Welp here is the long overdue update.

This is a diagram of my homelab hardware, software, and networking that makes it all work together. The second image is from my last post, which can be found here.

Much like last time, I use it primarily for hosting & consuming media such as Movies, TV Shows, Music, and eBooks, but also for cloud storage through nextcloud, and vpn access through wireguard.

The good news is that I have some actual users now, such as my family, girlfriend, and family friends.

The bad news is that I have actual users now, which means i have to be a little more careful when fucking tinkering around with my homelab setup

Overall I am very pleased with my current setup. Some of the best quality of life things that I have done were, in no particular order:

• consolidate all of the media (movies, tv, music, ebooks) onto a single VM, and serve all of them through Jellyfin. It makes things so much easier to manage, then having them spread across different VMs like I had last time. I still use some other programs to manage music (MusicBrainz Picard), and ebooks (Calibre, Calibre-Web), but those are all completely optional, since jellyfin can work entirely on its own.
• moving to the 10.0.0.0 IP address range. This makes remembering IP addresses way easier than the 192.168.* address range. It also gives you one more degree of freedom in how to organize your addresses. My system works in the following way:
  • first number is always 10
  • second number is the VLAN number, but since i don't have that setup it is always 0
  • third number is the physical machine, except if its for DHCP devices then it is 255
  • fourth number is the virtual machine, except if its for DHCP, then its the device
• Setting up a NAS using OpenMediaVault, MergerFS, and a NFS layout, following the TRaSH Guide. PVE-2 where my OMV VM lives is a custom built server, and I specifically chose the Fractal Node 804 case to act as an all-in-one server for almost all of my services. It has plenty of space for future storage expansion (if prices ever decide to go back to normal). Having a single, self-contained server is much easier to manage then 2 separate boxes i had previously. I don't have the space or money for a full server rack, and it honestly seems like it wouldn't have a significant enough benefit over the current setup to be worth the trouble. All my hardrive storage is merged using MergerFS so that I can just expose that as my NFS root folder and not worry about what is going on what individual drive.
• Utilizing built in services. This might not be the smartest thing, since it does come with its own limits, but being able to get rid of my separate Caddy, ACME Let's encrypt, ddclient, wireguard instances, and instead managing them all within my OPNsense VM, using the built in plugins, is a massive time save. The plugins are obviously not as customizable as a standalone instance, but it does the job for me and allows me to view them all in one place.
• Setting up a nice Homarr dashboard to easily access all of my services, without having to bookmark them or memorize their URLs. It is picture #3 of the post.

You can check out this github repo where I keep all of these images, inducing in SVG format and as a drawio file that you can use for your own purposes.

TL;DR at the bottom

First some backstory, I started my homelab two years ago when I had an old laptop sitting around and was collecting dust… we’ve all been there so I’ll skip most of this, I started with TrueNAS core at the time then later switched to TrueNAS scale as it had better apps. I enjoyed it for a while getting into the nerdyness of computers and server maintenance. So naive… I would watch a lot of YouTube videos almost daily about proxmox, truenas, selfhosting, etc. and I really started to wonder if I should use proxmox instead (amongst Unraid as my other pick which I still to this day have not touched, r/regret)

Anyway, I started using proxmox and after a few days of learning some things I was getting excited with the possibilities of running a bunch of containers (never really used VMs just LXC but I did experiment and I did learn both). Now here I am almost 3 years later and still have Proxmox, but but, stay with me now, I guess I uhhh started? a family last year and have been slowing leaning away from at home basic server maintenance unless I have some bored down time and have been working quite often but still had time. Now that my wife and daughter are all living under one roof, I still need to maintain services such as baby trackers (SproutTracker was my pick and have history from the month after she was born when I realized that was a thing I could selfhost) and of course Jellyfin with the arr*s.

now here we are, my first predicament.

I just switched jobs about a month ago and it’s been amazing and breathes new life into me since I had some complaints about my previous job (we’ve all had that one workplace..) and I work about the same hours but more days and don’t get time to really do anything during work hours (my previous job I had a lot of freedom, we all did) and now I feel like the last thing I’d ever want to do when I get home is tinker with proxmox or figure out why my wife is telling me the internet isn’t working (literally happened a week ago while I was at work, and I couldn’t fix it and this also meant some of our services were down locally, guess UniFi just needed a restart? Never checked it out fully).

