My first homelab

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Hi all,

New member here, asking for advice for my first Homelab.
My previous “homelab” was a simple Raspberry pi running Home Assistant and, until now, I am only mirroring my data using Windows utility (please do not be to harsh… I know it is far from good practice) + keep an off-site backup for non recoverable stuff.

To be completely honest:

  • I am new to homelabs
  • I am relatively new to linux
  • I am new to VMs
  • I have used proxmox for the first time 2 weeks ago
  • My current hardware setup is mostly based on donations/parts I had laying around

Here is my current machine:

  • Motherboard: MSI PRO-B550-VC

  • CPU: 5700X

  • RAM: 2*16 GB of Corsair Vengeance 3600 MHz CL18, I do not intend to apply DOCP (yeah RGB… like I’ve said, parts laying around)

  • Boot drive: 2* P1600X 118GB optane (OK these one were not laying around… I bought specifically for this project)

  • PSU: Corsair RM650

  • I also have an old video card I used for the first install, but I am not running headless.

I am also planning to buy/install:

  • HP H220 HBA Card (LSI 9207-8i)
  • 3* 16TB Exos drives
  • 2* 8TB Ironwolf drives (currently installed in my desktop PC)
  • 2* 240 GB SSD (old Sandisk and Lexus drives rescued from previous machines, still healthy)

My plan right now would be the following:

  • Install Proxmox on bare metal mirroring the 2 optane drives
    • Connect the 2*240 GB SSD to the sata controller on MOBO and mount them in Proxmox as a ZFS mirror for VM backups/snapshots
  • Install Truenas (Scale/Core?) in a VM
    • HBA passthrough
    • Connect all the HDD to the HBA card and have 2 pool (316TB with 1 drive of redundancy and 28TB mirror)
    • Use Truenas exclusively as a NAS
  • Install Home Assistant OS in a VM
    • install add-ons for Zigbee2MQTT
  • Install Jellyfin in a CT and mount the SMB share to the ZFS1 pool

I am really terrified I will do something wrong and lose a lot of data as a result.
I am therefore asking for comments on my build and choice of software:
0. Is my ram fine or do I absolutely need ECC?

  1. I have read that even if PCI passthrough is available on a MOBO, it doesn’t mean it is safe to be used. Do you have any comment on PCI passthrough for this specific or for similar-ish MOBO/chipset?
  2. Regarding Truenas, as I am not going to use it for anything but NAS, would there be any benefit for choosing Core over Scale or vice versa?
  3. Instead of Truenas, I have experimented with letting Proxmox manage the ZFS pool and manage the smb share with cockpit and, in short, I did not like the experience… However, would there be a benefit of using such approach rather than Truenas?
  4. I also want to install IP/POE cameras in the future, any recommendation for that? I have read about Frigate and have seen it is also available as an add-on for HA, but can also be installed in a CT. Any comment on that?

Thanks for your help!

2 Likes
2

Your mobo has 8 headers, save the money and just use those IMO (Also saves pcie lanes)

Pcie Lanes
Slot 1 = 16 Gen 4
Slot 2 = 1 Gen 3
Slot 3 = 4 Gen 3 (Shared with M.2_2)
Slot 4 = 1 Gen 3
(PRO B550-VC)

So with 2 m.2 boot you have 1x16 Gen 4 and two 1x Gen 3
GPU for jellyfin east your x16 so leaves you only 2x1 slots for expansion

3

using 2 (of the few) m.2 slots on a B550 motherboard just for boot drives… idk (imo)

2nd this

you sure thats enough space for backups?

why install cockpit on proxmox?
proxmox is for lxc and vms… why not let proxmox handle zfs… and build a vm or lxc for your samba share using the zpool storage (as zvol or whatever)

4

Also I don’t believe Cockpit supports creating any kind of network share by default. That sounds like 45Drives thing which I do not necessarily get the impression is compatible with vanilla Cockpit. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong because I’d happened across the 45D github before

5

Yeah would probably just do 1 drive since its optane anyway and since its home lab not a huge deal to rebuild.

Another option is to put the optane drives in these and put them in the 1x slots https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R9VB35J/

6

Thank you all for the quick comments!

My thoughts were I wanted to have something extremely resilient, but as I have said I am new to that so I didn’t really know how much is too much! Once this homelab is operational, my next project will be a diy router so the 2nd optane could easily find a new home…

Sorry I think I did not explain myself really well… The idea was to install cockpit in a container managed by proxmox, not on proxmox directly, so my alternative plan was to do what you are recommending (proxmox handling the pool and lxc with cockpit for samba share).

I confirm, the few tutorials I have founds were all using 45 drives plugins/addons.

The sata controller is on the same IOMMU group as the integrated network card, PCIE 2 to 4 and a couple of USB controller. Can I safely passthrough the sata controller only to a VM running TrueNas or does your recommendation imply I cannot use TrueNas and should instead rely on Proxmox itself for the pool?

Edit:

Probably for the first few months? I was planning on getting a couple of 2.5" enterprise SSDs down the line just to try to spread the cost.

7

You can pass through the individual drives have done that before

8

I’d skip passthru of drives and just create a zpool from proxmox

1 Like
9

I did it for a bit, was fine, but yeah could just use pmox for sure

10

I would make the zfs pools in proxmox. You can then use the LXC fileserver container, that allows you to setup the different shares.

11

Since it’s a home lab, your resiliency is going to come from your backup solutions.

You can do the industry standard, which is the 3-2-1 backup strategy.

You don’t need to back up all of your data necessarily, which might be the case if cost is the factor. You need to backup all of the data you don’t want to lose and/or can’t be easily replaced.

I’m sure you’ll have plenty of storage here though if you go ahead with 64TB.

And when it comes to backups, maybe it’s just video and audio files or different content (local Git repos, etc.). Or maybe you’re a packrat and save all the things (Guilty as charged).

As far as True NAS, are you already familiar with it? Would you like to learn it or expand your skills? If so, try it out, especially if you prefer the management side of things.

At the same time, you might want to go the uncomfortable route and learn how to manage directly from Proxmox, especially if you’ve been avoiding the command line. Great home lab experience as well.