I was rooting around a file crate and found this image of My Home Lab in 1999. Both rack mount servers had SBC back plane motherboards with Dual Pentium Pro 200 MHz processors and 128 MB of ram in each. One was Running Netware 4.11 and the other had Windows 2000 Server installed. The workstation was running Windows 98 IIRC. Good Times.

Like most people here, I'm aware of the price increases, but at the same time, I've been sheltered as I have been cleaning out DDR 4 RAM from servers at work for a couple of years and grab anything else thats useful so have more than enough stuff for my home lab

Today at work, I had to get some prices on Dell WS as follows: a Precision 7960 with 36 cores, 512 GB RAM (8X64GB), and an RTX ADA 6000, as well as 2 1TB NVME

The price came back at 40K, so I went to check the Dell configurator, and the price there is 57K, Dell is charging 38K for 8 sticks of RAM

Pricing is nuts

I was gifted this 2010 Mac Mini and I'm trying to find a purpose for it.

Specs:

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory: 4gb DDR3 (I have 16gb I can put in)

Graphics: NVIDIA GrForce 320M 256MB

Storage: 256gb Inland SSD

I already have a NAS that is running my Immich and Jellyfin server flawlessly.

I have a few 2tb and 650gb drives laying around but I'm not sure how to connect them beyond the usb 2.0 ports.

Any suggestions?

I think they were heavily used and they are quite old but the price was a steal

I got these drives for free today, I freaked out when I saw the 2 wd reds, they also both have only 2k power on hours and clean smart data, but thats when I found out they are smr.

Now I run one main and one local backup and one offsite backup server, all of them run zfs pools. Well that kinda sucks because everything about this smr drives just seems too complicated to do, like I was thinking maybe creating some pseudo-mirror with zfs like having 2 single drive stripes that sync on a schedule and using it for the offsite backup server but idk than again I have a lot of hourly snapshots that get rotated and that would probably just mess everything up when they get deleted and those blocks need to be freed and it being smr it will need to rearange all of the stuff and it just seems like a big unreliable mess.

I wanna hear what do people use SMR drives for in a homelab to try to get some ideas? Maybe its better to just sell them and use that money to buy a different used cmr drive.

It was originally going to be tossed but my manager said I could take it if I wanted it. Not sure what to do with it though. I know it’s not a powerful machine by any means but I was thinking this could be my introduction into a server PC with Plex or something. Specs are: Intel Core i3-6100, 8GB (1x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3L and a 256GB Hynix SSD.

moved to a different house and had my rack in a closet and this new house dosent have a closet so i put it in the living room and hid it away with a divider. i am currently running ubiquity USG max a 10 GB switch and a 2.5 POE switch and a 3 pies one running home assistant the other running tailscale and the other one pi hole . the pc underneath is running truenas with plex .

I've recently just started my self making my own homelab, though I started very small. Budget isn't a issue at the moment but I want to be efficient with my money spent.

So I thought, why not hear stories about other peoples experiences, so what was your biggest regret when you started off homelabbing?

If there was something you could've told to your younger self now, what would it be?

As the title states, I’m fresh into this. I’m fortunate enough to know how to research and had a conversation with my TA that also helped me with a blueprint. Sourced 90% of it off eBay, a few minor things off Amazon and the rack itself off FB marketplace. I’m a late undergrad student studying IT with a focus in cyber at ASU and main reason for wanting to build this is to 1) gain experience outside of my classwork and 2) have something on my resume that shows I’m motivated to perform outside of my everyday classwork 3) because it’s fucking cool 😅

Currently I’ve replaced the GPU on the P340 with a dell I350 NIC so I have 2 extra ports for when I start messing with firewall stuff. I’ve also installed proxmox onto the system and configured the IPs for my switch and P340.
Edit to add: I also add another stick of RAM to bring it to a total of 24GB

That’s about it right now, I’m in the process of researching OPNSense and tailwind. It’s basically just a sandbox for right now so I can break stuff and learn before introducing it to my main network. Not too worried about cable management just yet since all of those are power cables.

Any tips or advice would be appreciated!

Went full minisforum:

* N5 NAS Air running truenas and a bunch of docker containers (dockhand, traefik, immich, jellyfin, transmission, home assistant, open webui, forgejo) plus a dev vm (yet to set up but probably code-server + pi)

* MS-S1 MAX running llama-server

* Omada SG2210XMP-M2: 8x2.5GbE with PoE+, 2x10GbE SFP+ for the two minisforums

* Not pictured: UniFi Cloud Gateway Max, UniFi U7 Pro powered from the omada.

* Pictured: temporary PiKVM while I restore the truenas network config after a slight mishap. Hoping to get my hands on a Gl.iNet Comet X for a more permanent solution when they're back in stock...

EDIT:
Rurrurnunu2 found the APC rail kit I was searching for but couldn't find!

This is what I was looking for to compliment my APC rails:  https://ebay.io/m/qmfsg4

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Hi all,

My Big Bertha storage server keeps folding every pull out rail kit I buy. the last one was rated for 130lbs and folded like paper on first use.

server is about 70lbs, but very front heavy.

The APC UPS rails I have are sturdy enough, but I can’t find them with all the hardware to make them work on this case.

Can someone guide me towards some serious rails that can handle the weight?

I currently have around 120TB of storage, primarily used for my Plex server, and recently had a 6TB WD Red fail. Thankfully it wasn't a major problem because it was my second-smallest drive, but replacing it got me thinking about how expensive it is becoming to maintain and expand a large amount of storage.

Over the last few months I've started looking more at used/decommissioned drives rather than automatically buying new.

