Bit of a long story as to why I have these, but I am curious what unique or cool ideas this community has for a bunch of Raspberry Pis. Not sure what to do with them.

25x Raspberry Pi 3B+

5x Raspberry Pi 4

The treats did not work, the switch is warm, the cat is warm, the cat is happy, and the 10 GB switch is not happy, and the homelab is not happy either.
At least didn't lie on top of the ISP 10Gb router.

Please help

I have ssh access to two servers. About 10 days ago there were 19500 attempts to login to one of those two servers. How do you protect yourself? I have passwordless SSH (key auth), fail2ban, root login disabled and i changed port from 22 to some other. What more can be done?

Edit:
Okey, from comments i understand that exposing SSH is not the best solution.

So i have found an alternative, i have spare raspberry pi 5. Could i use RPI Connect as form of VPN?

Hey r/homelab,

I just stumbled across what looks like an absolute goldmine of a government data center liquidation auction in India.

Unfortunately, I found it after the auction had already closed, so I completely missed the chance to bid. 😭

It was a Regional Passport Office / Ministry of External Affairs data center liquidation, and the reserve price was surprisingly low. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for similar auctions in the future.

The interesting (and slightly crazy) part was that it was an all-or-nothing bulk lot. So you'd have to take everything — including the heavy infrastructure/scrap — rather than just picking out the servers you wanted.

Some of the hardware listed:

• 4× Lenovo ThinkSystem SR550
• 5× Dell PowerEdge R630
• 2× HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9
• 80+ IBM x-Series systems (x3650/x3550)
• FortiGate 800D & Check Point 5600 firewalls
• Hitachi G200/G400 SANs
• EMC storage arrays
• 30+ server/network racks

If I'd managed to get the lot, I'd probably have kept a couple of the R630s/SR550s for the homelab, harvested ECC RAM, caddies and SAS drives from the older IBM gear, and then tried to sell the usable equipment to local refurbishers and scrap the rest to recover some of the cost.

Since this came from a government environment, I'm guessing the storage would either have been removed or securely wiped/degaussed before the equipment was auctioned.

I've never actually bought a large decommissioned enterprise/government hardware lot, so I'm curious about the reality of doing this.

For those who have:

1. What are the biggest hidden traps with "unserviceable / as-is" data center lots?
2. How often do you run into proprietary firmware or hardware locks on things like SANs, firewalls, etc.?
3. What's your workflow for testing a large number of servers quickly?
4. At what point does the logistics of moving/storing 50+ servers become more trouble than it's worth?
5. Has anyone here actually scored a great homelab deal from a government liquidation auction?

Would love to hear some success stories (or "never again" stories 😂).

The auction is already closed, but here's the original listing for reference:

https://forwardauction.gem.gov.in/eprocure/view-auction-notice/41687/0/6AEF73365152F26C5B9AB07F715A847D75745975

I'm currently building out my homelab, and one of my main goals is to establish a solid foundation that won't require constant maintenance or rebuilding down the road.

I see a lot of people spending significant amounts of time working on their homelabs, and I'm curious how much of that is because they enjoy tinkering versus actually needing to fix or maintain things.

For those who have been running a homelab for several years:

• What takes up most of your maintenance time?
• What tends to break or require the most troubleshooting?
• Are updates a common source of problems?
• What would you do differently if you were starting over?
• Have you managed to get your homelab to a point where it mostly runs itself?

I'm trying to learn from others' experiences so I can avoid unnecessary complexity and build something reliable from the beginning.

Ultimately, I'd like to spend more time using my homelab than maintaining it.

Looking at these listings and wanted to know if there's anything i should look for when on a budget? I know computer prices have been really bad so I don't wanna get something and overpay. Im also low on space to put something in(had a big optiplex before) and would be open to upgrading in the future

Hey just wanted to share my start to my homelab journey currently only running proxmox cluster on these with Jellyfin but have plans to tinker and grow this, any recommendations on a rack would be much appreciated

After months of debating I finally started on my homelab

Specs

- tp link managed switch

- ryzen based thinkcentre 16gb ram 2tb ssd 512nvme

- pi5 8gb

- tecmojo 10" rack

The main plan is to get open media vault and jellyfin running as well as hosting a couple of game servers (minecraft,dragonwilds) and maybe a couple of other bits, im now debating on if i swap the pi out for another thinkcentre.

