I was using sempahore as a cron with a front end in the #homelab and it's aight, but the cron function of it didn't work how I think it should... and would fail on and off and only works with ssh.. I use other cli commands with #Ansible.
I ended up finding #Dagu https://github.com/dagu-org/dagu.
And it's more flexible for sure as I use different cli tools, uses yaml.. It seems like a better fit to my use case.
Right hopefully my blog and git repo are backup online now. It took me a while to rearrange all the wiring and to shoehorn Beastie from the test bench into the rack too. UPS all operational and says I'm drawing 90W, 1A, 165KVA and have 2 hours of runtime. So all seems good and of course it passed it's self test under load too. I didn't however get that beast of a APC Smart 1500 in the rack as it is too long. So it is sat next to the rack under my desk on a small table to keep it off the carpet. 😂
#FreeBSD #HomeLab #RunBSD
While waiting for FTTH, I’m preparing my network to welcome it.
* I replaced the fan in the Mikrotik CRS310-8G+2S+IN with a Noctua, because it was really annoying. In my opinion, it will probably turn off completely during the winter.
* I reorganized the channels and bands of the access points. I set the one in my studio (Omada AX5400) to 160MHz, lowering the power to the minimum: I only need these speeds in the studio, and I can take advantage of them either by wiring up (like I did with my Mac) or via wifi. In the rest of the house, I can comfortably use 40 MHz at low power and 2.4 GHz for older devices, IoT, or the more remote spots.
Last night, using higher channels, I was reaching even higher speeds (around 1800), but then DFS kicks in and pushes everything back to channel 36…
I ran an OpenSpeedTest by setting the server on my Mac (connected via cable at 2.5 Gbit/sec) and via web from my Samsung S24 Ultra over wifi.
I’d say I can’t complain. 5 years ago I had a 20/2 Mbit/sec connection and I still can't believe that a 2.5Gbit/500 will be here...
#IT #Connection #FTTH #HomeLab
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This screenshot shows the results of a network speed test using OpenSpeedTest. The gauge at the center indicates that the test is complete. The results display:
* Download speed: 1492.1 Mbps
* Upload speed: 1532.5 Mbps
* Ping: 6 ms
* Jitter: 1 ms
At the bottom, the URL "192.168.14.4:3000" is visible, indicating a local network address. The battery level is at 50%, and the time on the phone is 11:56. Other indicators show Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are enabled.
I find myself potentially in the market for a #homelab #Proxmox server / NAS. My needs aren't great, maybe six or so containers and/or virtual machines; mainly I'll want plenty of spinning rust for storing backups, at least four terabytes and preferably more, and a smallish SSD for the operating system.
I'm soliciting suggestions for specs if anyone would be kind enough to chime in.
So every day is a school day and today I learned about SSH Jump servers and how useful they can be, allowing me to have only one port open and still be able to access multiple servers on the network. Not as secure as say Wireguard but hey I'm learning step by step and enjoying it.
#FreeBSD #RunBSD #HomeLab
Question for all folk that self host their websites. Do you have a robots.txt and if so what's advisable to put in it ???
#HomeLab #SelfHosted
Been pretty quiet today just enjoying the peace and quiet whilst off work still. Tomorrow I think I'll proceed in setting up a second jail with Bastille on my #FreeBSD #HomeLab Beastie. This will be home to nothing more than nginx to serve my blog. Once I have it operational I'll update my DNS to point to my router and update my reverse proxy to point to that jail also giving it https access.
But for now I'm soaking in a nice hot bath reading for and against reasons of switching from Linux as a daily driver to FreeBSD. So if you have plenty of plus point for FreeBSD other than the obvious like #zfs and being made by a team rather than lots of different teams feel free to comment below. Also if I do switch I'll be staying with #Wayland and #RiverWM .
We doing nginx or Caddy these days? Or a mix? Or something else?
Doing a general entrypoint on OPNsense and maybe another one on the actual VM hosting the services.
I do like that nginx on OPNsense comes with a WAF module, but I hear they're not worth much also.
So my Beastie backup saga continues. Sometimes my script won't mount_smbfs even with extended timeouts and retries. But will mount straight after a fail.
I added a few lines to check if the nas is actually mounted if not exit to stop it creating and backing up to an unmounted folder.
