Here’s my beautiful unemployed-for-too-long-have-no-money-dont-care-about-looks lab :)
Hey it’s more than good enough to run all this ¯_(ツ)_/¯
It’s a work in progress!
the hardrive just out in the wild, living life like it was meant to be lived.
What are its natural predators?
gravity
beverages
drunk sysadmins
Spill your beer on it and get all three in one go!
Keys, paperclips and coins… they kinda work their way towards the PCB and short out crtitical things
Cats and very young humans
In a walk-in closet. Hdd laying on power cable to reduce vibration, works unexpectedly good.
Also late, but here is mine.
From the bottom up:
- An old pc I built forever ago for live streaming when I used to run my youtube channel. It’s an i7 something or other with 32gb ram and a 32 tb raid (4x8).
- m1 Mac mini
- HP elitedesk 800 G3 mini
- two HP elitedesk 800 G3 sff
- Deku
- dumb network switch
- rpi 4 8gb
And here’s what’s running:
- Bottom pc is the nas
- Mac running jellyfin
- the hps running:
- navidrome
- aonsuku (pretty navidrome frontend)
- audiobookshelf
- qbittorrent
- gluetun
- vikunja
- radicale
- Joplin
- matrix
- local backup for critical data
- some other things I’m forgetting
- The rpi is my wireguard tunnel to ssh in on the rare occasion I need remote ssh access.
Neat, very nice! I just got some new machines, I need to learn how to get one of my VPNs set up with gluetun and qbittorrent so I can stop doing on my windows machine and leave it going all the time…
Thanks!!
I found it to be pretty easy to get gluetun & qbittorrent set up. I’m running it all in docker, be happy to share my compose files if you’d like.
That would be very helpful for me, thank you so much! I am VERY new to docker, but managed to get something difficult up and running with it (a modded game server) with a lotttt of trial and error. I imagine it’ll be a lot easier to get something much less specific going!
You’re welcome! I’m out rn, I’ll share the files when I get home.
What’s that web interface thing? Is it home made? I keep thinking about doing something like that to save me having to remember port numbers for the different services on my home server.
It’s just heimdall.
Projects that im running:
General Web server out of junk
Old system 76 machine from a while back. Its what is running a majority of my services for self hosting. Only one screw keeps the case together, since I get into the insides quite often.
Solar powered web server on a phone
Solar powered web server. Its going to be repurposed into a meshtastic node soon.
Ebook reader on a heltek v3
Somewhat jank setup of a heltek which is also an ebook reader. It runs a webserver to upload the book in txt format, then I can take it on the go. I still have to do some work on the text.
Now that’s a crafty homelab, love it
The best homelab is the one you already have.
The second best is the one you want to buy :D
Is that a PI in your setup?
Yeah it’s just haproxy + uptime kuma
That ebook reader is wild! Does the text stay in place while you read, or does it scroll past like a stock ticker?
If the latter doesn’t exist, I guess I should go push a PR to make that happen on meshcore firmware haha
Stays in place. It was a weekend project so I still need to do some work on the text in particular. Im not sure if ill go any farther, but the code is here if you want to take a look.
Old system 76 machine from a while back. Its what is running a majority of my services for self hosting. Only one screw keeps the case together, since I get into the insides quite often.
If you get bored and adventurous:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_case_screws
Computer case screws are the hardware used to secure parts of a PC to the case. Although there are numerous manufacturers of computer cases, they have generally used three thread sizes.
The #6-32 UNC screws are often found on 3.5" hard disk drives and the case’s body to secure the covers. The M3 threaded holes are often found on 5.25" optical disc drives, 3.5" floppy drives, and 2.5" drives. Motherboards and other circuit boards often use a #6-32 UNC standoff. #4-40 UNC thumb screws are often found on the ends of DVI, VGA, serial and parallel connectors.
You might be able to get a box of thumbscrews in the appropriate diameter and go toolless. I’ve had a number of computer cases that ship with those (my current desktop case just uses magnets, doesn’t even have the thumbscrews). I have had a lot of less-than-ideal toolless things in the past, including poorly-designed toolless hard drive mounting stuff that wound up being a lot more work than the traditional tool-requiring stuff, but for the screws that keep the case closed, going toolless has always been a big win for me.
Thats good to know! Although if I am honest, ill probably just repurpose my current desktop that I am using for this conversation and get a new one if I end up re-doing my homeservers again.
Last thing I want to do is more work at home. So these are just “for fun” projects. If im not having fun, I start removing things from the setup.
Such professional. Much clean.
Not pictured: my raspberry running adguard. It’s tucked behind a TV, because it also runs Kodi.
That 95% unused switch 😱
Such electricity waste. Much unclean.
The used 48 port was cheaper than the used 24 port.
You call it waste, I call it reuse.
But you seem to only need a 8 port at most 🤯
It is a MANAGED switch, my guy. A simple 8 port switch would not work here.
I have multiple VLANs running.
Also, one of those connections is a 10gbe DAC to the big machine which is my NAS and main server.
Not too many 8 port managed switches out there with an sfp+ 10gbe port for 50 bucks, which is what I paid for that Brocade switch in my picture.
But hey, if you feel like buying one for me, I’ll happily take it, and start using it instead.
Not too many 8 port managed switches out there with an sfp+ 10gbe port for 50 bucks
Easy to get these days actually, with 10gbit sfp+ and 8x 2.5gbit, managed switches. About $60.
