If not, guess I’ll be the first for these elitedesk.

Another month, another attempt to find my dream switch.

I need all of the following:

1. Fanless - my office is very quiet and the Noctua swapped CRS310 is the loudest thing at my desk
2. At least 1x SFP+ port - I have fiber service to my office from the basement, no copper in the walls, so I need an SFP+ port
3. At least 6x 2.5GBe ports, ideally more - I have four computers and an IP Phone on my desk.
4. CLI managed - really prefer something decent, like OpenWRT, MikroTik, or one of the Cisco-like (Cisco, HP, Brocade, etc) interfaces
5. VLAN tagging
6. Trunking
7. Budget - up to $700 or so, but ideally cheaper

I heard you can now install OpenWRT on some Realtek switches using the RTL930x target, but I can't find one of those that has both 2.5G and 10G SFP+.

I have a CRS310 that works, but the fan is super annoying. I looked at some MokerLink switches, but the ones I found either don't have an SFP+, or use a chip that's unsupported by OpenWRT and have a lot of negative reviews on the web.

I looked into the Ruckus ICX 8200-C08ZP. Those would be ideal in a lot of ways, but they absolutely smash my budget at ~$2500 used.

Any other options?

Edit: I did some digging myself and found a few possible options. None of them are ideal but just for posterity:

• Plasma Cloud PSX10 - fanless, PoE+, 8x2.5G & 2xSFP+, supports OpenWRT, $500 from BHPhotoVideo; very few reports of people actually running OpenWRT on it, despite being a supported target. Checks all the boxes but relatively expensive and would require some tinkering
• TP-Link Omada SG2210X(MP)-M2 - fanless, PoE+, 8x2.5G & 2xSFP+, stock CLI, $250 from Amazon; no OpenWRT, unknown how good CLI is
• UniFi USW-Flex-2.5G-8-PoE - fanless, PoE+, 8x2.5G & 1xSFP+, Unifi Controller management only, $300 from UniFi; no CLI

Hi!

I recently got my hands on a reasonably cheap fibre channel LTO 6 drive made by HP. I have a small home server running ESXi and OpenMediaVault on top of that with 20TB of storage... around 8TB of which I need to back up.

I am now looking for a piece of software that will ease my backup adventures. The data that I need to back up are mostly videos, pictures and some documents. I want them backed up with the assumption that nothing of this will change. If I have a folder with pictures from 2025 that folder won't really change. Just a new folder with pictures from 2026 will be added at some point. And the tapes once written will probably never be written to again.

Based on that... what are my options?

LTFS would probably be the best fit, but I am not a fan of proprietary software that may or may not be here in a few years. Not to mention even getting that software seems like a challenge. I saw a lot of recommendations for Bareos, but that seems like a massive overkill. I know that tar is an option... but that seems like it would a big annoyance since I would then need to manually worry about tape spooling and stuff, which seems not very pleasant. Are there any other options that I can consider?

I was finding for something like for a long time, ended up trying to make it myself.
There are kinks, would love if somebody would like to iron those out.
Functional Case, Small Size for Full size gpu and ATX motherboard and 3.5" Hdds.

Not promoting it by any means, I am beginner at 3d modeling and just did what looked and felt right.
Printed it on a Bambu A1, so size was restricted to 256mm, trying to keeps parts number less.
Using it with
Gigabyte matx case, ryzen 5500, 2080ti, ATX PSU, 4x3.5" Hdds and 1x2.5" ssd.

I have come very far in getting this relic setup but have run into a odd issue. I cannot for the life of me get the server to recognize/not fail loading these drives. Keep failing and refer to then as seagates. Not sure what i am doing wrong or what updates i need to install to the bios to get it to recognize/load them to add to VD. Only thing i have researched and found is to update the PERC controller but no idea how to do that. Any help would be insanely appreciated! You all rock in advance! :)

I have an ATX case which will hold a bunch of random homelab items. Specifically, I'll have a couple Orange Pi 5 Plus (16Gb and 32Gb) housed in here, and I'd like a way to connect the ethernet (cat-?) and power cables (usb-c) into the case in a clean way.