I tried adding a wake line with the WD MyCloud EX2 MAC address but if I leave the drive to sleep and try again it fails the first time but not straight after as it's obviously awake still. Next I removed the WOL line and replaced it with ping -c 10 IP and this works every time so I have now changed the count to 2 to see if it still works.
To be continued........ 🙃😂
#FreeBSD #RunBSD #HomeLab
So did my backup script work ?
Well sort of but my WD MyCloud EX2 has sleep mode enabled which obvs sleeps the drives after 10 minutes of inactivity. So when the cron job ran my script the mount_smbfs timed out. So this morning I adjusted the timeout and retry values in the script and waited for the drive to sleep again. Then changed the crontab time to a minute later than the current time. Now I have success ! The nas drive has the jail backups and the hosts all nicely dated. So I have set the cron job back to 2am every morning and hopefully tomorrow no more issues just backups. 🙏
#FreeBSD #RunBSD #HomeLab
I tell you I'll be happy girl if I wake up tomorrow and see pretty little backups on my networked nas drive. Then I'll know that my backup script and crontab truly worked. 😜 #EasilyPleased #FreeBSD #HomeLab #RunBSD
I'm working with what hardware I have to hand here and my nas is a smb mounted WD MyCloud EX2. Do I just auto mount the backup share at boot and leave it mounted. Or do I just mount and umount during backup ? The later maybe seems safer as it'll not be mounted all the time. This is a #HomeLab nothing commercial mind.
#FreeBSD
#HomeLab aka Beastie goings on today are getting backups running to the spare NAS drive I have that only supports smb. So I'm playing with mount_smbfs and will be rewriting my old backup scripts to run automatically at set times daily. I know there are probably easier options but I like to make things difficult for myself and do things the hard way. That's the only way I'll learn for sure.
#FreeBSD #RunBSD
Meine Homelab wird langsam.
Aus recycelten MiniPCs vier Proxmox Knoten gebaut.
Die werden automatisch per Ansible konfiguriert und mit OpenTofu und Ansible entstehen eine komplette Umgebung mit AdGuard als DNS Server, smallstep ca als CA mit ACME, GitLab und k3s Kubernetes Cluster.
Inkl. Firewallregeln, akzeptierten Zertifikaten, DNS Namen.
Und nach der physischen Installation von Proxmox braucht es nur eine ansible-playbook und ein tofu appply in der Konsole und alles ist fertig.
Jetzt muss ich nur noch automatisch User in GitLab ablegen, das Repo pushen und FluxCD in k3s deployen. Dann ist es fertig automatisiert.
Vielleicht minimal overengineered 😇
was up late last night working on my #homelab.
self-loathing is my passion
With my recent spate of #FreeBSD #HomeLab posts I feel that I should point out that I have never run FreeBSD before and that this is my first time hosting my git repo from home. It may not be perfect and yes there are possibly things that I have forgotten or quite simply didn't know about. But I'm still learning and I am extremely proud of how far I have gotten so far. Hopefully I'll be hosting more services in the future too.
I've had plenty of help and advice along the way from the #BSD community and I do really appreciate you all. Thank you 
❤️
Now that I have my git repo up and running in a jail on #FreeBSD I am considering whether to host my static website in the same jail which already contains git, cgit, nginx or to just keep them separate and create a new jail for websites only ? I'm leaning towards the later to be honest just in-case I decide to host different services on their own hardware. 🤔
#HomeLab #RunBSD
Right that's my #SelfHosted git repo up running and live. It's hosted on Beastie running #FreeBSD of-course. I'm still pushing to sourcehut and Beastie for now as I figure it's best to have a mirror for when things go Pete Tong. I've still lots to do on Beastie but slow and steady win the race allegedly. Links in my profile and on my personal site. Go easy on me as it's my first time running my own git repo. 😀
#RunBSD #HomeLab
Why in the heck are Cobalt RaQ servers selling for 600+ on ebay???? I was thinking it would be fun to scoop a handful for odroid h4 rackmount cases but apparently not??? I'll probably have a worse idea for this by the end of the night don't worry
Repeat with me.
I should not look at servershop24.de
I should not look at servershop24.de
I should not look at servershop24.de
.
.
.
.
Damn, a couple of R630 are so tempting! 🤦♀️ 😇 👩💻
So reinstalling #FreeBSD on Beastie with their new SSD and I notice everytime it boots I get cannot resolve errors from NTP but only on boot after it all works. Had a little search on the www and discovered netwait. This is just what I needed and indeed makes the services wait for the network before running.
