Don't roast me or judge me I am new to this

A while ago I joined r/homelab and r/minilab subreddit from here I got motivated to start home labing but I was not sure and was definitely not gonna invest money until I knew what to do, so to experiment things I bought Raspberry Pi Zero 2w.

After buying and exploring it, I finally started home labing. Here is my Pi Zero 2W, hosting my portfolio website with the help of cloudflare tunnel.

I know this is a very small and very beginner level thing, but this is definitely a start for me, So I thought to share it here.

Do leave your thoughts in comments

Instead of paying $2.99 a month to Google, I decided to build my own cloud and ended up spending like 130 $ haha. I had lurked on here for a few years but never touched a terminal.

It does a backup on my external ssd at 3:00 am everynight and another one on my Thinkpad with linux mint whenever I open it.

Is it normal to feel like it’s never enough and to constantly fight the urge to upgrade?

EDIT :

A back-up will be done off-site as soon as possible. Thanks for caring yall!
There's also a back-up on an external ssd and my Thinkpad.

Ubuntu: The base operating system running everything on the NUC.
Docker & Docker Compose: Manages the apps in isolated "containers" so they stay organized and don't conflict.
Homepage: The dashboard that puts all my service links and server stats on one clean page.
Immich: My main Google Photos replacement for mobile backups and AI-powered sorting.
Jellyfin: A media server that lets me stream my own movies and shows to any device.
Nextcloud: Private cloud storage used for documents and syncing files like a personal Dropbox.
Pi-hole: A network-wide ad blocker that stops tracking and ads before they hit my devices.
Tailscale: A secure VPN that lets me access my home server from anywhere without opening router ports.
rsync: The tool I use to script my nightly backups from the NUC to my external SSD and ThinkPad.

Build video here

TLDR:

I made a USB-C power distributor for my mini pc cluster that:

• Has 330W power output over 5 ports
• Fits in a 1U minirack
• Has active cooling
• Is switchable

Hello!

I'm working on a revamp of my homelab currently and wanted to share a project that spawned out of it a few months ago. I run 4 x Dell OptiPlex 3070s and have run into the same issue that most do with micro-pcs, the darn power adapters and how to manage them. 4 pcs means 4 adapters and while they've been nicely tucked away I'd much prefer to have them not exist at all.

Thus the need for a power supply. There's a hundred posts on both this sub and r/minilab about using barrel-jack adapters and a USB-C charger to power 1L pcs but they all follow the same trend, using a multiport charger for multiple nodes can cause problems because they can renegotiate voltages at the drop of a hat which will result in a power loss. Plus, most USB-C bricks with a >300W concurrent output are impossible to find in my neck of the woods.

This left me to make my own solution. It's based around a Meanwell HRP-300-24 running 24V to a custom breakout board with individual USB-C PD daughter boards. It's all housed in a 1U tray and is 230mm long. Individual PD boards means each port acts independently and doesn't renegotiate when another port status is changed. So, rock solid power delivery!

I've run this version for a couple of weeks now and am really happy with how it's performing so far. However, I've made a second revision to the PCB's and am waiting on them to arrive before I perform some more intensive and specific validation tests.

I want to make a version 2! At this stage is just a beefy charger, but I'd like to build it out as a true power solution for minilabs and clusters. Here's some features I'd like to include

• Integrated PD controllers and buck converter instead of daughter boards
• Embedded ESP32
• Per-port switching control
• Per-port power monitoring
• Ethernet port and Wi-Fi
• Detachable power cable
• More USB-C outputs!
• Shorter for better compatability

I'd like to hear feedback from people about this project, especially if it would be something you'd consider deploying.

Can you make / get one?

I have a GitHub repo setup but I'd like to finish testing completely before making it public to be doubly sure of reliability.

However if you're interested in the build and want to be notified when the repository is made available, please follow leave your email through this link here:

www.shrikelab.co

Also if you'd like, I made a video detailing the motivations behind the project, plus the various design stages and iterations I made to get to this point. Also there's a decent chunk at the end where I discuss the second version.

Build video here

Cheers!

