Tailscale is fantastic. It’s like Hamachi from back in the day without all the issues. Just wish they used the in-kernel Wireguard implementation when running on Linux for better performance.
Overlay networks such as Tailscare are great. Another one that works much the same way is https://www.zerotier.com/
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just when you posted the video i started looking into self hosted books/comics/manga
I always searched for years then give up finding a solution for my collection. and the exact day your video goes live on youtube is the day I decided to go back and search for a solution for that XD
and guess what? i couldn’t find anything good or close to being user friendly , am decent I have my own nas and plex + ubuntu labox. but still found all the self hosted solutions for books too hard to use or lacking essential features.
i tried:
komga
calibre
mango
mango there is almost no documentation for it.
komga too hard for me didnt figure out how to install it yet
calibre cant read almost all formats these others do support like rar+jpg etc…
it can read jpg but doesn’t put them in a collection so its useless for that.
I’ve been running a home server for quite a while but I’m always looking for better solutions that are more secure, more independent, and with better UI. This is what I’m currently running at home.
XCP-NG - Current hypervisor
- Virtual Machines
-
pfSense - router, firewall, vpn, etc.
- OpenVPN - VPN secure local access
- Multiple VLANs - slit different LAN for different purposes (Secure, Guest, IOT, etc.)
- ACLs for trusted IPs - only allow access from trusted IP address to specific device using specific protocols
-
docker (Ubuntu Server)
- Portainer - UI easily manage docker
- Plex Server - Media consumption
- Unifi Controller - Unifi access point management
- NZBGet - Usenet downloader
- Radarr - A movie collection manager for Usenet & Torrents
- Sonarr- A TV show collection manager for Usenet & Torrents
- Lidarr - A music collection manager for Usenet & Torrents
- Gluetun - VPN Client ( I use NordVPN )
- Uptime Kuma - For monitoring my services uptime/status
- Home Assistant - Home Automation ( Not currently using )
- TrueNAS Scale - Shared folders; holds all my data for VMs and containers
- Minecraft Server (Ubuntu) - for the homie
- Windows 10 Pro - For imaging and testing
-
pfSense - router, firewall, vpn, etc.
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Could do with a good tutorial/info dump type video on setting up a hypervisor based system. How to size it for your needs, getting started with Docker etc.
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I have been spending some time on the personal knowledge base portion for a little bit. I currently store my notes in flat markdown files that get linked together by some local wiki software called vimwiki.
What I like about vimwiki is that it is built into my favorite editor, can be configured to use markdown, and is 100% local. This is ideal as I have machines with bad network connectivity. With iSH in the App Store, I am able to use it on all my devices (vim works really well on a mobile phone, believe it for not). I keep the files in sync by committing them to a private GitHub repo. I am currently working on adding a good backup solution for all my GitHub repos, but for now it is a good fit and ensure’s good conflict resolution and decentralization.
I manage all the config in a dotfiles repo which ensures I have a consistent setup across devices.
The older I get, plain text seems to be the most secure format for saving/archiving information. These tools let me do they and store information I learn or generate. The specific tools don’t matter as long as you can find something that sticks and you keep using it.
Wow, not sure my 6C/12T Core system I am using for my home server is gonna hold up doing all of that.
Yeah I have a dual socket motherboard with 2x Xeon X5675 (6C/12T) with 64GB of DDR3.
I’d like to have a couple more servers to be able to distribute the load but the heat with one is enough until I get an additional ac unit for that room not including the money it’ll take lol.
I have a single AMD Ryzen 5 2600. The multicore performance might be comparable but I only have half the cores you do since you said you have 2x X5675. I also have half the RAM as well. I just thought some of the stuff you have running and how you did it was interesting. But with 6 Cores CPU allocation may be a challenge since I cannot spread my workload as widely.
I’m very keen on energy saving so I’d like to find an alternative to big noisy and power hungry servers.
A lot of tasks have short bursts of activity and then a lot of idle time. Makes building a system that is powerful enough and has good idle consumption quite difficult.
Prioritising tasks might help, e.g. you want Home Assistant to respond instantly and don’t mind if your long running backup process gets delayed by a few seconds.
There is no Planet B.
Which is scary to think about. Let’s just hope that something like ARM or RISC-V will make dynamic computing less demanding and more efficient. Too bad they cost half a leg, with barely any budget options, yet.