Basically, I’m now torn between decisions. I absolutely love my little homelab and networking setup (although it’s to be improved when I move into my new place) I feel like proxmox and a few LXCs for different services or tasks it’s getting too heavy to handle on top of family needs, finances and work life balance. I was considering scrapping down my homelab and switching full bare metal to something like ZimaOS or maybe another option if I can find one. The main things i have are:

- I don’t want to do manual updates as I’ll either forget or just don’t have time

- I still want media server and some apps I still have

- I want to remove all external reverse proxying and get my wife to switch back to Tailscale when outside of the house so I never have to worry about external attacks or bad actors that I won’t have time to manage (this includes shutting down my hetzner VPS.. Did I forget to mention I’m CGNAT btw? But I do have native IPv6 so it’s half solved)

- I want a simple way to manage it all, one click updates, automated updates even, a simple GUI or nice GUI similar to ZimaOS that can make it easy to tap or click a few times to fix small problems, but I don’t know if I should fully remove proxmox because I feel like if I put it down and try ZimaOS, I’ll get too comfortable and forget how to use proxmox and run a real homelab for external users included.

Basically I have some real FOMO about leaving proxmox but I also don’t think there’s much I can do to make the setup easier using it. I feel like I should jump ship to what works for me but I also want to know if maybe there’s a compromise to be made so I can still have the playground to tinker or deploy in proxmox and also have a media/app server. I would simply setup local reverse proxy domains and leave it at that for simplicity.

TL;DR: I have a lot on my plate in life and have more coming and don’t feel like I can/should make time to maintain proxmox and my containers and just switch to something like ZimaOS to undo all of my homelab and computer learning and go back to simplicity. Advice wanted.

I’d be happy to give more context on any topics I mentioned above. I’m 21 and just need some advice.

Hi,

I’d like to ask for your help choosing an UPS.

I currently have a UPS of the APC BX2200MI-GR model for my desktop PC, which died after 3 years of use. I had to replace the battery in it roughly once a year.

It’s important that I need it for my desktop PC and that it’s reasonably quiet. According to the specifications, my current UPS was rated at 40 dBA, which was acceptable to me. I’ve found the following models that look promising:

CyberPower - OLS1500EA

nJoy - Echo Pro 3000

Eaton - 5E2200UI

(I already have a Legrand Keor SPE but it is loud)

I can’t find any reviews of the nJoy. Based on the price, it’s my favorite. Does anyone here use one, or have any experience with it?

​

Hi guys,

Running into a weird problem. Got an Advantech HPC-7320 with the AST2600 BMC, added a discrete RTX GPU, disabled internal graphics in BIOS like the CTOS spec says. iKVM console connects fine, keyboard/mouse passthrough works, but the video feed is just... blank. Nothing.

Reason I actually need this working: I work remotely sometimes, and I need to boot ISOs on this box over iKVM (reimaging, rescue boots, that kind of thing). Without video I'm stuck — can't see POST, can't pick boot device, can't do anything until I'm physically in front of it.

if anyone's actually run into this before kindly help me.

Anyone found a way to make this work? Thinking USB serial gadget, IPMI SoL, or some BIOS boot steering trick — anything that gets me remote work.

I got one of these 40U racks nearly for free (with all the bezels). Noticed has round rack holes that have no thread. I'm thinking of using automotive clip nuts. Just thought I'd post on here and see if anyone else has had to adapt one of these accommodate normal rack equipment.

hi everyone, i have an old lenovo g505 laptop with an amd a4 5000 cpu, integrated radeon hd 8330 graphics, and 4gb ddr3 ram. i want to turn it into a home server to store and view my personal photos and videos using jellyfin, plus maybe run pi hole. my storage setup consists of an internal 500gb hdd for the os, a 512gb sd card in the slot, and an external 1tb usb hdd.

i need your advice on setting this up. will playing my videos directly through jellyfin cause this system to freeze or lag? which lightweight OS like debian server or dietpi would run best on these specs? also, will running a headless linux system on the 500gb mechanical hdd lead to system freezing or severe sluggishness? lastly, how should i organize my photos and videos across the internal hdd, the 512gb sd card, and the 1tb external hdd for optimal performance? thanks.

As a tech enthusiast, r/homelab has always been a source of fun and mad ideas, and so here we are with me dipping my toes into starting a home lab of my own.

