Home Lab Thread -

[Lost But Not Forgotten]

Have a fully decked out 42U rack? Pi-hole? Running your own media server or hosting game servers?

Post your hardware and software set-ups here!

 

[Null]

1776 has a half-rack in a DC. I'm in an interstitial environment right now so it's just my old laptop on a huge mousepad and a real keyboard leaned up against it. I'm using the huge A/C adapter thing as a stand for it. Probably a fire hazard.

My actual computer is probably lost forever. Ivan stole it and is playing Dota and CS:GO.

 

[c-no]

I'm wanting to get further into computers beyond just using one to shitpost and play games. I like to know what's the benefits of running a server for media vs just running media files from my actual computer.

 

[Lost But Not Forgotten]

I'm wanting to get further into computers beyond just using one to shitpost and play games. I like to know what's the benefits of running a server for media vs just running media files from my actual computer.

It's really just a matter of your use case. If you have multiple people accessing the same files then it makes sense to get a media server. If it's just you then there's no point outside of keeping important files separate from your main computer.

 

[CrunkLord420]

 

[Un Platano]

I'm wanting to get further into computers beyond just using one to shitpost and play games. I like to know what's the benefits of running a server for media vs just running media files from my actual computer.

If you're just using it for media and other data storage the simplest way to do it is with a NAS server. You can turn any computer into a NAS using a software like FreeNAS or you could buy a dedicated NAS. They could run anywhere from 200 to 20000 dollars depending on what kind of performance you want out of it.

There's really no point in this though if you're only using a single device to access all the data. It would be faster and cheaper and you'd get better performance by adding a fuckton of hard drives to the computer you already have.

 

[Sam Losco]

Posting my full setup would take too much space.

Closest to a "home lab" would be the 1st gen Pi I setup for garage door monitoring and control. I put it in a box with a relay module. I wired it into my old ass garage door opener. It allows me to open or close the door from a WebUI and I also installed a door sensor at the top to monitor if it's opened or closed. If it's open for more than 10 minutes, it sends an email to me and my wife.

Also have a 2nd gen Pi connected to a small TV mounted to the wall upstairs that streams my 3 outdoor cameras.

3rd gen Pi connected to the upstairs TV running LibreElec for media streaming from my NAS.

Haven't bought a 4th gen Pi yet, but am thinking about it as it should be able to handle the camera streams better.

 

[David Spadem]

I've been collecting gear from work and eBay to get started on my homelab. I work in the Data Centre & "cloud hosting" sector of IT so I haven't been too fussed gathering everything immediately as I get mostly free reign on the Multiple UCS Blades we have.

So far I've obtained:

Dell 24U Rack (Lockable with Wheels)
Ubiquiti USG Router
Ubiquiti 24-Port Gigabit
Ubiquiti NanoHD AP
2x Dell R710 (96GB RAM each)
1x IBM x3560 M3 (Motherboard busted, came free with Rack).

At the moment I'm doing VMware certification training and keeping up to date with ELKStack, afterwards I'll be upgrading the R710's with a H200 Raid Card (Flashed to IT Mode) as I need JBOD and Dell has this annoying VD Raid that's proprietary.

Looking forward to seeing how this thread goes, I like seeing other builds, gives me more ideas for mine.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

My media server is just my desktop. I plan on migrating it to a hand me down that will be able to run all of it with a minimum installation of CentOS. Gotta do it the cheap and unemployed way. Of course I will expand it with other shit and make it more sophisticated than before.

 

[Wingus Dongshire]

My work gives us free claim to all the recycled electronics, so I've got:
48 port Netgear 10/100/1000 managed switch
Some Unifi UAP-LRs (can't wait for some UAP-ACLR's to get recycled)
Some shitty old Cisco SG 48 port 10/100 I use for PoE stuff since the netgear doesn't use it
An old workstation running both a pihole DNS sinkhole and a pfsense edge firewall
I'm waiting for a NAS to recycle so I can add a plex server to said workstation

 

[Yotsubaaa]

Haven't bought a 4th gen Pi yet, but am thinking about it as it should be able to handle the camera streams better.