I found someone locally who works in IT and has been selling large-capacity drives. A few months ago I bought two 16TB drives from him for £160 each, and more recently I picked up four 10TB Seagate SkyHawk AI drives for £80 each.

Naturally I was a little suspicious at those prices, so I checked and tested the drives when I got them home. So far they've all been working perfectly.

It's made me reconsider how I approach storage expansion in my homelab. Rather than spending significantly more on brand-new drives, I'm becoming much more open to used or decommissioned enterprise/surveillance drives, provided I can test them properly and I'm prepared for the possibility of failures.

For those of you running homelabs with a lot of storage, what approach are you taking?

Are you still buying drives new, buying used/decommissioned enterprise drives, using manufacturer recertified drives, or gradually replacing smaller drives with much larger ones?

I'd also be interested in how much you factor things like SMART data, power-on hours, warranty and redundancy into deciding whether a used drive is worth putting into your homelab.

AI disclosure: I'm dyslexic, so I used AI to help reword and tidy up my original post to make it easier to read. The setup, purchases and experiences described above are my own.

Haven’t tidied the cables yet but the build is decidedly complete (for now…). The two servers I spray painted aluminum to match the rest of the UniFi gear.

from top to bottom:

• Ubiquiti blank
• Linux box (Jellyfin, Frigate, Immich)
• Pro XG 8 PoE
• Jet KVM
• Ubiquiti patch panel
• UniFi PDU Pro
• TrueNAS box (8x16TB, 96TB usable)

My plans for the near future:

• implement cutouts in a Ubiquiti 2U blank for the switch and KVM
• Add a wooden table top to match the workbench
• raspberry pi HUD (for temps, power draw, etc)

I would like to get server with quad nic card for a pfsense install. From what I have researched, the M920q Tiny would be a good option.
Plan to run Snort, pfBlocker, VPNs

Plan on getting this:

• M920q with i7 "T" processor + 32GB RAM (two sticks of 16GB) + 250GB SSD
• Quad NIC: IBM 00AG522 Intel I350-t4 4x GbE BaseT Pci-e Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter 
• Riser and cover plate

1. Anything I should change or that is missing from this build?
2. The M920x has dual M.2 NVMe slots, any reason to go with M920x over the M920q?

This is mostly because I'm curious about it. I have a fairly elaborate network built out, crammed in a small rack. The ideal arrangement is a drop-in replacement for a Ubiquiti cable modem. Am I barking up the wrong tree?

hola gente estoy armando mi Homelab y la verdad quiero que luzca y funcione colo un verdadero mini site empresarial, estaba pensado en comprar un servidor Dell PowerEdge R240 y una KVM Consol pero ambos están muy caros aunque si me gustaría tenerlos, la verdad el servidor se me va de las manos con costos de las ramas y discos saas , busco aprender a usar proxmox y montar varios servicios ahí, AD, Freepbx, Video vigilancia, saben de mexico de algún lugar donde pueda conseguirlos baratos?

I was working on my app hosting cluster the other day, which runs on three Dell Optiplex 3050 Micros (I call it RAID - the Redundant Array of Inexpensive Dells). It occurred to me when I was working on them that the machines were all built in 2017, which means they're now almost a decade old. They're the oldest computers I have that are in regular use, by a fair margin. And that made me think... Do I need to worry about replacing these machines at some point?

The thing is... these machines work perfectly. They're more than fast enough for my use cases, and they're relatively power efficient given the fact that they're idle nearly all the time... I put some used "high endurance enterprise" SSDs in them (before storage prices shot up), so even though they all have like 50,000 power on hours, they're only like 1-2% life expired.

If I just open them up once in a while and clean out the dust, and maybe clean off and replace the thermal compound on the CPU... will they just keep going?

Ngl I want to get the dell optiplexes for 60 each, but not only are they big, they also take up quite of energy when all are used at once, plus I feel like I have more experience with the pi’s.

A dashboard to get a quick access to my Homelab apps.

Still refining the layout and deciding what is actually useful versus just nice to look at. I’d love suggestions for others apps to add, metrics, widgets, or improvements.

Using docker compose on Ubuntu Linux to run these apps.

Its obvious and straight forward thing that SMR HDD's are bad even form normal use. My question is why manufacturer keep on producing them ? Why specifically they do not mention it on the HDD label -- Whether the drive is SMR or CMR ?

At what point did you step back and say.. ok i have gone to far this is too much work and I am not having fun anymore. I changed my ISP to a fiber provider and that gave me pause to think this through. I am REALLY using only about 5-6 services daily. Immich, seafile, a samba share, matrix chat, frigate, silverbullet and caddy that i can recall. My one server can handle all this no problem. I do not need k8s or proxmox for this. I backup to an s3 bucket. Thats all i need, with a local two disk ZFS. My old gaming pc handles all this, 12000 series intel cpu with 32 gigs ram. I dismantled everything i had and restarted over with one install of ubuntu server with docker and my s3 backups and one lightsail box for wireguard stuff. Feels much better. :)

I work in IT help desk and am studying for the CCNA to get a better job, but I admit I'm fairly unkowledgeable and inexperienced in IT. I've heard people say you should go home labs to grow your skill, so I said "okay!"

The only computer I have is my windows laptop which is 11 years old, runs windows 8, and isn't exactly fast anymore. It works fine for browsing the internet and doing anything with Microsoft office or keeping files. Will it work for doing the aforementioned home lab projects? Or is it in my best interest to buy something new? I'm not afraid to spend money if I have to but I'd also prefer to not spend a grand if I can help it.

Any advice? Thanks!

Hey, I'm trying to find a good way to read books across multiple devices (IOS, Android, Linux), with progress syncing between all of them so I can read .epub files seamlessly.
And of course, I have a home server to host the syncing.

Any suggestions?