#RunBSD #HomeLab
OK so Beastie the Fujitsu E420 E85+ is now in bits. It's CDROM / hard drive bay caddy lying on my work desk with the holes marked ready for drilling. This will enable me to install the second 4Tb drive where the CDROM drive used to be and the other right slogside it.. The SSD drive is sitting in the lower caddy on the chassis. #FreeBSD #HomeLab #DIY
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A photo of the Fujitsu E420 E85+ CDROM / hard drive bay caddy lying on my work desk with the holes marked ready for drilling. This will enable me to install the second 4Tb drive where the CDROM drive used to be.
Today these beauties arrived ready for the big Beastie upgrade tomorrow. I'll be removing the test boot drive and fitting the 1Tb SSD then installing #FreeBSD . After that I'll install and setup these two 4Tb drives as raid1 and move some of the stuff like /home and other stuff over to them. Then I'll spend the rest of my time setting up the #Bastille jails for #cgit , #Syncthing , #Radicale and possibly #LMS .
#RunBSD #HomeLab
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A photo of two Seagate IronWolf Pro 4Tb sata drives.
Will the R710 boot again after almost five years in a storage unit? Stay tuned.
#homelab #refurbish #datacenter #freebsd #newlife #backtohardware
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A Dell PowerEdge R710 and an R210 stacked in a storage room. They have been decommissioned from Tara's high secure datacenter in Switzerland in 2019: a bunker under the Swiss alps. Will the R710 boot again and regain new life somewhere else?
🎁 HomeLab, Sunday Update 🎁
Continuous Scalability! If that's not a marketing term yet, then it's a turn of phrase surely intended facetiously.
In any case we see additional hardware trickle in from storage, with these two units decoupled and relocated to the home/office lab. Sometimes the stock has to be chosen purely for workload necessity more than base-desires involved with "because I want it" -- that oft engaged homelab acquisition logic, bordering on impulse control resource management. Hardware is just so much fun; ever since my first loved system (IBM PC 5150) it's been a constant source of happiness, intrigue, education, excitement, and perhaps even imbued with a unique form of passion that just lights up the mesolimbic & nigrostriatal pathways (dopaminergic systems in the mid-brain, involved with... nm let's stay on topic).
Anyway, these two systems describe two base roles required in a (vastly simplified) storage network infrastructure, which is required by a short list of PoC projects. Those are scheduled over the next two months for homelab benchmarks, which require generating updated baseline perf metrics on various hardware types, plus requisite and documentation, and perhaps blog entries.
🪫System1 == HalfenConvergent? 2/3 HCI
Supermicro X11 board / Intel NICs 1,2.5,10G
Xeon-E 4.7Ghz
4x 1g SFP Intel i350, 4x 2.5g Intel i226, 4x 10g SFP+ Intel X710-DA4
64GB ECC DDR4 RAM, 2x 64GB SATA-DOM SLC
Optionally other storage but it doesn't need it because... it boots over the network via iSCSI LUN.
This node is used in a mostly-hyperconverged role, with specific NICs for direct passthrough to SDN member VMs. Their storage is small and ephemeral and hosted via tmpfs, resaturated via script just prior to their boot sequence. Oh wait, shouldn't I call this "declarative virtual machines"? No. That's just more marketing fluff; this grandma has been using declarative configuration and declarative state machines since before the cloud babies were born (also, Silverblue is slow and NiXOS has (otherwise useful) additional complexity which doesn't benefit this type of hardware deployment for SDN). So... FreeBSD!
🪫System2 == Qnap NAS 24TB
Annapurna Labs arm64 chip
32G RAM, 2x 128GB M.2 NVMe cache
NICs = 2x 2.5g, 2x 10g
Storage: 4x 8TB HGST 7200rpm
This is a backup node for the network LUNs, with its separate primary node operating via FreeBSD. Integrating this hardware is generally straightforward, and in some ways this makes it less intriguing than a CLI only hardware solution, but that's a story for another day!