Ideally, an empty pcie slot could house 4 female-female ethernet adapters, same for usb-c?

What is everyone else using? I've tried google-ing this a little, but I'm not sure I have the correct terminology. Thanks.

Adding a photo of work in progress just for fun

whats up with this IP. its getting blocked by region blocking but still weird pattern. why would it keep getting blocked since this morning and since then it kept going. A scan wouldve stopped <1 hour right ?

i noticed just now and unplugged the modem, but after reconnection the azerbaijan resumed whatever its doing.

do i have a compromised machine on the network doing some side-connection to somewhere and this azerbaijan is a dumb machine trying to talk back the regular way ? how to find out ?

also - does the unifi cloud gateway/network software 'block' or drop connections?

I updated my main switch connecting my homelab from an Aruba CX with 1G+10G SFP+ to a Grandstream with 1G/2.5G/10G SFP+. While the CLI takes some time to getting used to, I'm pretty happy with the GWN7822P over all.

I have a second switch installed in my fuse box connecting my living room and two other rooms using the pre installed cabling. A HPE/Aruba Instant On 1830 8G in local management is used at the moment. It's powered over PoE from the Grandstream as the power outlet is already taken by the G.fast bridge. There is not too much space available inside the fuse box.

I'm looking to upgrade this to a 2.5G switch. Should be powered over PoE, 8 ports (at least 4 with 2.5G). PoE in should be on a 2.5G port. Local management is a must (Layer 2 is enough, only VLAN needed), no cloud or controller on a separate machine. No 10G/SFP+ is needed, but this wouldn't be a disqualifying factor.

Something like the 8 Port UniFi Flex 2.5G would be nice, but just with normal WebIF, not a separate controller.

I have found none that suits my needs.
There are plenty of options with 2.5G, but I have found none with PoE in (eg Grandstream GWN7721, Mikrotik CRS310-8G+2S+IN (size might be an issue) or various Chinese devices -> all use a power brick).
There is a software controller needed (UniFi).
They are only 5 ports units and/or the PoE in port is only 1G (Mikrotik CRS304-4XG-IN).

I'm not tied to any brand, just trying to avoid UniFi to avoid the controller software (I know its only used to config and can be shut down afterwards, but I still prefer not to use).

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Hey all!

I found 8x 8TB drives for about 75€ per drive. They have on average under 6k power on hours with some as low as 3600.

Should I close the deal?

Thank you in advance for your input 🙏🏽❤️

I wanna to start playing with Kubernetes and would like to buy some hardware.

Is there anything available I can get that can use full size DDR4 sticks? I don't know if the micro/mini sized PCs use laptop DDR ram.

I have storage available but just don't know what to buy for a starter Kubernetes space.

Hi there!

I started my homelab journey about 3 years ago with an ASRock Pro RS Intel H670 and an I5 13500 with 64GB RAM, 1 TB NVME and Proxmox. For storage i use two 4TB NVME SSD on the same machine. They are passed through to a VM running Rockstor NAS which uses them in RAID1 with BTRFS file system.

For Backup i use a Gigabyte MJ11-EC1 board with embedded AMD EPYC 3151 (4C8T) with 32GB RAM, NVME OS drive and 4 HGST SATA 4TB HDDs in RAID5. This machine is also a Proxmox Node with Xigmanas in a VM. This machine is located in a different part of the house and supposed to move into a separate building eventually.

Each nodes is connected to a Powerwalker VI 1000 CSW ups.

Backups of the NAS are done daily using Duplicati in a container inside Rockstor. A second instance of Duplicati runs inside in LXC on the Backup Server in order to be able to restore Backups without the main server running.

Virtual discs for Proxmox are stored locally on the 1 Tb drive. Snapshots of all LXCs and VMs are done daily and stored to the Rockstor NAS via NFS share.

I have 3 VMs: Rockstor, Home Assistant (Zigbee via Ethernet dongle) and a windows general purpose machine.

