Here we go…
So far, things have been moving at a sporadic pace, depending heavily on my own capabilities. With that said, I guess that 5 years isn’t too long for a tech project XD
Spent 2018 experimenting (and breaking things) on a smaller host. 2019 was a major planning year, and funds were almost non-existent. It was also when I finally decided on the form factor - 4U rackmount. 2020 was the first year I could actually start buying most of the hardware. 2021 was when the pace picked up, and I started spinning up more VMs iirc. Now, I’m in 2022, planning the next host.
Time really does fly…
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I wanna replace the MikroTik RB4011iGS+RM and Audience RBD25GR-5HPac with an RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN. Simpler setup, and I get to move a WAP somewhere else.
Recent links:
Just purchased 7x HGST HUH728080AL4200’s - 4 more to go. They’re ~80-100 USD a pop. Also waiting to see how and when I’ll get the other Dell EMC KTN-STL3, which is 150-300 USD. My next target(s) will be the Xeon E7-8890v4’s, which are going for ~250 USD/unit. Once I pull that off, it’ll be time to shop for a ProLiant DL580 Gen9 that comes with a Smart Array P830i Controller. Drive trays/caddies will be a challenge, since they tend to be stupidly expensive on the HPE side of things. RAM can always be purchased later, once prices for DDR4 ECC drop (as DDR5 takes over). On a side note, I’ve also managed to get OnlyOffice EE running with an external MariaDB instance. Working on doing the same for NGINX Proxy Manager, so I can move all database instances to a separate Docker host when the time comes! If anyone thinks I should leave all Docker containers on the same host, let me know. One less VM I suppose…
I’ve purchased the rest of the HGST HUH728080AL4200’s. Did some more research, and it looks like all standard models of the DL580 Gen9 came with the Smart Array P830i Controller. If such is the case, then I only need to concern myself with getting more cache modules - which should be cheap. I already have a bunch of potentially compatible drive caddies from my run-in/mishap with a certain ProLiant tower server that I won’t mention here. I’ve already made an offer for 8 memory cartridges (HP 802277-001). Only need to focus on CPUs from here on. Then, to grab the server itself…
I’ve grabbed 4 memory cartridges. The Xeons are the only things left to grab before I go for the server itself >:D
I managed to get an SPI board for cheap. I guess I’ll keep it as a spare, in case anything happens to the one that comes with the DL580 Gen9. The Xeons are next. I’m okay with delaying the purchase of the server itself if I have all of the other parts I need. I can go for the cheapest one available once DDR5 becomes more common, which will make it easier to get one with more ECC RAM at a lower price. HDD photos incoming maybe, if I can get up the energy to take the photos.
Got a Netapp DS4243, and am now just looking to get the Xeons next. I’ll hold off on getting the server until 2023 if necessary, to let prices drop.
Grabbed 4 of the 656364-B21’s, and am now left with only Xeons to grab (again). Also am doing some a bit of asking around before I bring the server in-house:
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https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeDataCenter/comments/wegsxj/network_monitoring_suggestions/
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https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/weh2xi/documentation_suggestions/
As mentioned before, I can wait until next year to get the server itself. As long as I have all of the other parts, I can wait for prices to drop on the Gen9 chassis.
I grabbed the Xeons and the RAM today. Now just waiting to see if I can get a decent offer on the server/chassis itself. That should help to keep the price on it low.
Just applied this on my Windows Server VM:
Now when I switch to my domain account in 2022/2023, I’ll have one less thing to worry about…
Decisions, decisions…
I’ve got everything but the server and its rail kit at this point. Bumped RAM up to 384GB. I’ll wait until 2023 if necessary, to get a good price on the remaining pieces. More pre-planning underway - stay tuned…
Currently looking into switching from Remotix (bought out by Acronis) to RustDesk. RustDesk isn’t as fast or performant as the former, but it is free and open source. Also won’t have to worry about changes in licensing. Only issue is, it’s not working on my current tablet. The app glitches out on it, so I have to go back to managing everything on just PC. Also considering using MikroTik’s Dude instead of LibreNMS. Getting the DL580 Gen9 looks like it will most likely have to wait until late 2022/early 2023 at the earliest. Most sellers want at least 700-800 USD for a barebones config, which is kinda tough to pull off at the moment. Also wishing I could have gotten the Radeon Pro v340, but those are going for 1.5k USD currently. My current objective is to work on prepping the containers and VMs for when it’s finally time to pull the trigger on getting the Gen9 in-house. Moving Nextcloud’s db to Docker is going to be nerve-wracking for me, since if anything goes wrong, I may have to rebuild that instance from scratch. Not a fun idea. Open Street Maps + OSMR (Docker stack) and FreePBX (VM) tasks are next…
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HDD caddy’s - try to get them used or salvage them from units sold as defective. There are shops who sell refurbish or older HP equipment - in Europe PTPit.nl does this - this particular example might be b2b only.
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I have 16 of them from a project for another org, that decided they didn’t want an HPE tower server 
I might be able to reuse those if the P/N is what I think it is. The rail kit is my last pain point. 50-100 USD a piece?
Redid the previous post because I’m not sure I did it as a proper reply to you last time.
The memory requirements for the Linux VM appear to have more-than-doubled. I may have to give it upwards of 80GB of RAM to get OSRM past the extraction stage…