#homelab #freebsd #linux #networking #storage #servers #engineering #fun #happiness #tech
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(top) System2 == Qnap NAS 24TB
Annapurna Labs arm64 chip
32G RAM, 2x 128GB M.2 NVMe cache
NICs = 2x 2.5g, 2x 10g
Storage: 4x 8TB HGST 7200rpm
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System1 == HalfenConvergent? 2/3 HCI
Supermicro X11 board / Intel NICs 1,2.5,10G
Xeon-E 4.7Ghz
4x 1g SFP Intel i350, 4x 2.5g Intel i226, 4x 10g SFP+ Intel X710-DA4
64GB ECC DDR4 RAM, 2x 64GB SATA-DOM SLC
I don't need NAT/Port-Forwarding on my Home-Network anymore and disabled the last remaining "Port-Forwardings".
All the servers in my home-network, got publicly routed IPv6 addresses and incoming SSH is permitted on my Firewall/Gateway.
Since my mobile data-plan features modern networking, with IPv6, I can do any remote-access without any NAT via IPv6 now.
And in the rare case, I am on a network, that only supports a legacy IP protocol, I've built myself a road-warrior VPN on a Hetzner server, to get myself IPv6 connectivity in those situations.
IPv6 all the things !! 🙂
One thing I sometimes miss is a proper space to assemble or play with hardware.
As an unwanted digital nomad, I don't have enough space even in my owned location.
I end up sitting on the floor for a few small things. Still, after a while, it becomes uncomfortable and unpractical, especially if you need to access the console and then continuously switch back/forth to the workstation/laptop.
Is anybody in a similar situation? How did you handle it?
This morning I’m experimenting with setting up an IPv6-only network using NAT64, leveraging the DNS from https://nat64.net/.
I’ve configured the Mikrotik router to distribute DNS via SLAAC, and everything works smoothly on both Mac and iPad - devices pick up their IPv6 addresses, DNS, and can browse without issues, reaching both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. The plan is to eventually set up my own NAT64 and move the main home LANs to IPv6-only.
However, Android devices are failing. They don't "see" the IPv4 coming through DHCP and report "no connection" - tested on both a Google Pixel 7 with GrapheneOS and a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
I’ll try some manual configurations, but in theory, this should work out-of-the-box.
#IPv6 #NAT64 #Networking #Mikrotik #Android #GrapheneOS #HomeLab #Apple
3.30am local time. Insomnia. I am not new to it. But this time, instead of staying in bed and reading a book, I'm browsing and drooling after a Node 304 case, as it has 6x3.5" bays.
I want to plan for the next-gen NAS in one of my locations for this fall and leave it as the only system in my storage room, aka a little "FreeBSD mainframe".
I'm a bit disappointed about the choice of motherboards in mini-ITX format, especially from Supermicro. I wanted 2xM2, 6xSATA, and at least 2.5GB or 2xPCI to accommodate an extra PCI NVME expansion card and a 10GB NIC.
However, perhaps this is because I recently (>= 10 yrs) only bought pre-made systems and lost track of what's available on the market.
Anyway, it's a problem for future Tara. I'm not going to do anything with these hot temperatures. 🥵
Ok, I'm lazy. Guilty as charged. But sometimes, keeping up with homelab infrastructure updates and maintenance feels like a job on its own. And it's not always fun, at least for me. But has to be done if I want to pursue self-hosting. 🤷♀️
#homelab #SelfHosting #infrastructure #update #maintenance #notfun #lazy #laziness #taraisslow #taraislazy
Now that it appears my move to BSD.cafe is complete, I believe it’s time for a #introduction.
First, I want to say how great it is to be part of the BSD.cafe community. I’m thrilled that this instance exists and is thriving.
I’m Blake, a Systems Administrator with a knack for #networks and #DevOps. Currently, I work in the insurance sector, focusing on #technology solutions for agricultural businesses. I have extensive experience with #Linux, #AWS, #Azure, and a variety of network solutions, from Fortigate (#FortiOS) to Netgate (#pfSense). I consider myself a big-picture solver, dedicated to enhancing infrastructure efficiency and security.
I’ve been using Linux daily since the late 2000s, when our family’s Windows XP machine gave out and I got my hands on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. Since then, I’ve experimented with everything from Arch Linux to Void Linux. Recently, I’ve started exploring #FreeBSD and #OpenBSD, and I’m truly enjoying the fresh experience they offer.
When I’m not immersed in technology, you’ll find me participating in ultra-endurance #cycling events or tinkering with my #homelab. I’m committed to continuous learning and love sharing insights on cutting-edge network and server technologies. I also enjoy exploring how technology intersects with everyday life.
One of these days, I plan to create a proper blog site to share my thoughts and experiences.