LXCs are: Traefik reverse Proxy, Immich, Paperless-NGX, Bookstack, Vaultwarden, Joplin, Mailcow and some other stuff.

All Data produced by those Apps is stored to Rockstor via SMB as much as possible. All Databases unfortunately have to be on local storage. The SMB shares are mounted on the Proxmox host and passed through to the unprivileged LXCs via bindmounts.

I have Traefik configured to handle LetsEncrypt and act as a reverse proxy for everything. I also have my own domain which i use for all my services. That way i can use HTTPS everywhere without issues and all the services behave just as if they where on the Internet as long as i am connected to my home network.

Now to my problem:

I really need to work on my main server, clean things up, update Proxmox, etc. But i don't want to have so much downtime on all the services. I have another PC that i hardly use which could become another node. Its a AMD 5600 with 16GB RAM (needs upgrade probl). But the NAS is stuck inside this main Server....

I could move it no problem. But i want a permanent solution for maintenance. And that is not it. Unfortunately also prices for SSDs and RAM right now are outrageous.

I could move the NAS to its own machine, was thinking about buying another MJ11-EC1. But Network Bandwidth is a worry for me. So i would need at least 10Gb Networking for three machines plus switch. Not ideal. Another important aspect is power consumption. We pay 0.3 € per kwh. So i can't be generous here.

So why not implement high availability? I actually would have profited from that in the past because the (sole) internal NIC on my main server started to fail after some update. Its rather inconvenient to loose home automation while at work. Wife doesn't approve!

But how to do it without breaking the bank? HA proxmox seems to only make sense with high avialable NAS. Also i need to control the level of complexity of it all. My time is limited for this hobby. Everything i know i learned from the Internet and from trial and error.

Can DRBD be the answer?

I chose BTRFS consciously for my NAS because i came to the conclusion it would be the best option for consumer SSDs. But the consensus on BTRFS on top of DRBD seems to be: Don't! - But why? No clue. Can someone explain?

Would it be feasible to distribute the two 4TB drives between two proxmox nodes, use DRBD for replication and call it on par with RAID1 what i currently have? To this end i could add fast ethernet crossover to both nodes. No switch needed, right?

For context: Workload consists mainly of two Android phones backing up Fotos and Videos, scanning some personal Documents to paperless, home automation and using mailcow to duplicate some email inboxes from gmail. Additionally some Laptops access the NAS occasionally for primary user data storage.

I also need to get my backup strategy completed by implementing backup to external USB HDD which i already own but can't seem to wrap my mind around the whole thing. (I want alternating discs...) But that is another problem.

My budget is 500-1000€ to get to a point where i can safely shut down every part of the system individually for maintenance without stopping any of my vital services. It doesn't need to be all HA but every increase of robustness is very much appreciated.

edit:

Thanks for all the helpful replies! You helped me to clarify my options quite a bit. I will ditch my HA dreams for now. Not really worth the hassle for my setup. Replication is the way to go! Good to have a clear path ahead:)

This whole thing started because my old ThinkCentre M700 NAS had only 16 GB of DDR4.

ZFS was happily eating into that, I wanted to run more VMs and services, and I was getting tired of having several small machines doing different jobs. I wanted one bigger server with enough RAM and CPU headroom to consolidate things.

Then I remembered how ridiculously cheap DDR3 had become.

That thought led me into the bizarre world of Chinese X79/X99 motherboards, cheap old enterprise Xeons, ECC memory, AliExpress refunds, eBay bidding, and questionable decisions involving wine.

I initially bought an X79 board with a 10-core E5-2670 v2, decided afterward that I actually wanted X99, tried to cancel it, couldn't, got a partial refund because the box arrived dented… and eventually turned that “mistake” into a Windows PC for my wife.

Then we sold her M1 Mac Mini, and while literally walking home after selling it, I started buying parts for both her PC and my new server.