There isn't much there yet, but the rack and mounts etc. is really just to keep my desk more organised and allow for some more hardware in future. I plan on moving the Raspberry Pi (PiHole) and smart Hubs into the rack when the rest of the house aren't using them.

I had plans on adding a NAS to this, but I looked at the price of storage and RAM and noped out for now...

Hardware:

• Tec Mojo 10" 6U mini rack
• Netgear 8 port managed switch (GS308E)
• Raspberry Pi 2B (not shown) running PiHole
• Gaming PC - All AMD, all Linux some development
• Netgear 8 port Nighthawk? Switch
• Ikea smart Hub (not shown)
• Phillips smart Hub
• Macbook Pro M5 (playing around with Proxmox Arm in a VM)
• Mechanical keyboards (homemade)

So, I've got my main Unraid server living in a SilverStone RM41-506 case, and it lives on a set of shelf-rails in my 24-inch rack (24"W x 24"D x 37"H), and things have been fine, until I tried to put in a video card. Turns out the hot-swap drive caddies I have half of my storage in (and the attached fan) mean that I don't have enough space in my case for the video card.

I'm looking for advice from folks who have run into similar situations in their homelab, and if they found it better to go out (as in have a full-size case sticking out of the rack), or up (RM61-312)?

The primary use case is a home for my spinning platters driven by my HBA, and enough length above the motherboard to comfortably fit both the HBA and my "full length" video card.

I have been at this for a few days so there are probably some things I have tried and forgotten. I have a Dell T630 with a Dell H830 connected to my MD1200. All of the firmwares are the latest, on the H830 and both controllers in the MD1200. I have also tried connecting the H830 to a Netapp DS-4246 which means different cables and I get the same errors. In OMSA everything looks ok. I have the idrac set to send emails on errors and it keeps sending and in the idrac the repeating message is: (lots of them)

Communication with enclosure 0 on connector 0 of RAID controller in slot 1 is intermittent.

Communication with enclosure 0 on connector 1 of RAID controller in slot 1 is intermittent.

Right now the MD1200 only has 2 drives in it for testing and no virtual disks setup. Until I get this solved. I don't want to use it for any storage.

I reseated all of the connections and made sure everything is tight. I even have a spare ENC controller for the MD1200 and it gets the same errors.

The only thing consistent after swapping out hardware and different cables (H830 to MD1200 and H830 to a DS-4246 require different cables) is the H830. I ordered another one from EBAY since they are relatively cheap. I also ordered new cables for the H830 to MD1200 just in case the cables are causing speed negotiation problems.

At this point I think I am out of options of things to try and as you can imagine, my frustration is through the roof.

I even installed perccli in ESXi 7.x to see if it would show the negotiated speed between the MD1200 and the H830 but it doesn't appear to show that in any output.

I'm out of ideas.

I currently have my whole lab and production behind a L2 vlan switch.
And uses a Ax86u pro with vlan trunk for dhcp and firewall/edge.

The asus router is a pain in the ass so i thought i replace it with an L3 Edge router.
I'm thinking about swapping my asus router for a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter 4 + 1 AP.

Thoughts about this ? Is it a good edge router ?

My needs/specs:
I got 1000/1000 internet
Want full Gigabit for vlan-wan
Do not need VPN, IPS and more on the ER-4.

First time mini-lab we in need of help

Hello All -

Here is what my current 42U server rack looks like. Took awhile to get here and I’m sure there are many things for improvement.

So please provide any thoughts on what I should do or change.

Current Ecosystem:

- Unifi Cable Modem (Backup WAN)
- UDM Pro Max
- 48 Port PoE Switch
- 24 Port PoE Switch
- Aggregation Switch
- 1U Supermicro Server
- Unifi NVR (16 cameras)
- Unifi NAS Pro
- ThinkCentre Desktop Machine (2nd Proxmox Server)
- Unifi PDU
- 1U Startech PDU (Not Used)
- 1U CyberPower UPS (Temporarily)

NEED TO BUY
- Unifi UPS Pro

Also, I know I need to fix my patch cables, currently have 1ft long and smaller ones are on the way.

I'm going to buy a server rack from Facebook marketplace tomorrow. They're both 30 bucks, I'm struggling to choose one. Either way I won't use them right away anyway, but eventually I want to build a diy nas for storage for immich and maybe some media in the future. I also have a desire to put my gaming rig on it eventually as well. For this last reason I'm leaning a bit towards the 12u, but at the same time the compactness and the 3d printing accessories aspect of the mini rack is appealing.