Almost entirely new to this obsession and after buying a small Corsair atx case for my first build I realized with me wanting to further upgrade and add on to my server, would it have been smarter and cheaper to buy an etsy 3d printed rack and rack mounts? Or would it be better to stick with the tower for now to get better cooling efficiency and get a server rack later down the line?

The hardware I have so far is an Asus z97 pro, intel i7 5775c, 2x8gb gigastone ram, haven’t ordered storage yet but will probably go with a 500gb-1tb sata ssd for proxmox and jellyfin and a 2tb ssd for storage

Yes I’m aware the hardware I have is grossly outdated… this is mostly an introductory; as cheap as possible, first homelab server build since I have no reason to build another pc and I’m itching to build something.

I have a ton of tech stuff I've been wanting to do:

1. I want to build an at home server, to store media (audio and photo) and I want that server to be able to share it with my android device regardless of where i am.
2. I want to get a free AI model for personal use, that I decide what it can and cannot do, no restrictions. no subscriptions
3. I want to own all of my things, instead of having games, photos, videos, music or anything else just needing a $10 subscription. I'm tired of it.

If anyone can help me on how to build a server for those needs, how to get an AI model for personal use and where it should go (Main PC, Server, get a new one). How I should get all my music onto my server to start, any help would be appreciated

Hello! I recently added this server to my collection to try to consolidate my services that dont need too much speed for the stuff they are doing (Octoprint, Homeassistant, and pelican game servers that require tons of ram, aswell as Truenas and Jellyfin) The most (and kind of only) appealing part of this platform is that I could put 768 gb of ddr3 LRdimms 1.35 volt in a single system. For hosting an ark cluster this is so much more power and cost efficent than having 3 or 4 128 gb ram servers. However I noticed these dimms get HOT, and I have tried to do my best with lots of fans on the side pannel (Cooler master 932 HAF case) but theres only so much I can do with 4 optical drive bays covering the front. I was wondering if anyone knew the safe opperating temps of the dimms (I will add the exact model numbers shortly) and any good cooling tricks, I am struggling to find any decent looking aftermarket cooling solutions myself. Further the rest of the specs is a380 for jellyfin transcoding 2 e5 2670 v1s (though will be swapping for e5 2696 v2s) and I got a 10gb sfp+ card, 2 4tb hdds and 5 4tb sata ssds with anouther 3 tb worth of nvmes. I have repasted the chipset with PTM 7950 and dont know if that should be anouther area of concern, and will likely be repasting my sas and sfp+ card here in the near future.

Spec List:

24 32gb ddr3 LR Dims 1.35 volt

2 e5 2670 v1 (switching to 2 e5 2696 v2)

2 4TB HDDs (Jellyfin Libraries)

5 4TB Sata SSDs and 3tb worth of NVME

1000 watt msi AGL PSU

10gb SFP+ HPE card

LSI something sas card but I need to swap it because its currently the pcie gen 2 version

Intel a380

4 Optical drives... for liberating borrowed media

Software list:

Proxmox Hypervisor

Pelican game server vm

Truenas VM

Jellyfin VM

On the to-do list when I figure out the best method:

Octoprint

Homeassistant

Any further hardware or Software tips would be graciously appreciated 😄 .

Small cable management upgrade in my 19" rack: I designed and printed 1U cable combs (A/B/C) that sit between the patch panels and the switches. Each patch cable clicks into its own slot directly under/over its port, so all loops hang straight and the numbers match the ports.

• Panel A: under patch panel 1, 24 slots
• Panel B: under patch panel 2, 24 slots on top + 8 on the bottom for the 2.5G switch
• Panel C: between the 2.5G switch and the two PoE switches (8 top, 10 + 10 bottom)
• Spring tongues in every slot, cables stay in when bent
• Printed in PETG, front face down, numbers as a color inlay, two halves joined with a scarf joint and M3 screws

Rack from top: 2x 24-port patch panel, Vimin 16-port 2.5G switch, 2x Yuanley PoE switches, drawer panel, tablet status display, server. Lesson learned: my 5.2 mm cable seat is slightly too tight, the cables do not sit all the way down - next version gets 5.6 mm.

Been lurking for the better part of the last decade and finally have something that I can even call a "lab", but I've been feeling so giddy about even putting anything together that I wanted to share this post.

The setup:

• Pi 4 Model B | 4 GB RAM | 16 GB SD | Ubuntu 26.04
• WD MyBook | 4 TB

Pi is from 2021, before prices went all dicko mode and everything, and the MyBook is probably from around 10 years ago, lying around in my parents' home being unused. All the lab does right now is run dockerized Navidrome, but every time I stream a new song from it I get this little burst of satisfaction from the fact that I'm not paying Spotify anymore!

