273

Post by EvanAnderson »

mech422 wrote: post #160
NelsonMinar wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen on reddit's /r/homelab, the neat thing about racked systems is you can buy very cheap used hardware that are discards from enterprise uses. There's very little market for an old server or rackmount network switch so you can get very good bargains. Personally I buy new cheap mini PCs and consumer networking stuff. That's another way to get bargains, since consumer hardware is so cheap. But I'm a bi…

The down side to the old enterprise servers is the power draw. I had 2 Dell blade server chassis and 1 HP blade server chassis that used Xeon based blades. The electric bill was UNREAL with 10+ blades running at once. I do use Dell PowerConnect manged switches from EBay, but tbh for what I do, TP Link switches work really well and are cheap. They support VLANs, MAC Lans, SNMP, SSH/Web configuration, etc etc - basical…

> The down side to the old enterprise servers is the power draw.

It depends on the generation of the gear. Stuff coming off-lease in the last 3 - 4 years has been of a generation where lower power draw became a major selling point. In Dell land, for example, the power draw differences are dramatic between the Rx10, Rx20, and newer series. (Basically, throw Rx10 servers in the trash. Rx20 servers are better but still not great.)

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#274

Post by Shawnecy »

Andrex wrote: post #260

This article has such a focus on hardware, when that's like... 1% of my homelab decision making. Was hoping this article would delve into hosting your own email, websites and services and the steps to expose them to the public internet (as well as all the requisite security considerations needed for such things). A homelab is just a normal PC unless you're doing homelab stuff.

This is always my area of interest, and I rarely see it covered. Maybe all the people who do it just understand it so well that's it just an after thought for them?

I've tried on numerous occasions to host my own services at home and use dynamic DNS to map to an IP, but when things don't work, it's hard to know if it's the hardware (consumer modems, routers, etc.), dirty ISPs who want to force you into a business tier to open up anything, some combination of the two, or something else altogether. Are the problems so one-off and specific that they all require bespoke problem-solving?

I would love it if anyone could share foolproof resources on the subject.

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#275

Post by ryukoposting »

buybackoff wrote: post #10

The article is good, but it is intimidating buy its size and scope. A homelab could be a single NUC on a desk. I have one with 64GB RAM and it could fit so so many things. NUCs are very efficient to run 24/7, but become noisy with sustained CPU load. For that one could grow the setup with OptiPlex or Precision Tower (can haz ECC) SFF from eBay. These Dell SFFs are very good, quite small yet proper desktops/servers wi…

I'll second this. My "home lab" is several small computers crammed wherever they can either be totally hidden, or where they can justify their presence. An old Celeron NUC lives under my couch, and it runs Pi-Hole, Syncthing, and some diagnostic stuff. It's extremely useful, and the impact on my electric bill is negligible. A Lenovo mini PC lives behind my TV, and serves double duty as a Syncthing node and an HTPC. I'll probably make it do other stuff eventually.

It's not the most sophisticated setup on earth, but it works great, it's dirt cheap, and it's apartment-friendly.

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#276

Post by mech422 »

Andrex wrote: post #264
mech422 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sound like a shill - I have no affiliation, just a customer but I _LOVE_ the H series :-) plenty of power for my needs, silent, low power ... and CHEAP! I especially love the large RAM capacity as it lets me run a lot of docker/vm/etc without swapping. Most of my stuff is idle like 90% of the time (stuff like git servers, etc) so the CPU is fine for me. I've had mine for a few years now (I had the first gen..) and…

Don't worry, I'm actually (the original?) ODROID shill! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32619740 :) Glad to hear they never stopped doing what they were good at, sounds like they've gotten even better!

One of us...One of us :-)

I really hope more people hear of the H2/H3 stuff...I'd love for Odroid to keep making/improving them! :-D

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#277

Post by belthesar »

znpy wrote: post #117
buybackoff wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to turn an OptiPlex into NAS. Actually you could pass-through entire SATA stack as a PCI device into TruNAS running in Proxmox VM so it sees SATA ports natively, with all goodies such as SMART.