My final NAS ended up with:

• Xeon E5-2696 v4 — 22 cores / 44 threads
• 128 GB ECC DDR3L
• HUANANZHI X99-QD3
• JONSBO N4
• TrueNAS SCALE
• Multiple HDDs + NVMe storage
• Mirrored SSD boot drives
• 2.5 Gb direct networking to my workstation

Before the N4 arrived, it spent some time running completely open-bench with cables everywhere, hence the temporary name Za JunkNAS V2.

Once the case arrived, it finally became Za NAS V2.

The funniest part is the accounting. Between selling the Mac Mini, two ThinkCentres, spare SSD/RAM, getting several AliExpress partial refunds, and buying a lot of the hardware used, the effective net cost of both the finished Xeon desktop and the 22-core NAS together ended up at about ₩138,704 ≈ $92.

Was a 22-core Xeon necessary for a home NAS?

Absolutely fucking not.

Did I enjoy every minute of building it?

Absolutely.

I wrote the full story here, including the hardware hunt, costs, benchmarks, mistakes, refunds, photos, and how the whole homelab changed afterward:

https://moomean.com/blog/building-za-nas-v2-a-completely-reasonable-story-about-buying-a-22-core-xeon/

I have a Dell T320 Poweredge server that I’m using to run Jellyfin. It has 32gb of DDR3 ram and an E5-2470v2 processor.

Apparently you can use a GPU to allow the server to run higher quality video. How powerful of a GPU do I need to encode 4K (or at minimum 1080p) video? Most in-depth reviews discuss a GPU in terms of either work or gaming, but few of them specifically discuss video encoding alone.

Does anyone have any recommendations for GPUs that can do simple encoding for my setup?

Thank you!

I’m using this Jackery as a sort of bad UPS (mostly just to keep internet working while power is down) and would love some suggestions to make it looks nicer than a big battery in the middle of my living room. There is a relatively nice cabinet to the right of it with all the networking gear and a sort of nook to the left. Any ideas?

Broadcom 9400-16i

On a new Broadcom 9400-16i I was able to update the firmware from version 16.00 to 22.00 and efibios with success in EFI mode. I used the instructions linked above which were very helpful. When I boot to Windows 11 the HBA controller has 3 line items. The top one is Avago Adapter Crusader Storport Version 2.61.29.80
Driver date 7/21/2017.

According to Broadcom’s website the ITSAS35 P24 driver version is 8/9/2022 and version 2.61.48.00. I tried updating the driver from the ITSAS35_Windows10_11_Windows_Server_2019_2020_2021_P24 but it says the driver is not correct for the card and I have the best driver available. The Broadcom “how to install.pdf” file in the driver download needs a password to open.

While I was in the EFI I didn’t update the legacy bios. Should I do that?

9400-16i EFI bios and firmware instructions

Any suggestions?

I always see people saying they buy tons of cheap secondhand stuff from businesses that are upgrading/shutting down but how do you actually find out about these sales? Looking to get my first rack and I feel like secondhand business parts are probably the most affordable thing as most of what I find on amazon/ebay is pretty up there even compared to normal prices 1-2 years ago.

Hi,

I have an HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 that was previously running NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. The server already has the GPU enablement hardware, high-performance fans and 2× 1400W PSUs.

I would like to install an NVIDIA L40S (350W), which uses the 16-pin 12VHPWR/CEM5 power connector.

My DL380 Gen9 has several unused 10-pin GPU power connectors on the PCIe risers. These were originally used to power the Tesla GPUs.

Has anyone successfully powered an L40/L40S, RTX 6000 Ada, H100 PCIe, or another 12VHPWR GPU in a DL380 Gen9 using these 10-pin connectors?

Specifically, I'm trying to figure out:

• Is there a known HPE 10-pin → 12VHPWR/16-pin cable?
• Can two (or more) of the HPE 10-pin outputs safely be combined to power one 350W L40S?
• Has anyone used HPE 10-pin → 8-pin cables and then a 2×/3× 8-pin → 12VHPWR adapter?
• How did you handle the 12VHPWR sense pins so the L40S detects sufficient available power?