I look forward to connecting with fellow tech enthusiasts and homelabbers!
So far I've got a working git, cgit jail and next I'm going to try a Syncthing jail even though @vermaden says it won't work properly. If I fail then they can say told you so. Also on my todo list is a jail for my LMS serving my music library. I also may put my own website in the git jail too.
Oh nearly forgot that I use radicale for syncing contacts and calendars so that'll get it's own jail too.
Everyday's a school day. 😉
#FreeBSD #RunBSD #HomeLab
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/08/21/syncthing-on-freebsd/
Hi thought I'd better introduce myself. I'm Justine I'm a marine electronics engineer to trade which basically means I install / repair anything on a vessel from satellite internet and sat TV to autopilots, radars, VHFs and navigational equipment. Other than that I've been a #Linux user since around 2000 and even worked on the distro LRs Linux that basically compiled from scratch according to the users hardware and was LFS based. My current daily driver is #ChimeraLinux and my WM of choice is #RiverWm
I am currently migrating my #homelab from #Ubuntu to #FreeBSD.
What RISC-V computers/SBC are we using? I got curious and am now shopping for another Kubernetes node...
`.internal` is now official, finally!
https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/08/dot_internal_ratified/
slowly but surely, the funnest (ja, synack) hardware will be rescued from the storage space and returned to service. this pair of lovely Nvidia T40 24GB GPUs (Turing architecture) will be swapped into another Xeon server for a variety of ML/HPC workloads.
a new state, a new house, and all electrical costs included... well it's time to build out the latest iteration of my Homelab. over two decades of technical shenanigans, formally starting in 2001 with a new ebay account and my first online credit card purchase as a college undergrad (who doesn't want their apartment bedroom full of servers?).
the full architecture plan is still floating around in the brain undergoing spatial/comparative analysis, but in strong consideration for the GPU workload box is a 12-18U silent server rack with Tripplite AC connected via duct and blower with MERV14+ air filtration. most of the rest will be embedded systems installed on DIN rails with a 48V—240W PoE++ core network and standardizing on 5-12V via DC/gigE and DC/2.5ge PoE+ splitters — that gear is all ready to go, just need to decide which rack.
what kind of rack would you prefer, if you were rebuilding your lab?
#homelab #gpu #hpc #machinelearning #nvidia #tesla #rtx #turing #virtualization #virtualisierung #freebsd #linux #oss #foss #WomenInTech #WomenInSTEM
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Eva kneeling down, balancing a GPU, model "Nvidia T40 24GB" datacenter GPU (Turing architecture)
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Eva's left hand is balancing a GPU, model "Nvidia T40 24GB" for use in datacenters.
🇨🇦Synology now hosting my Nextcloud instance out of our basement. Custom sub-domain, DDNS, php-fpm, Memcache and 7TB of storage. Backed up to AWS Glacier. Will try to do a write up on how this week.
#nextcloud #synology #homelab (sort of)
💕Sunday Fun with OCP NICs 💕
a few pics while passing about the office. went to storage and found the Bluefield DPUs and some DAC - those will be used in the load generator when benchmarking the cards. somewhere around here is a multimeter and thermal laser meter thing, also important for validating sustained workload capability within hardware operating limits.
#homelab #networking #neteng #mellanox #intel #r86s #freebsd
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A workspace with various electronic components, including circuit boards, cables, various network cards, and a KVM Switch.
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An open electronic device known as a R86S, with visible circuit boards, ribbon cables, and internal components.
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An assortment of networking and computer hardware components on a desk, including circuit boards, cables, and electronic modules. A Mellanox Bluefield device is in center frame.
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An open computer case showing internal components including a hard drive, circuit board, and various cables connected. Disassembled parts and tools are visible in the background. At front is an Intel XXV710-DA2OCP2 network card installed into a R86S.
C'est parti pour le live #unboxing sur https://www.twitch.tv/ahp_nils ! #sysadmin #devops #linux #twitchfr #twitchstreamer #selfhosting #homelab
After patching all my homelab servers and services yesterday, I did take care of the Router/Gateway/Firewall of my network today and upgraded everything from FreeBSD 13.2 to 14.1 (including all the Jails and Beehyve VM's). Very smooth upgrade, everything still working perfectly.
root@gate:~ # uname -a
FreeBSD gate.intra.hofstede.it 14.1-RELEASE-p2 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p2 stable/24.7-n267758-4ad7ad40bc77 SMP amd64
Mais que contient ce colis ? Pour le savoir, rendez-vous à 18h sur https://www.twitch.tv/ahp_nils ! #sysadmin #devops #linux #twitchfr #twitchstreamer #selfhosting #homelab
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Plusieurs éléments emballés dans un colis souple et gris, posé sur une tour d’ordinateur.
