We’re getting there, boys!

My small setup.

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Smaller homelab than average, but gets the work done

https://imgur.com/a/r2MRuPZ

UnRaid server on the left, RPi hosting pi-hole, pi.alert and Uptime Kuma on top

Business in the front:

• Mikrotik CRS2004-1G-12S+2XS, acting as a router. The 10g core switch plugs into it as well as the connection to upstairs
• 2u cable management thing
• Mikrotik CRS326-24S+2Q+, most 10g capable things hook into this, it uses its QSFP+ ports to uplink to the router and downlink to the (rear) 1g switch.
• 4u with a shelf, there are 4x mini-pcs here, most of them have a super janky 10g connection via an M.2 to PCIe riser.
• “echo”, Dell R710. I am working on migrating off of/decomissioning this host.
• “alpha”, Dell R720. Recently brought back from the dead. Recently put a new (to me) external SAS card into it, and it acts as the “head” unit for the disk shelf I recently bought.
• “foxtrot”, Dell R720xd. I love modern-ish servers with >= 12-disks per 2u. I would consider running a rack full of these if I could… forgive the lack of a label, my label maker broke at some point before acquiring this machine.
• “delta”, “Quantum” something or other, which is really just a whitelabeled Supermicro 3u server.
• Unnamed disk shelf, “NFS04-JBOD1” to its previous owner. Some Supermicro JBOD that does 45 drives in 4u, hooked up to alpha.

Party in the back:

• You can see the cheap monitor I use for console access.
• TP-Link EAP650, sitting on top of the rack. Downstairs WAP.
• Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+, rear-facing 1g PoE/access switch. The downstairs WAP hooks into that as well as the one mini-PC I didn’t put a 10g card on. It also provides power (but not connectivity) to the upstairs switch. It used to get a lot more use before I went to 10g basically everywhere. Bonds 4x SFP+ to upllink via the 10g switch in front.
• You can see my cable management, which I would describe as “adequate”.
• You can see my (lack of) power distribution and power backup strategy, which I would describe as “I seriously need to buy some PDUs and UPSs”

I opted for a smaller rack as my basement is pretty short.

As far as workloads:

• alpha and foxtrot (and eventually delta) are the storage hosts running Ubuntu and using gluster. All spinning disks. ~160TiB raw
• delta currently runs TrueNAS, working on moving all of the storage into gluster and adding this in to that. ~78TiB raw, with some bays used for SSDs (l2arc/zil) and 3 used in a mirror for “important” data.
• echo, currently running 1 (Ubuntu) VM in Proxmox. This is where the “important” (frp, Traefik, DNS, etc) workloads run right now.
• mini-pcs, running ubuntu, all sorts of random stuff (dockerized), including this Lemmy instance. Mounting the gluster storage if necessary. They also have a gluster volume amongst themselves for highly redundant SSD-backed storage.

The gaps in the naming scheme:

• I don’t remember what happened to bravo, it was another R710, pretty sure it died, or I may have given it away, or it may be sitting in a disused corner of my basement.
• We don’t talk about charlie, charlie died long ago. It was a C2100. Terrible hardware. Delta was bought because charlie died.

Networking:

• The servers are all connected over bonded 2x10g SFP+ DACs to the 10g switch.
• The 1g switch is connected to the 10g switch with QSFP+ breakout to bonded 4x SFP+ DAC
• The 10g switch is connected to the router with QSFP+ breakout to bonded 4x SFP+ DAC
• The router connects to my ISP router (which I sadly can’t bypass…) using a 10GBASE-T SFP+.
• The router connects to an upstairs 10g switch (Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+) via a SFP28 AOC (for future upgrade possibilities)
• I used to do a lot of fancy stuff with VLANs and L3 routing and stuff… now it’s just a flat L2 network. Sue me.

Works for me, running about 30 containers. The Philips hub has recently been replaced by a Conbee II

I’m using a Raspberry Pi 4 to host my NAS.

caseless_rpi4_with_a_bunch_of_cables.jpg