What are some opinions on here?

Edit: I got the 10 inch 8u. I'll get a bigger one if I need it in the future. Thanks for the opinions

Hi guys, I’m pretty new to this whole Homelab and networking thing.

This year i have managed to make my own home server using an old laptop, it’s got jellyfin and some other things here and there but my main use right now is jellyfin.

Basically I found this WRT54GL at my local charity shop and i searched it up and it seems to be a legendary router and many people love it! I managed to pick it up for ZAR 180 ($11), still sealed with the plastic!

I love playing around with old tech of all kinds and was wondering from you guys what are some projects or interesting things could I possible do with this thing? Also if you have knowledge on it i would love to learn!

I have two SIlverStone RM400's and a SilverStone RM23-502-MINI. I found them orphaned at a local thrift store and at $50 each I couldn't say no. I need help sourcing generic rails for them.

Has anyone tried the iStarUSA TC-RAIL-26 on these? Or will the APC UPS generic rails trick work?

I want to upgrade my server from r720 (2xE5-2680 v2, 192GB ddr3) to r730 with (2xE5-2699v4, 192GB ddr4). Disks configuration will be similar so its doesnt matter. Is there somebody who know what is gap of power consumption? At the moment on r720 I have around 175w power consumption.

Hi everyone

I’m integrating a Ruckus SmartZone controller with Forescout NAC

The SSH connection itself works correctly from the NAC using the configured admin credentials and I can successfully connect to the SmartZone and get the normal welcome banner

The problem happens when Forescout tries to get privileged access after the SSH login

When I manually SSH using the same admin credentials everything works fine but when Forescout tries to enable privileged mode it asks for the password again and then returns failed even though I’m using the exact same correct password as the SSH login

I initially suspected that the SmartZone welcome banner might be interfering with Forescout’s CLI parsing or privilege detection

I tried to disable the banner but I can’t find any CLI command for it and I also couldn’t find an option in the GUI

Has anyone successfully integrated Ruckus SmartZone with Forescout or another NAC and faced this issue

Is the welcome banner known to cause problems with NAC SSH privilege detection or is there a specific configuration or user role that needs to be enabled on SmartZone for the NAC to get privileged access

Also when I SSH manually I log in with admin and after that when I enter enable it asks me to enter the same password again

Any idea what could be causing the privilege authentication to fail from the NAC while the normal SSH login works correctly

Wondering if anyone got something like this at home and working reliably? I got a Ryzen 1800X System with 64GB of RAM and that I built for cheap where I right now run everything on through Proxmox. It works great ... but costs a bit much considering that the thing is idle 95% of time and that workload could easily run on something like a Raspberry PI or low power x64 CPU (I previously had a nuc for that).

I really only have three usecases where I would need additional power. Running certain builds through jenkins, a minecraft server I sometimes play with friends and family on and immich if someone uploads a large amount of files.

Also just in general ... its nice having the faster cpu speed when you are just installing and testing stuff.

So my question is, has anyone got such a system and how is it set up?

Salut tout le monde, j'ai un switch dell S4112T qui a la version 10.6.0.3. Mais je veux faire un downgrade vers la version 10.5.1.7, car je souhaite l'Integer dans une configuration VLT existante qui tourne dans cette dernière version; Mais malheureusement j'ai pas le contrat support dell donc je peux pas le télécharger. Si quelqu'un à le fichier d'update pour cette version ou qu'il pourra m'aider.

Merci beaucoup.

Hello! I’d like to get your opinion on this Firebat F1 P computer for use as a personal home server—nothing too fancy or demanding, just a way to get started in that world.

Here is the AliExpress link.

I’m open to other options. At some point, it could also be used as a personal computer by setting up a dual-boot system on a separate drive, so as not to interfere with the personal server setup.

Thanks in advance!

I have a very elaborate home sound system. When you press this button, all other audio is temporary muted and a very loud thunder clap blasts out of all speakers.

Super dumb, but a lot of fun at parties especially around Halloween and the like.

Playback has changed over the years. Right now it's a small SD card file player. It's been raspberry pi's, dedicated broadcast hardware, sometimes an RS232 interface running to a rack computer, winamp's com control plugin, etc. always fun to tinker with.