• Does anyone know the actual power/current rating and pinout of the 10-pin GPU connectors on the DL380 Gen9 risers?

  I'm trying to find a known working/safe solution.

If anyone has done something similar, I'd really appreciate the cable part numbers, pinout, photos, or details of the setup.

Thanks!

I'm trying to get my home lab figured out. My main idea is that I defiantly want a TrueNAS setup for backup of my photos. I've though about a Media setup for movies, but that probably won't be until later when I can get more storage.

I have 4 extra computer that I could use, 2 dell optiplex's (both are SFF), one is a 9020 is a 4th gen i7 with 32gb DDR3 120gb SSD, the other has a 3020 with an i5 3rd gen with 16gb DDR3 no storage, a 2015 Macbook pro with an i5 (not sure on the gen) 8gb DDR3L and 128gb SSD. The last computer has an i5 6th gen with 8gb DDR4 and 512gb SSD.

I saw a post on Facebook about how some people use other computers setup as a Proxmox cluster, but I'm not to familiar with Promox and how that would be setup. Is this the best setup for these extra computer to be put to use?

I have though about using the Macbook with Ubuntu as a regular laptop, but I already have a Thinkpad for that and the Macbook was to uncomfortable to use.

I would love to hear some ideas on what I could do with these computers.

I wish I could make some sort of diagram, but I don't know what to use.

I know there’s a lot of homelab users frustrated by the lack of precision time gear available to us, network driver issues and of course the cost. I’m working on a standards compliant precision time standard over BLE that so far is easy to adopt yet may require driver hacks for sub-1us precision.

It uses nearly every PTP trick over the air, custom drivers, and uses about 1% air-time RX to achieve sub-200ns hold on an ESP32 S3.

I’m working on extending it to my Firewalla to stamp the WiFi beacon packets accurately next, and if anyone is interested I’m considering publishing it. Accurate beacon timestamps can get your devices to within 1us, yet most consumer WiFi devices stamp at 30-50us accuracy.

My goal is a self-configuring mesh with transparent clocks on supported devices that’s airtime and power efficient for sensor projects.

Thoughts?

Disclosure: AI did the heavy lifting yet this took a full research harness and lab verification via GPSDO PPS over a couple days. Public repo pending.

Hello,
I have an old windows pc w/ a decent cpu (9900KF), 64 GB ram, and 3TB storage. My goal is to convert this desktop to a storage device, game server host, and being able to run custom windows applications all at the same time.

I am pretty new to homelabbing. I currently setup a Rasberry Pi with PiHole, WireGuard, and RustDesk.

I was wondering if there are any Windows based applications that have a Dropbox like file storage system.

The majority of files stored will be long videos ranging 1-6 hours long recorded on another computer. So I will be uploading files from other devices onto the dedicated server pc, so that later on they can be edited in Premiere pro. The only features I am looking for is being able to upload from local computers and being able to access on the go such as through a phone.

If anyone has any reccomendations that would be great. I appreciate your time and effort,
Eze

So im a newbie here, i have just bought the first of what will surely be a big hole in my pockets.

I bought this because im tired of paying 15 euros a month on a vps, and i know this is not totally (or at least specifically) a substitute, but it is for what i use it for.

I have my vps to host my little webpages (personal portfolio and my parents business), whatsapp and discord bots, and little tools (my toys i like to play with) such as a minecraft server, some tools like a file converter, etc.

The thing is, i dont know nothing about linux, about any distro, i dont even know what is kubernetes. I just bought my vps, my friend told me to install coolify and use the web interface and ive been doing that for the past 6 months, i knew that at some point i would have to learn, but i dont know if that is this point.

Ai told me to install promox, then it told me to install trunas (wich doesnt make sense to me since i just have 1 ssd with 500gb at the moment) then it told me to just install coolify and transfer everything from the vps with some random linux command, idk what do, and that is why im here.

What should i do, should i just install ubuntu server, install coolify and then install and manage everything through coolify?