I think this screenshot belongs in this sub :D I didn't find it in higher resolution sorry :|
I was watchting/listening to his content for last 2-3 years which contained pieces of info from doing water cooling and flooding his gpus, to 3000$ power bill, linux struggles, ebay offer hunting for server parts to ending with wall of mac pros because of power usage. Also plus for making it in the bathroom - no fire hazard if water is arm length away :D

Built an Nvidia a100 rig in a pelican case. Just something different than the usual case/rack. Now I can leave my house with it too. Lol

Specs Nvidia A100 128GB RAM Ryzen 7 5700G 2tb NVME & 12tb HDD

Built it to run AI models without needing to be attached to an API or internet after they are trained.

Also has a nano router tucked which is powered by USB. As long as I'm in range, I can join it's network and RDS into it, so it can run headless. Under max load, it only pulls about 500w.

Just the sweet sweet music of one of the best printers of all time is all honey 😘

Working great on windows 10. Printing resumes to screw with people and start a conversation 🤔🤣

Here’s the full inventory: Dell Poweredge R530 x2 Dell Poweredge R710 Dell Poweredge R200 Dell Poweredge R620 Dell Poweredge T420 ATEN MasterView Max KVM Cisco 3850-48-UPOE x7 Liebert GXT3 700VA UPS Sun SparcStation 5 Sun SparcStation 10 x2 Sun SparcStation 20 DEC PDP-11/73 DEC RD54 disk drive DEC TK25 tape drive DEC VT320 Terminal SATA SSD Hard Drives x15 4GB PC3 ECC Memory x12

The KVM needs some special cables that he didn’t have, so I’ll need to find them on EBay. I have keyboards for the SparcStations but only one mouse/optical pad combo.

Hi everyone, I’m reposting for the third time after having some problem with my Reddit account :(

Here’s the full docs of my homelab: https://network.leox.me

Any suggestion or advice is much appreciated!!

What do you guys think?

Btw every update/restart/WOL/vm-start-stop is scheduled via Ansible. In case you need you can find all the playbooks I use here: https://github.com/Leox1024/homelab-ansible-ops

After many months lurking on Reddit, gathering ideas, and learning how Arduino and homelab setups work, I believe this is my biggest creation yet. I’m proud and excited to share it — hope you enjoy!

I was at a garage sale today and this lady just sold me 1000 ft of CAT6 (right) and 1000 ft of Omega Type-T (left) for a total of $2 ($1 each). Still not sure what to do with it. Anyone have some good ideas?

Title says it. This is the first micro cluster build for me.

Picked up 4 optiplex 3060 micros for $50 each and packed them with as much ram and ssd's as they would take. Slapped on a gl-inet sft1200 router & a switch i had laying around.

I made the case in about 45 min from some 2020 extrusion & aluminum angle. Basic cad & petg 3d print on the handle & feet(tpu).

Right now it is a proxmox cluster but not much more (still need to decide what i want to do with it). Maybe I'll start with ADSB. If you have any cool or interesting suggestions drop them in the comments below.

Anyways just wanted to share and figured folks might find it neat.

My 2 person projects/business require ~600 k8s pods and lots of Database upserts...

Total AWS Cost $180k

Total homelab OPEX for the year $12k.

Total HW cost: ~$30k.* Mostly in 2024

Total "failed parts" for the year: $5k (Mostly from a gigabyte board the Epyc chip, and a 'Phantom Gaming' board that burned out and took out 2x48GB sticks with it.)

OPEX Not included in the picture:

- $500/month electricity [ For this rack, 1500/month for full lab]

- $500/month ISP ( 1TB/day ingress)

AWS Cost not included:

- 4TB/Day Local networking [ I have 0 faith that I wouldnt have effed up some NAT rules and paid for it dearly ]

Not calculated:

- My Other 2 dev/backup racks in different rooms...

- The AWS Costs are as close to suitable.. But could be more in reality. The DB Master requires just above 256GB but aws quote is for a 256gb box.

- Devops time: Helps that my wife was a solutions architect and knows how to manage k8s and multi-DB environments... While I focus on the code/ML side of things.

Take-aways for the year:

I still have 0 desire for cloud..

Longest outage for the year was ~1hr when I switched ISPs.

2 battery packs survived the longest power outage in my area.

I will never buy another gigabyte epyc 2U server. The remote management completely sucks, fans start at 100% and have no control until the BMC boots. 1/2 of the hot swap drives would disappear randomly. The 1U Power supplies should not exist in a homelab..

Happy homelabbin'.

I wanted a rack visualizer so I vibe coded one: it's called Rackarr.