If you just need to run a few containers, you might want to take a look at TrueNas (Scale) rather than Proxmox.

Depending on the use case, this is definitely an option. I personally prefer using Proxmox under my Container Orchestration hardware because, as it seems to always eventually do, my home lab has become production, and being able to do software patches of the underlying system without service outages is really desirable. I've been agonizing and going back and forth between various potential solutions for this for a couple months now, with the most recent attempt being "Deploy k3s, with a fully separate control plane from the worker nodes, and run all of those atop a Proxmox cluster because being able to migrate VMs across nodes and also stand up isolated workloads to test out other solutions makes changing things in the future far less risky".

That said, I was running the Homelab on effectively a single Unraid hyperconverged NAS/compute layer before then, and that worked wonders for quite a long time. I wouldn't consider Unraid my first choice now, given the advancements in TrueNAS SCALE in the time since I chose it as the solution, but the concept of NAS + Container Orchestrator as hyperconverged homelab today is quite attractive.

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#278

Post by tonymet »

daemin wrote: post #229
tonymet wrote: post #142

I'll go against the grain and recommend running your lab on Windows 11 Pro and Hyper V (often included with reclaimed PCs). Hyper-V is a very capable hypervisor and Windows hardware compatibility is excellent. Remote mgmt can be done over RDP, SSH or WMI Nearly everyone has a spare PC lying around collecting dust, and within an hour it can be running a dozen VMs . Reclaimed HP & Dells are cheap and include a Windows…

How do you handle the fact that Windows 11 is a desktop OS and it tends to want to do whatever it feels like restarting for updates and such. I would imagine it's a bit of a pain to have the system reboot at random, killing your VMs etc.

I manage this by scheduling restarts. Maybe 2-3x / month.

fwiw my linux machines get periodic kernel & firmware updates that also need restarting

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#279

Post by unregistereddev »

smallmancontrov wrote: post #20
buybackoff wrote: post #10

The article is good, but it is intimidating buy its size and scope. A homelab could be a single NUC on a desk. I have one with 64GB RAM and it could fit so so many things. NUCs are very efficient to run 24/7, but become noisy with sustained CPU load. For that one could grow the setup with OptiPlex or Precision Tower (can haz ECC) SFF from eBay. These Dell SFFs are very good, quite small yet proper desktops/servers wi…

I've been thinking about upgrading my current "homelab" (just an old PC), and I've been waiting for a small form factor with an integrated power supply and a bunch of NVMe slots. Does that exist yet?

There are SFF PC's with integrated power supplies that have a few PCIe slots. PCIe -> NVME adapters are readily available (not my website or article, but posting a link to a review site seemed more genuine than posting Newegg or Amazon links to specific products): https://thunderboltlaptop.com/best-nvme-pcie-adapters/

Re: Home Lab Beginners guide

#280

Post by jasode »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #102
jasode wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Then a third group are people who build a whole data centre at home AND run serious applications on it. These guys need to buy themselves a motorbike or something. I don't think the insult to a generalized group of people is necessary. Some enthusiasts have overkill racks, 40Gbps fiber, enterprise-class switches and vlans, etc, etc ... because it's their enjoyable hobby . The over-the-top components and making it al…

It’s not meant to be insulting, it’s a joke in good spirit I think it communicates the point that their setup requires a level of effort and commitment that’s not for everyone

>It’s not meant to be insulting, it’s a joke in good spirit

Oh ok. It's hard to tell you're joking because you've made condescending comments about generalized groups of people in the past. But I've never downvoted them and just moved on. I stopped to reply in this case because I recently saw a bunch "insane petabyte homelab tour" videos where the owners took a lot of pride in showing their setups. It sounded like the "buy a motorcycle" advice was dismissive of their hobby.

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