How I over-engineered my Home Kubernetes Cluster https://bunetz.dev/blog/posts/how-i-over-engineered-my-cluster-part-1 #k8s #homelab
#esx #esxi #homelab #virtualization #dpm #opensource #cluster
* vm
* ct
* all
Keep in mind that containers can't be live migrated!
#virtualization #enterprise #homelab #opensource #vm #virtualmachines
NEW VIDEO - My New Server Is Here!
#supermicro #homelab #freebsd #opensource #garyhtech
https://youtu.be/Zbz9I6l35qM?si=ZZcUvIz0JZ62TZ-w via @YouTube
I was just struggling to #ssh into the server I'm setting up, and couldn't. My first thought was I'd mis-configured sshd, but, turns out I just hadn't turned the server on. Follow me for more #infosec and #homelab tips
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Picture of Eddie Murphy tapping his forehead in a thinking motion, with the caption "Can't hack a server if it's not turned on".
I jumped. I finally got rid of the Ubiquiti router and replaced it with a mini PC with an Intel Celeron CPU, 8GB of RAM 128 GB SSD and 4x2.5GB ethernet running .... vanilla FreeBSD!
I've automated everything with Ansible and simulated it in a virtual environment to reduce downtime as much as possible.
As expected, I encountered some issues with PPPoE, but they were quickly resolved. I also found some performance issues on PPPoE (which I solved as well), but that's probably for another post.
There's a lot to be done, configurations to be finished or polished. But still, it's a huge step for me. And, bonus point, I've got my IPv6 back ☺️
#freebsd #homelab #router #minipc
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photo of a mini-pc as a new router, with GPON converter/adapter and a power socket.
seems that I'm predisposed to embedded systems running on DiN rails..
- partially due to industrial automation standards
- partially due to the near perfect ability to physically compartmentalize and hierarchically manage a full production environment using RS-485 🫠
- sometimes 19" standards are limiting and boring, and I don't do well with that state of apathy
so in this video there's a triplex of GoWin R86s micro nodes, under the desk and connected to a UPS. I'll be moving them to PoE+ powered using a QNAP 20-port switch that runs 1G, 2.5G and 10G... the PoE splitters are from Linovision and their ethernet port runs at 2.5G -- this is the only well made splitter that operates faster than 1G (which I could find).
More videos and parts of this little cluster coming soon...
💞 So Much Fun! 💞
Captain's log, stardate 1719996128
It's a bit more than a week after I installed my workstation [1], and it feels weird.
I haven't had a proper workstation at home since I worked for IBM/Lotus in Ireland back in 1998-2001.
Since then, I have been a consultant on the road for several firms.
My office has been a laptop and a backpack for many years.
Some of you might have noticed that I've always referred to my places as " houses" or just "places". I've never used the word "home."
Using a workstation for the first time in years makes me wonder what it would mean to have a much more stable place.
This is also why my homelab hasn't evolved much and I don't have much equipment compared to other homelabs: many times, I was just virtualising the things I wanted to test.
[1] https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@tara/112660898041698771
#homelab #workstation #home #seekinghome #ontheroad #consultant #consultantlife
If you are considering getting some really cheap N100 computers or Raspberry Pi 5 boards to set up a relatively low power homelab, you may want to consider looking at Dell Wyse 5070 thin clients with a J4105 or J5005 processor.
They are passively cooled, use a laptop power brick, support up to 8 GB of RAM, and use an M.2 SATA drive (not NVMe) and can be stood vertically or sat horizontally.
Since companies are phasing them out, you can find lots of 5, 10, 25+ on eBay and other corporate off-lease auctions for around $30-45 each.
Getting FreeBSD, Debian, Fedora, NixOS, Arch or any other distribution on them is pretty darn easy. As such, Proxmox is also an option for lightweight containers.
There are some minor tweaks to the firmware settings to allow fwupdmgr to update the firmware version properly (otherwise, use a USB boot drive).
