Selfhosted @lemmy.world Ek-Hou-Van-Braai @piefed.social 4d ago

My First Homelab

I'm new to this, and having a lot of fun.

I started with the Blackview MP80 running Ubuntu(Minecraft server on docker and Home Assistant in a VM)

Then I bought the BMAX for 82€ and moved HA on to it so I can wipe the MP80 and play around with Proxmox and Nextcloud erc without breaking my home automations.

Yesterday I got the Hardkernel H4+ with 16gb ram and 2x 6TB 2nd hand commercial grade HDD's (testing them now, 3 month guarantee)

Looking forward to setting up ZFS pools for the first time, ans probably move my Nextcloud AIO over to the TrueNAS app

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Just so you know, operating spinning drives this way is a bad idea. If the platters are spinning and the drive tips over, the rotation of the drives resists the movement. This gyroscopic force is enough for the platters to touch the heads which are flying a tiny distance above the platter. Obviously this is a bad thing and will damage the drives.

A quick fix is to just lay them flat or fix both of them together so they have a more stable base to stand on. Putting it in an enclosure is even better.
- You gotta embrace the jank! Also, he's got them in some kind of stand. That looks reasonably stable to me.
  
  I love my janky temporarily solution.
  
  I made a stand of old ikea plastic parts I had laying around, screwed them together and have both drives supported from both sides and connected together.
  
  If I directly bump the drive hard enough they'd fall, but I'm pretty confident I can shake the table really hard and they'll be fine.
  
  I'm hoping to get a 3D printer to make a more permanent solution
- Yeah knocking them over while active would probably not be the best, you can even hear the stress on the spindle bearings if you rotate a running hard drive. However you should be free to mount them (securely) in almost any orientation given the discussion in this old post: https://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21533&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
- Thanks this is a very temporary solution until I can 3D print a better solution or buy an better temporary solution.
  
  It's pretty stable I have a make shift stand, and I'd have to bump them pretty hard for them to fall over. If I shake the table hard they definitely won't fall
Welcome to the most frustratingly satisfying journey you'll ever untertake. Next thing we'll see is the lights dimming when you reboot your server(s).
- I can't imagine why anyone would put themselves through the insane amount of effort it takes to figure this stuff out and set everything up. Yet I love it, just want to keep tinkering and doing more
  
  Yeah it makes no sense, yet it's so much fun when stuff finally works like it should!
  
  Everybody loves using Jellyfin at home, but they think I'm mad for spending countless hours setting up everything the first time, then a second time to improve, then a third time as I migrated HW.
  
  Keep having fun with it mate! The possibilities are endless
TBH what I saw first is that you connected a fan to some hard drives and called it a homelab.

It was pretty funny for the half second it lasted.
- I thought that was a modified power supply
Homelabbing is fun..stay curious
Watch out for the slippery slope!
- Way too late, I'm down the rabbit hole
  
  Give this man a rack, now!
  
  I started with something like what you have, and 8 years later I have an 18U cabinet that is completely full. Including 20 HDDs stuck all over the place with double-sided tape.
Strap them onto a scrap piece of wooden board for stability. You could then hang the board vertically to save space.

This sort of metal strapping works great:
- Hid a pc into a bar of my mobile home this way. All parts were either screwed into plywood or strapped with zip ties. I hated the wasted space. It had a 24x28" space with no door (Fixed with a scroll saw, magnetic close, and some hinges). I added a very small plywood shelf for DVDroms and usb drives, and just attached the board to the inner wall. Used a hole saw on the tabletop for I think 2" (just big enough for a VGA connector, and ran all the cords into the cabinet. Worked well, then I moved into an actual house. Still loved it more than apartment life. Coolest part was no one ever saw the door unless I showed them (which was great cause that cut was waaaaavy)
  
  Did it have a spinning hard drive? I shudder to think what happens to it in a mobile home. After just a few years, all my posessions were finely sandpapered on the outside.
This is the way
- I have spoken
Have fun. :)

Side note: Never look at LXC/incus or home assistant or esp32 to attach. Rabbit holes everywhere.
This looks so good! Nice job
2x 6TB 2nd hand commercial grade HDD’s

wow. I was wondering what these five inch tanks were. Haven't seen one in a while.

Also spinning drives should be stored either horizntally or vertically for all their life.
How's your Nextcloud holding up now? I am undecided between a separate host vs the Truenas app. I heard that the TN app likes to break on update but I didn't have the time nor infrastructure to test it thoroughly yet.
- Currently I have Nextcloud-AIO running on proxmox in a docker LXC and it's been great, very stable and I like the setup. It's also officially supported by Nextcloud.
  
  I'm considering moving it over to TrueNAS but I need to look at the Pros and Cons, it would be nice to have everything in one place, but that also comes with drawbacks and risks.
@Ek-Hou-Van-Braai I absolutely love it.

39 comments