But my actual argument was that your 48 port switch eats electricity like crazy. That aint a cheap switch at all.
The only brand new, 10gbe managed switches that I can find for less than 60 bucks are off-brand chinese junk. No thank you.
As far as electricity cost goes? After doing that math, it might cost me a dollar fifty a year to use. That machine sitting on the bottom is a much bigger chunk than the switch itself, as it has 6 7200rpm SAS drives in it. Plus it’s a Xeon E3 CPU.
Those drives, each, use as much electricity as that switch does, even before considering the CPU itself.
it’s a mini pc, standing sideways, with a USB to ethernet adapter and USB HDD
How can you hear the DJ tunes over the server fans?
Can’t hear either over my tinnitus
Same. Thirty years later and I still have it D:
I remember looking at Sysracks racks a while back when I was trying to find sound-absorbent enclosed racks (which they do make, though I didn’t get one; wasn’t willing to pay for it, as they come at a very large premium). They were one of the very few companies making them. I don’t think that those particular ones are the sound-absorbent models, but their name stuck in my head.
I got this because it’s almost fully enclosed. Most of the noise comes from an open rear door which this doesn’t have, and an open front door which this sort of has. It’s not very loud when the hvac is set to a reasonable level, even though it’s pulling air through 4 fans on the top.
I have additional sound deadening material if I need to apply it but I’m not there yet.
I’m eyeing 3-5 more 1U servers though so maybe I’ll need to do it.
I have additional sound deadening material if I need to apply it but I’m not there yet.
That’s probably a pretty good idea in terms of cost. I checked earlier when I made the comment to see what the price difference these days was, and IIRC a non-isolated 18U is ~$800 and an isolated 18U is ~$1800. They aren’t putting anything like $1k of sound-absorbing material into the rack.
Oi thats too clean for this thread. Get out of here! /s Nice setup.
Business in front…
Man, GTFO with that hot mess… I’m jealous really. I’m getting a chub just thinking about it.
So clean, I’m jealous
Is this the “before” shot? There’s 190 spare ports. I’m all for leaving room to expand, but that’s a lot
Unpowered free 48 port switches are cheaper than block off plates.
Can’t argue with that!
mine is 3 old laptops and a switch in a pile
honestly the cable management is ok … ish
My little Raspberry Pi 5 with an old 1tb Hard drive connected to a WiFi extender. It ain’t much but I like it.
I used to work in automation as an electrician so I’m all about those coils and curves.
Coils & curves?
From my viewpoint it looks like balance and counter balance 🙂
Are those all balanced, pivoting around a power outlet?
It’s actually a plug in power outlet that plugs into a dual outlet box. It’s a snug fit so it’s able to hold all the extra weight surprisingly well.
It’s hard to see but I made a hook with the cable wrap holding the Pi5 and it hooks onto the cable wrap that goes the top of the quad outlet. That top cable wrap won’t slide down because I have two USB cables holding it in position. I designed it so I can easily detach it in case I need to do anything with the Pi5 or it’s hard drive.
I tried really hard to balance the Pi5 but the grey ethernet cable has too much weight so that’s the best I could do. I think I did a pretty good job all things considered :)
Hey it works doesn’t it :)
Gorgeous 😍
Built a year ago, didn’t change anything but drives since. PCengine APU OpnSense, two Proxmox cluster hosts, one mini PC NAS with JBOD. All DIY.
Way too professional looking for this thread.
Also, you got a link to that sticker? Maybe I’ll add that as an ironic reminder to my “Kabelsalat” 😅
I think I missed the irony 🙈
It’s from Kaoskvlt
I’ve seen that one before!
It looks much better than I have. My current infrastructure is built upon a set of mostly obsolete devices: Intel Atom 230 and 330 used processors. Also, SBCs: a few Raspberry Pi 2Bs, and a few Orange Pi Zeros (the very first gen, 32-bit). They are spread among different locations (office, relatives, home), and if I’d get a side gig job with the next company, I may deploy a couple of used computers for them too. So there’s not much to picture, but it looks much worse than this.
Also, is it a Surface on the left? I almost sure it is! I’ve bought 3RT (obsolete slow model) two weeks ago. It’s piece of shit hardware, but the concept of a Linux tablet / laptop for cheap (I buy used) is beautiful, so I’m considering getting one more modern model at some later point. I guess when my battery would be in a poor condition. It’s a great device for sshing, at the very least.
That’s the spirit, re-using “obsolete” stuff that is so not obsolete. And yes, good eye, it’s a Surface Pro 7 on Ubuntu on the left ;)
@northernlights @selfhosted “re-using obsolete hardware that’s not obsolete” - I’m wondering how I could use my old (still working) macbook air, and my old Time Capsule. Instead of experimenting home lab with a new mini-pc, I was wondering if those 2 machines can be used somehow.
To be precise: I’m totally blind so I’d need at least something with audio or Braille working at boot, or right after. Such as BRLTTY running to set everything up and having then the machine being usable via ssh.As for Linux on Apple computers of that time, if i’m not mistaken, they’re i386? So probably someone hacked that together. As to needing a system that works for blind people, I have no experience in that area, but if the tools you need are available on Linux, then they are.
I like your screenshot, what distro and DE is that?
Arch, not a DE, just hyprland.