Sure, they are bigger than most N100 or Pi 5 with a case, but the thin clients are sturdy AF and you don't have to worry about fly-by-night sellers hawking N100 systems.
HP thin clients would also work, but I haven't used them before as a homelab server.
Let's see if I have time to work on this baby 👇
I want to get rid of the UXG Lite [1] and have my IPv6 and GeoIP restrictions back!
Some cables arrived yesterday, so I could finish tidying up my brand new workstation, and the cables for the gateway too (it had UK sockets).
I can now virtualise and simulate the gateway and my infrastructure so that I can prepare the ansible playbooks in advance and learn more about FreeBSD. Also, I plan to use some of @stefano's tricks.
Ehi, even if it's my personal network, I have standards, and I care about my downtime! 👩💻
[1] https://www.tara.sh/posts/2024/2024-05-21_ubiquiti/
#nerd #nerdiness #homelab #gateway #freebsd #routing
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photo of a minipc that will act as a gateway with 4 ethernet ports
Conception et montage d'un serveur 2U basé sur un CPU Ampere Altra (archi ARM64) pour un Homelab - Article très intéressant et complet de Nicolas Massé #DIY #Homelab https://www.itix.fr/fr/blog/homelab-server-2u-short-depth-front-io-ampere-altra-arm64-architecture/
The FreeBSD-native-ish home lab and network
https://antranigv.am/posts/2024/06/freebsd-server-network-homelab/
#FreeBSD #homebrewserver #homeserver #Networking #IPv6 #Jails #Jailer #Samba #Homelab #server #containers ##
Aujourd'hui un nouvel épisode #homelab as code, on continue de déployer des Debian en masse pour de futurs épisodes ! À tout de suite sur https://www.twitch.tv/ahp_nils #sysadmin #devops #linux #twitchfr #twitchstreamer
Of the seven usable public IPv4 adresses I have at home, only one is left unused as of now. This is just in a couple of months time. This does not bode well.
Will I start spending insane amounts of money just to have my own /24 in the end? Or will I become this annoying guest at parties pushing everyone to only rely on IPv6?
😆
Vegetable lasagna and a good book for this slow and raining Saturday here by the lake.
Three times in the ER in less than two weeks, turbulent thoughts and an international relocation put me an heavy toll on my body and my mind.
Oddly enough, I opted for no homelab projects this weekend.
#italy #lake #lasagna #sapphicromance #book #homelab #moving
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Home made vegetable lasagna on a plate
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Sapphic romance book on a table
I suppose I should post something introductory now that I'm on my own instance.
I'm a Linux lady who used to work in COBOL development and assorted legacy systems management gigs.
Nowadays I make videos and occasional blog posts about Linux and vintage/retro tech. Entirely supported by viewers like you (no sponsors as of writing). Links in bio.
Are we still doing hashtags?
#linux #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #amiga #commodore #homelab #unix #peertube #youtube
Aujourd'hui un nouvel épisode #homelab as code, on continue de déployer des Debian en masse pour de futurs épisodes ! À tout de suite sur https://www.twitch.tv/ahp_nils #sysadmin #devops #linux #twitchfr #twitchstreamer
Promising myself this is temporary. #homelab
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A metal shelving unit with multiple laptops, networking equipment, and various cables. The shelves contain a mix of open laptops, hard drives, a walkie-talkie, and other electronic devices.
A little #homelab beauty comming together. Now if I only checked ethernet cables before i would have know to buy some .... #kubernetes #raspberrypi
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a acrylic geekpi csse with 8 raspberry pis ready to make a cluster
Also on the list of things that you don't see very often: MacBook Pro as a arm64 CI server because the hardware lease is still 5 months 😅 #homelab
Ok #homelab and #selfhosting friends, I would like some advice (boosts welcome). Most of my infrastructure, frankly, is SPOFaaS (single points of failure as a service). But lately I've run into too many things banging away on the same #MariaDB instance.
The Problem
If the database is down, everything is down:
- git
- nextcloud
- a wordpress web site
- a network forum I run
What I want to do
I want to spread it out to 4 or 5 distinct database instances, so that if one of them needs upgrading or is down, only 1 service (or a small number of services) is affected. But I'm trying not to create lots of maintenance work for myself.