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Well there is always the Raspberry Pi. The 3 and 4 are quite capable machines, certainly enough for things like Home Assistant. I wonder though, overall is it lower power to run a bunch of RPis and a network switch than it is to run a single larger server with a bunch of VMs?
They’re capable, but they’re usually not enough for multiple services. And everyone has an old, although, maybe not efficient, machine somewhere that you can use, to save some money.
Clustering with docker is certainly alot more efficient than VMs, but if your performance requirements are more than a single RPi, you’re out of luck, as some services don’t cluster very well.
Old laptops might be good for low power stuff. Mobile CPUs aren’t as fast but maybe fast enough, and you can have plenty of RAM and an SSD in there. Being designed for battery operation they tend to be better on power consumption.
Plus it has a built in screen/keyboard and battery UPS. The battery might be dead but you can often referb them yourself with a bit of work.
That’s a good point. Their form factor isn’t really fit for it, however.
I doubt it to be frank, one Raspberry Pi 4 might use little power but using several to do what one machine with multiple VMs can do is going to make it less efficient and then you stumble into problems you normally wouldn’t have with fewer machines running. Now if we had a large ARM-based machine that ran multiple VMs then we are talking.
Speaking of which, I just realized that I have another PC that’s not in use. It has an AMD A10 7860K, is that worth setting up a cluster between my PC with an R5 2600? I could probably lower the TDP of the CPU to 25W or 35W like my R5 2600 is currently running at.
It would be good to get some real world reports of performance on various platforms. People say a Pi 4 is good for Home Assistant, worth the upgrade over a Pi 3, for example.
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Apologises if this boat has already sailed however, I thought I would add my 2 cents.
About Me?
I have been in multiple IT Service Desk roles supporting a business for 10+ years (Ranging from Basic End User support to implementation and administering SSO).
HomeLab
I needed to learn more about Cisco network equipment for work so I built a home lab 9+ Years ago.
Rack with the following mounted.
Cisco 2911 ISR - Modules (24 Port Switch, VDSL EHWIC x 2 & 2 x Telephony Modules)
Cisco 2960 Switch
Lenovo M73 with connections to both network devices via, Ethernet Connected to Lab & WiFi on SSID for IOT equipment on my normal network to allow remote access as the lab is located in my Garage.
Current Home Servers Setup
I have a multiple devices running different processes for my home, I would like to consildate as many of these processes.
Asus RT-AX88U AX6000 [Running ASUSWRT-MERLIN]
- Multiple Outgoing VPN’s with different devices routed over different tunnels.
HP Z2 Mini G4 Workstation [Xeon E-2124G, 32GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro P600, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations] - Setup as a proof of concept for my family to see what I want to do with a future dedicated build while I slowly get the parts.
- Plex Server
- Radarr
- Sonarr
- Lidarr
RaspberryPi 4 Model B x 2
- ADS-B TwitterBot - GitHub - shbisson/OverPutney: An ADS-B twitterbot written in Python for use with Piaware systems with the tar1090 mapping tool.
- Pi-Hole
RaspberryPi 3 Model B+ x 2
- ADS-B Flight Tracker (FlightAware, ADS-B Exchange & FlightRadar24)
- RetroPi
Google Home for automation and security
Sensors [Movement & Reed switches], Google Home Mini’s [room music on schedules],
AXIS POE IP Camera’s - recording to MicroSD Cards with custom webpage for viewing multiple cameras on one page.
Dropbox for offsite backup of things which cannot afford to be lost.
Future Plans
- Virtualisation of as many of the above as possible
- Cutting as many of the cords as possible (YouTube Music Sucks)
- Backup of the different machines
- Minecraft / Game Servers - For my offspring.
- Moving off Google Home for automation.
- Organisation & storage of Books / AudioBooks
- A better setup / secure network (currently using Router, 2 switches, 1 AP.
- Moving to WireGuard for VPN
- A Better Password Manager
- Setting up an Incoming VPN for Family Mobile Phones
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Something I discovered recently, a lot of cheap devices can be upgraded with OpenWRT.
In the UK there were a huge number of BT Home Hub 5 and Plusnet Hub routers given to subscribers for free. I picked one up locally for free, or they got for less than £10 on eBay.
They have 802.11ac wifi and a 5 port switch. If you install OpenWRT the switch becomes managed, with support for VLANs. Basically you can get a an 802.11ac AP and managed switch for free. Great for home network/lab use.
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