I'm sure as many people in this space did, I'm getting into self-hosting because I want to reduce how much I depend on big tech companies, regain control of my own data, and also better control where my dollars actually go in the world (because why tf is Spotify investing my subscription funds into AI drone defense companies)

So the plan is to upgrade slowly, and only as actual new use-cases arise (unless a killer deal pops up on the 3rd party market). Ideally I would like to avoid sinking my money into under-utilized hardware and I definitely want to avoid doing something stupid and losing access to files I want/need available as long as I'm alive.

Immich is probably the next thing I want to host, as all of my photographs are currently just chilling on my main PC with no remote backups. The Pi could *probably* handle running Immich and Navidrome simultaneously, but I'm pretty sure it'd put the Pi at max load. So the next piece of hardware to acquire could be a mini PC with a bit more compute/memory. The 4 TB MyBook is enough to store all of my data for the time being, and while it's not a whole RAID system, restic cloud backups give me some ease of mind in case of drive failure, so I think I can hold off on acquiring a NAS for a while--though it would be way cooler to have one.

If I do end up getting a mini PC, I might just run both Navidrome + Immich from that machine alone, and then keep the Pi for Pihole or something else. I've also read about Paperless-ngx in some threads here and it seems really useful because I've definitely had problems fishing around for years-old documents that I needed to provide for whatever reasons. Right now, everything is spread across the Documents and Downloads folders, on my phone and my PC, and some other forms are saved across like 3 random email inboxes. That said, with or without software to help me manage these documents, it still falls upon me to do the manual effort of tagging/organizing the files.

Anyways...

Even though I've barely done anything, the amount of research I've done and context that I've gained from setting this up feels really invaluable, and as someone who went to school for computer engineering I feel like this is stuff I really *should* know better anyway, so all-in-all this has been a 10/10 experience.

This is my first home server... It was a lot of work. I wanted to post this for those looking to take the plunge, but were hesitant. Here is my advice as a greenhorn after the first build.

Design for function:

I was not looking to learn Networking, so I built to what I needed now, built an architecture that is transferable, could repurpose hardware in the future (e.g. with ZimaBoard PCIe I could repurpose for an small AI assistant), and was low cost to operate.

Build Offline:

The build, the tweaking, and the documentation all take time and have their own learning curves. Do not plan to have this replace your home router on day one; it's possible, but not a realistic expectation for a beginner like myself.

Remember you are a beginner:

There are n number of devices to the power of n number of configurations, this isn't a "kit" and your build is personal. Information will be out of date, jargon will go over your head and expect to spend time translating, system specific errors will pop up that you have no clue why and what they mean... Then laugh. You are a beginner, IT is a profession for a reason; frustration is part of the process.

Documentation takes longer than the build:

I assumed that I would forget a lot of what I did or not understand parts that Gemini helped me with. I have 32 pages of documentation that takes me through the setup and why it is configured the way it is. Additionally I have documentation for restoration if anything fails.

It's worth it:

What is possible can only be comprehended by doing the build. You will regret some choices, but if you built to your function you will be happy with the actual results.

Edits: For typos and clarity

Finally got my first homelab up and running!

Been piecing it together over the last few weeks.
Running Proxmox, Docker, Cloudflare Tunnel, WireGuard, a NAS, Pi-hole, and a Mac mini for automation and AI experiments.

Wanted something compact but still capable of handling a bunch of different projects.
Still learning and tweaking things, but pretty happy with how it’s turning out!

Any suggestions or things you’d change?

I want to know if it is ok/stable/makes sense if you have TrueNAS running in a Proxmox VM, and then put a NextCloud App into TrueNAS:

Proxmox -> TrueNAS VM-> NextCloud APP

Recently I created my own lab with a dedicated server. All my machines are hyper v's and I run dedicated gaming servers for my group of friends on it. I separated all my devices on different Vlans so my NAS and gaming pc are on a vlan and my server is on a different vlan. I dont have a true firewall device I instead used my ASUS routers build in firewall to open a port to go to my servers hyper v address. On my hyper v I set the correct firewall rules to all traffic for the game. Due to me not having a true firewall device is the asus router sufficiently safe to protect my network. I have the latest firmware on it but I am new to this so looking for advice.