Some choices
Today, it's MariaDB on a #FreeBSD VM. I see a few possible choices:
- Multiple VMs, each with a #database on it
- A container host with multiple database containers
- Some blend of those 2
If it's all one container host, that (to me) feels like having it all in one VM. If it's 5 VMs, then that's 5 operating systems and MariaDB instances I have to keep up to date. So I'm trying not to simply multiply my work by 5, even though I know it will go up some.
Non-goals
I'm self hosting, and today there's basically a single host. So all VMs / containers ultimately run here. There's a single power supply, a single network connection, etc. I'm not running an additional VPS somewhere, an additional cloud something somewhere, etc. It's about the design here on this hardware. I have all the RAM, disk, and CPU I need to make as many VMs, databases, or #containers as I need.
I'm not trying to make this resilient to unexpected problems like power cuts, internet disruption, server crashes, etc. I'm mostly trying to make it easier to do routine maintenance. And maybe backup/restore. Because today I backup the whole thing, which is 12G uncompressed. And about 6G of that is just one site. Many databases are a few megabytes. But restoring only one database out of a gigantic 12G SQL file is a pain. Also load is not really much of a problem. I don't need more capacity or speed. Just more flexibility and less interdependence.
So what do people recommend?
Aujourd'hui un nouvel épisode #homelab as code, j'ai besoin de déployer des Debian en masse pour de futurs épisodes ! À tout de suite sur https://www.twitch.tv/ahp_nils #sysadmin #devops #linux #twitchfr #twitchstreamer
And we are here. A few new servers in the rack. One, which I brought with me just for posterity, is 23 years old. It has a 3.5” floppy drive. It was serving email for the last 23 years until last week. #selfhosted #homelab #microISP
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Photo of a set of wire shelves with a bunch of rack mount computer systems on them.
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Close up of a combination CD and 3.5 inch floppy drive.
I warned that there would be mishaps and clown shoes in my #microISP journey. After 556 consecutive days of uptime, it wouldn’t boot when I brought to the garage. The reason why is embarrassing, but I’ll tell it anyway.
Almost 2 years ago, I had a disk fail. The system uses hardware #raid in a mirrored pair. So I was able to hot swap the drive.
I got cocky. After swapping the drive I bought a couple more drives. “I know! I’ll convert from a mirrored pair to a 4-drive RAID5 setup.” I managed all that with the onboard management system. Then I had to tell my hypervisor to increase the size of the partition to account for all the new space.
I don’t even remember what I did wrong. But I had one of those sinking feeling moments where I knew I had just fucked up. I had trashed the partition table for the drive entirely. Now, it was fine in memory. But it was gone from the disk. I jotted down what was in RAM. I tried writing out to disk the right partition table. It appears I did THAT right, but the drive wasn’t bootable.
When I booted an #xcpng USB, it found everything on the disk and it is happily upgrading. At the end of the upgrade process, I’m confident it will make the disk bootable again.
Kids don’t try this at home. I am a trained professional. #homelab #selfhosted
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Photo of a monitor on a server displaying a backup and upgrade progress bar.
Exactly as I had hoped. It came back. I have never been so excited to see a boot screen in my life. #homelab #selfhosting #microISP
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Photo of a monitor displaying XCP-NG boot logo
Ebay #homelab haul
Opinions on buying used hard drives for my ZFS array? Would be 2x12Tb to extend my existing pool #homelab
A bit of clown shoes as I was building and moving some servers tonight. Accidentally pulled the power cable on 2 different servers, both of which came up kinda broken. More than just fsck at boot. Annoying. But I got them back mostly. I’ll have a bit of work for me tomorrow. #homelab #selfhost #selfhosting
New PSU is in 😊 #homelab #selfhosted
What are people using for storage on their resource constrained home #kubernetes clusters (lab)?
Currently using longhorn for ease of use. But would like lighter and even simpler. Need all nodes to access shared data. NFS could work, but heard bad things. Don’t see a lot of good info on s3 compatible. I imagine smb would suck. I’m sure I’ll stay where I am. But lazy google I guess. (Even though I have been) #k8s #storage #homelab
FML... Zum neuen Server habe ich die Bestellung mitten in der Nacht gemacht. Was kam raus? Netzteil ist TFX anstatt EPS, mein Reverse SAS->SATA ist Forward, nicht reverse, falsche Slotblende für den HBA. Die Schienen fürs Case sind auch noch nicht da. Jetzt siehts so aus -_- Schlimmer als vorher #homelab
Fileserver rackmount upgrade incoming #homelab
