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More random home lab things I've recently learned

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Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#121
post #77
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the point of the hobby is to have something to tinker with. if it were too easy it wouldn't be any fun.

I know, that's why I have my own "lab". I just don't get why most of other labs are so cookie-cutter proxmox + home assistant + (unifi controller) + pihole and there is always RPi somewhere next to a chunky server.

Because people have fun creating those sorts of setups. There are many tutorials for those setups, the hardware can be found relatively affordably, and it isn't something someone needs to have experience in enterprise networking to build. The purpose of the hobby is to have fun. If you aren't having fun, or if other people's fun is ruining your day, consider finding a new hobby. I suggest fly fishing. You could probably use more vitamin D.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#122
post #71

I don't understand some home labs. You see a beefy, but old rack server that has next to none single-thread performance (relatively). Usually servery underutilized un running Proxmox (issa lab after all) and RPi doing something for some reason? Those setups always pure "home-lab" because it's too small or macgyvered together for anything, but the smallest businesses...where it will be an overkill. Sometimes it's peop…

Running stuff on an underpowered Raspberry Pi is a good way to sniff test whether an infrastructure or software setup is sane. Powerful computers can hide horrible decisions for a long time, while less powerful devices make it immediately obvious if you need to switch a more efficient configuration. I think this is one of the main reasons why Raspberry Pi has such a strong representation in homelabs, including my own…

> I think this is one of the main reasons why Raspberry Pi has such a strong representation in homelabs, including my own.

I'd bet you're minority. People use Pi because it lets them assemble a cluster for under 200 bucks.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#123
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's possible you and I learn things very differently then (and I mean this a lot less snarky than it sounds). I built Raft from scratch in Scala 3 and that told me a lot about Raft and Scala 3, despite being utterly pointless as a product (it's on my website if you care to read it). I have the same experience with everything home lab / Linux / networking - I always learn something new. And I work for a networking…

OP is right (not surprising, given he's a platform engineer with decades of experience unlike you, a nobody). You are projecting your extremely flawed and naive approach of learning k8s. If all you could think of is "copy-paste configs" then sure, you are definitely NOT gonna learn anything. You're just trying to act smart with absolute hatred towards people running k8s outside of businesses

> (not surprising, given he's a platform engineer with decades of experience unlike you, a nobody)

Also, an engineer with experience? I'm calling out over-engineering for the sake of over-engineering.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#124
post #71

I don't understand some home labs. You see a beefy, but old rack server that has next to none single-thread performance (relatively). Usually servery underutilized un running Proxmox (issa lab after all) and RPi doing something for some reason? Those setups always pure "home-lab" because it's too small or macgyvered together for anything, but the smallest businesses...where it will be an overkill. Sometimes it's peop…

I see people like you on /r/homelab all the time. "What's the point of this?" "k8s is not for you". Shut the fuck up man. It's called homelab for a reason. People can design it however they want, even if it's underutilized. And, you can learn a lot by running k8s cluster at home. Start with k3s, configure ingress/services/deployment, install ingress controller for cluster wide routing, install service meshes (istio,…

> you can learn a lot by running k8s cluster at home.

That is my argument, you're not learning much if your cluster 2-3 machines and a few RPis.

> Stop bitching and maybe have a real argument instead of shitting on homelabbers

Why so rude? I have a homelab myself, it's just for running things and not LARPing as sysadmin.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#125
post #69
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very easy to do this with LXC containers in Proxmox now, as passing devices to a container is now possible from the UI.

Just as easy with VMs, just have to pass the device to the VM

The only downside is that you essentially lock the GPU to 1 VM which there is nothing wrong with doing. At least with LXC, you can share device across multiple containers.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#126
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proxmox is awesome! I've been running it for ~5 years and it's been absolutely stable and pleasant to run services on. The Proxmox Backup Server is the killer feature for me. Incremental and encrypted backups with seamless restoration for LXC and VMs has been amazing.

I've been looking to get offsite backups going. Where do you keep your backups? NAS + cloud? I also wanted to back up my big honking zpool of media, but it doesn't economical to store 10+ TB offsite when the data isn't really that critical.

In my scenario, PBS runs on a VM on my Synology. My Synology does automated backups to Backblaze B2 daily. It averages about $5/TB for B2 storage costs for me.I only backup the critical stuff I don't want to lose.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#127
> Turns out, you don’t need an SD card at all↑ > What I didn’t know, however, is that Raspberry Pi 5s can actually support NVME drives!

...turns out you don't need local storage at all: if you already run a NAS you can bootp the RasPi over the network!

This also makes backups super easy.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#128
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people like you on /r/homelab all the time. "What's the point of this?" "k8s is not for you". Shut the fuck up man. It's called homelab for a reason. People can design it however they want, even if it's underutilized. And, you can learn a lot by running k8s cluster at home. Start with k3s, configure ingress/services/deployment, install ingress controller for cluster wide routing, install service meshes (istio,…

> you can learn a lot by running k8s cluster at home. That is my argument, you're not learning much if your cluster 2-3 machines and a few RPis. > Stop bitching and maybe have a real argument instead of shitting on homelabbers Why so rude? I have a homelab myself, it's just for running things and not LARPing as sysadmin.

Only a real sysadmin, which you clearly aren't, would know if someone is "LARPing as a sysadmin". So stop trying to pretend like a know-all smartass and GTFO. As the other comment said, get some vitamin D instead of spreading totally misleading statements on things you clearly don't know anything about

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#129

I just learned about the whole homelab thing a week ago; it's a much deeper rabbit hole than I expected. I'm planning to setup ProxMox today for the first time in fact and retire my Ubuntu Server setup running on a NUC that's been serving me well for last couple years. I hadn't heard about mealie yet, but sounds like a great one to install.

As others have said, Mealie is an excellent app for any homelab. My wife and I use the meal planning feature and connect it to our Home Assistant calendar that is displayed on a wall-mounted tablet. The ingredient parsing update is amazing and being able to scale recipes up/down is such a time saver.

Re: More random home lab things I've recently learned

#130
post #52
post #9

I've recently learned that "homelab" is a specific thing meaning you run certain software (like Proxmox), and not a generic term for running a 'server lab' at home.

Wait, what? Surely people have had ‘homelabs’ for longer than VMs and container have been mainstream?

Anyone else remembering Trygve Lode’s “treehouse” in Denver, where he ran video editing, music servers, and a local ISP from his home basement/weight room around the Pentium II era?

http://www.trygve.com/servers_quarters.html

http://www.trygve.com/house.html (scroll down)

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