Hey everyone, I'm building my first home server and trying to decide between TrueNAS, Unraid, and ZimaOS. OpenMediaVault is also an option I'm willing to consider, but those are my main three choices atm.

My hardware: Intel Core i5-10500 (using QuickSync), ASUS Prime B460M-A, 16 GB Non-ECC DDR4, 3x WD Red 4TB HDDs (WD40EFRX - CMR). I want to start with 1 parity/recovery disk so I get 8TB usable space and possibly add a 4th 4TB drive down the line to expand to 12TB usable.

What I plan to run: Jellyfin (max ~3 simultaneous streams for family/friends), Immich (family photo/video backup), Arr stack (Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, qBittorrent), Nextcloud (maybe down the road).

So here's my questions:

1. Which OS would you recommend?

Which of the options would be the best fit for these workloads, particularly in terms of ease of use, reliability, and long-term maintenance? One important consideration is expandability (but probably with a same size drive). My understanding was that TrueNAS makes this difficult because of how ZFS handles RAIDZ expansion, although I've read that RAIDZ expansion has recently become possible. How practical is it now to start with three drives and add a fourth later? My second preference would be ZimaOS. Is there any disadvantage to it for my use case? Or differences in terms of how safe the data is in case of a drive failure / restoration.

1. Performance and drive longevity

Are there meaningful differences between these options in terms of read/write performance for my use case? I'm also curious about how the storage configurations compare in terms of HDD wear. For example, would a ZFS-based setup put significantly more load on the drives compared to others or is this not important for light home server workload?

Anddd while we're here, also a few unrelated questions:

1. I bought all three WD Red drives used. 2 have 10k power-on hours and 1 ~30k. Before putting them into service, what tests should I run to check their health? Just an extended SMART self-test or something else?

2. Using the server as a VPN: The server will be put in a country where I won't be living permanently. I'd like to route my internet traffic through my home server sometimes so that websites see me as browsing from that country. Can I set up a VPN server on the NAS for this? Is Tailscale the appropriate choice for this?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'm wanting to set up a centralised log, initially mostly for network device logs (eg DHCP, DNS, routers, WiFi), and have been toying with the idea of ELK.

My concerns at the moment are because I'd use it for network traffic, it'd be always on, so a cheap, low power device. Probably something dedicated. However, looking at the suggested hardware, I'm not sure if I have anything suitably powerful. But mostly what I've read so far is enterprise context, and dev/test PoC kind of setups rather than "enthusiast".

If anyone is doing this kind of thing already, what kind of hardware are you using for it? Does it work?

Hi everyone, I want to build a home server for years, and the more I discover about this world, the more it gets confusing when talking about what to do and to pick. I personally love these tiny form factor, and the modularity, plus the great design put into this little guy made me wanna aim for one fo these, and this m75q gen 2 seems to be the most balanced between price and performances (the Gen 5 looks hotter, but it also costs basically double the price 😅), more than the chinese mini pcs that looks cool and all, but I don't know how are them in terms of affidability over a 24/7 active working, but maybe I'm just biased, you will tell me ahah

Ok, my ideal budget is around 300-500€ (the 500€ stretch is for the mandatory upgrades I would need, like the ram... I'm already sweating), and my needs will be pi-hole+tailscale, media stuff like stremio, immich and jellyfin, a personal cloud/nas/thing to have those comfortable 1-2tb of safe and private storage, if possible some streaming gaming (but this is clearly what these minipc are not for, so I won't cry if it'd be better ditching this), and if I'm lucky with the ram aspect, a little local ai that could assist me during work (graphic designer that typesets books, so mostly I'd need it to sort files and folders, checking docs and pdfs for a round of typos, wrong accents and similar things, so no generative crap), and mahbe do some vibecoding personal projects when needed.

Feel free to suggest me other cool services I surely don't know!

Regarding the AI model here I need the most help, I understood some basis about Qwen, the 1 to 4 bit stuff and the need of 128gb of ram for unleashing it's true power, but I still don't know what it actually can do, everyone talking about this stuff is always so vague or clearly talking to an audience that already digested everything about the topic. Is it possible to install a good model that could work well for my needs, without having to get 64 or 128gb of memory, especially in such lenovo tiny? Would the other services in the server be castrated by the presence of the model using the rest of the free ram? Would the presence of a local model force me to get a newer mini pc? Man I feel so out of touch regarding AI 😅

Thabks in advance for any clarification guys, I'm in your hands 🙏