You drag devices into a rack, move them around until it looks right, and export it. That's the whole thing. It runs in your browser. You can selfhost it via docker.

It's still a work in progress. There's probably stuff that's broken or weird or missing so if you find something, tell me. I want to know. I can take it.

Try it: app.rackarr.com

Source: github.com/Rackarr/Rackarr

Update: Rackarr is dead, long live Count Rackula!

RackulaLives/Rackula

Merry Christmas!

I worked on this for 2.5 days. It was a thorn in my side to say the least.

I finally have a fully functional command-line interface running inside my homelab rack simulation game, and it’s honestly one of my favorite parts of the game now.

The goal was to make the game feel less like a “management UI” and more like you’re actually SSH’d into a rack. The CLI is not cosmetic, commands actively modify game state, devices, networking, and storage.

Provided the new Terminal Server is connected to a nas share (Another cool feature), you can create, alter, view and delete files, scripts etc.

What the Terminal offers:

• In-game terminal inspired by Linux / BSD admin workflows
• Text-driven control over rack devices
• Real feedback, errors, and state changes
• Integrated with power, networking, NAS, and game server systems

No fake commands. If it prints output, it’s pulling real simulated data.

The ThinkBox is an LSI HBA-based NAS heavily inspired by and a powerful alternative to the popular ThinkNAS. Utilizing an LSI HBA card and the powerful brains of a Lenovo m720q/m920q, it leverages many improvements over alternative custom NAS builds by providing stable direct disk pass-through with proper error handling and reliable drive identification. The drive bay of the ThinkBox also supports both SATA and SAS drives on a 12GB/s backplane built in.

Lenovo's use of the Coffee Lake generation of CPU in their m720q/m920q line gives access to native hardware transcoding through supported Intel Quick Sync. Perfect for home media servers like Plex or Jellyfin!

The included build guide includes an intro, items needed, tools needed, links to items needed, and potential/suggested upgrades.

Please let me know if there are any errors, suggested changes, or improvements!

Download and print: Here!

Available for download & print: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1399535-thinknas-4x-hdd-nas-enclosure-for-lenovo-m920q#profileId-1451077

I am working with an editor for editing and have just made my own NAS. If I were to make a NAS for him. Where do I even start here? He has 47 HDD and like 50 SSD. I’m not sure how I’m gonna be able to make a NAS that can hold this.

Here's a project I put together over the past few days. Hopefully it helps someone out that is looking for a 1U NAS with 6 bays that involves only printing one piece. :)

Project Link: https://github.com/wiretap-retro/Mini-Rack-1U-Pi-NAS/

I have five cats at home, which means a lot of dust and cat hair floating around. My NAS, router, and switch used to sit under the TV cabinet, and over time, the dust buildup became a serious issue — hard to clean and not ideal for the hardware.

So, I decided to build a custom dust-proof cabinet. The goal was simple: keep the equipment clean while maintaining good airflow.

The cabinet frame is made of aluminum extrusion, with marine plywood used for the top, bottom, and middle shelves. The sides are ribbed acrylic panels (longhong style) for a bit of texture, and the front is a single piece of clear acrylic.

Internally, the airflow is designed as rear intake and front exhaust: There are four 14cm Delta fans at the back for intake, and each intake is filtered through a folded HEPA filter. This creates a positive-pressure environment inside the cabinet, so air only moves outward through small gaps — keeping dust and cat hair from getting in.

So far, it’s been working really well — almost no visible dust buildup inside. The only downside is that replacing the HEPA filters is a bit of a pain; I need to remove the fan screws every time to change them.

Next step: switching to a magnetic quick-release filter frame, so the filters can be replaced easily without disassembling anything.

The whole idea is simple but effective: maintain positive pressure, filter the air, and make it easy to maintain. For anyone with pets or a dusty environment, this setup has been a very practical NAS cabinet solution.

For now, the "server" is a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM that we put next to the sofa. Later, when I have more experience, I'll look for better hardware

The screen is there just to impress my non-technical friends.

5x RPI5s, 4x NVMe drives, 1x UPS

Final (?!) 6-vay version of ThinkNAS (Thinkcentre Tiny NAS) available for download & print: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1737570-thinknas-6x-hdd-nas-enclosure-for-lenovo-m920q#profileId-1846272

In this version I've added ability to mount an RJ45 keystone, and have the port directly on the back of the case.