I've been procrastinating on buying a 4th gen Pi myself. I keep seeing articles talking about all the heating issues that the 4th gen apparently has, and it psyches me out.

Raspberry Pi 4 getting hot? A closer look | ZDNet

There are some issues with the operating temperature of the Raspberry Pi 4. Here's what I've found so far.

www.zdnet.com

 

[potato fan]

I have an Intel Atom compute stick acting as my "home server"
I access it via Anydesk
I had set it up for torrenting, but then realised I dont really use torent much anymore, and now I use it entirely to access blocked websites while at work

I'd like to turn it into a linux server that I can log into from console, just for the coolness of that, but I know nothing about linux lol

 

[Wingus Dongshire]

I have an Intel Atom compute stick acting as my "home server"
I access it via Anydesk
I had set it up for torrenting, but then realised I dont really use torent much anymore, and now I use it entirely to access blocked websites while at work

I'd like to turn it into a linux server that I can log into from console, just for the coolness of that, but I know nothing about linux lol

Define logging in from console

Most modern linux distros package the SSH daemon out of the box so you can literally just install it and ssh into it, but that's for the CLI. If you wanted a desktop environment you just need to run a VNC server and forward some ports.

 

[KingFrampt]

I'm wanting to get further into computers beyond just using one to shitpost and play games. I like to know what's the benefits of running a server for media vs just running media files from my actual computer.

Depends also how many hard drive bays your case has as well, my old case was only capable of fitting 2 3.5 HDD's at a time so it meant my desktop wasn't really suitable for storing a ton of data. If you're running a server you can probably get a case more fit for your needs

 

[Wingus Dongshire]

Depends also how many hard drive bays your case has as well, my old case was only capable of fitting 2 3.5 HDD's at a time so it meant my desktop wasn't really suitable for storing a ton of data. If you're running a server you can probably get a case more fit for your needs

Having a media server also accomplishes the technological idea of "Do only one thing, but do it really well" that everyone's shifting away from. In total, it's useful if multiple people in the household use it but if it's just so you can watch stuff then there's no reason beyond "because it's fun"

 

[c-no]

Having a media server also accomplishes the technological idea of "Do only one thing, but do it really well" that everyone's shifting away from. In total, it's useful if multiple people in the household use it but if it's just so you can watch stuff then there's no reason beyond "because it's fun"

Considering that, I wonder what fun there can be in making server for only myself, beyond maybe getting experience in making and handling servers since I have been thinking of returning to school to finish getting a degree in handling computers.

 

[Sam Losco]

I've been procrastinating on buying a 4th gen Pi myself. I keep seeing articles talking about all the heating issues that the 4th gen apparently has, and it psyches me out.

Raspberry Pi 4 getting hot? A closer look | ZDNet

There are some issues with the operating temperature of the Raspberry Pi 4. Here's what I've found so far.

www.zdnet.com

I'm not surprised with heat issues, that's a given with a more powerful chip, but I was more concerned with the USB-C problem they had/have with some cables working, some not.

Hell, my Pi3 had heat issues. I had to get a metal case that uses the entire case as a heat sink because it was getting too hot and choking when playing some x265 files.

 

[Wingus Dongshire]

Considering that, I wonder what fun there can be in making server for only myself, beyond maybe getting experience in making and handling servers since I have been thinking of returning to school to finish getting a degree in handling computers.

My first foray into learning Linux was setting up a "media server" using samba/cifs, it's a decent way to learn especially if you learn better from practical use than reading.

 

[sidekek]

I have a rpi with a 2TB drive that I use with sshfs to increase VPS storage. I also have an old network switch, but I have no idea what to do with it.

 

[Kiislova]

A number of measuring tools, including a 4-Channel oscilloscope, a logic analyzer, a CNC Mill and a shitty Pentium 4 PC with XP to run the piece of shit software those pieces of hardware need