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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/digitalgasoline on 2023-11-28 19:21:55.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/devilsproud666 on 2023-11-28 16:14:10.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/pissy_corn_flakes on 2023-11-28 07:47:28.

So I've been performing upgrades on my homelab over the past few days. I consolidated several Xeon servers into a single large server. When I switched over to the new rig, I treated myself to the new Gen5 Hyper M.2 card .

Card arrived today from Amazon. Before I move forward, I should highlight some of my jankiness in my setup: I run 2x EVGA 1000W power supplies daisy chained together using an add2psu module. (Looking back, it was a horrible idea..)

My setup was as follows: PSU1 powers my MB, CPU, 2x CPU 8 pins and a GPU. PSU2 provides power to about 24 drives.

This new Gen5 Hyper M.2 card requires 6x PCI power, like a GPU. This is where things go down hill. I provided this power from the 2nd PSU. I guess I never realized, but since the HDDs are 'isolated' within the second PSU, I guess things were safe. But once I added a new lead from PSU2 to power a card that likely is also receiving some power from the motherboard, I probably created a grounding loop? (I'm just guessing).

1st power supply: I complete the upgrade, flick the power switch and go upstairs to my office. By the time I sit down, I'm able to ping the IPMI management interface...but then it goes offline. I start smelling a faint burning smell... I rush down to the basement. It smells NASTY, but no drama: Server is off. Some quick troubleshooting and I determine the 1st PSU is dead, the second one is fine. I swap in a spare 1000W PSUs (Old mining equipment FTW). I look around and don't see anything weird. I ASSumed I wasn't careful and shorted out the add2psu module on something. I fix this potential issue.

I power up the 'new' PSU and sit by and watch.. The computer powers up but the case LEDs are off. Before I can react there's a POP and TONS of smoke starts pouring out the PSU, being blown around by the fan. I quickly cut the power.

Anyways, it was the nastiest smell ever.. and funnily enough, the power supply had some sort of liquid coming out of it from whatever got melted. I was super lucky that none of my equipment got damaged in this process. I learned my lesson and consolidated to a single PSU. I also sent the Hyper M.2 card back as possibly defective.. I'm not going to try a 3rd time!

TLDR: My janky 2PSU system blew up dramatically. But luckily I didn't lose any gear besides the PSUs.

I needed to rant. Sorry for the long post. I have PTSD every time I turn on that computer now...

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/cgm0929 on 2023-11-28 13:25:40.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/Business-Kiwi-6370 on 2023-11-28 09:41:42.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/nero10578 on 2023-11-28 07:41:01.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/Firestarter321 on 2023-11-27 23:12:52.

I have my office and rack in the basement where I work out of during the week. In the early spring and late fall when there isn't much cooling it would get rather warm to be comfortable (80F-82F).

A few weeks ago I realized that I have a cold air return duct in the ceiling so I cut an 8"x10" hole in it and left the furnace fan on 24/7 hoping that would help...it didn't really.

Last week I decided to hang an ~8" fan 3" below the hole I cut into the cold air return to see what would happen if I forced air into the duct...it didn't do much.

Last Thursday I remembered something from my volunteer firefighter days about how to set up a fan to ventilate a room through a window/door and how it was important to have the wind cover the entire opening. This led me to put a 12" fan in place of the 8" fan at 9PM.

Fast forward about an hour and my office was now 76F. The next morning it was 72F and it has stayed at 72F-73F ever since then.

The side benefit is that I'm able to provide a bunch of supplemental heat to the upstairs meaning that rather than my heat pump running 16hr+ per day with the electric strips kicking on periodically overnight during the <15F weather we've been having the heat pump has been running for 8hrs per day and the electric backup strips haven't needed to kick on at all.

I'm curious how it works for cooling next summer when I won't be able to run the furnace fan 24/7 since that'd just dump humidity back into the house so we'll see how that goes.

I'm still pretty happy with the results at the moment.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/ReddItAlll on 2023-11-27 22:15:54.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/digitalgasoline on 2023-11-27 20:54:35.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/MzCWzL on 2023-11-27 19:05:53.

Original Title: In case you've been eyeing the Optane M.2 drives as write caches (consistent 10-20 us writes), I ran some benchmarks using fio on ZFS. The IOPS (& write latency!) are great, throughput isn't, but enough for a 10G connection. What is r/homelab using these for?

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/Altirix on 2023-11-27 14:09:12.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/SugoiShades on 2023-11-27 05:26:47.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/Cold_Ad_2032 on 2023-11-26 19:51:13.

As someone who has built a movie server on hardware that belongs in a museum, I'd like to share a few tips for those of you who are just starting out.

Here are some things to keep in mind when building your homelab:

1. Have a clear plan and build towards a specific idea, rather than just building for the sake of it being cool. One is cost effective. One is expensive.
2. When building, make sure your RAM is properly seated, your CPU has thermal paste, and your machine is plugged in all the way. These simple steps can save you hours of wasted time.
3. Choose an operating system and stick with it until you have a good reason to switch. Whether it's Linux, Mac, Windows, or something else, learn it well. Explore other options in virtual machines or containers. Always have one you can default to.
4. If someone tells you that the server noise is tolerable, it's too loud. Don't buy it. Living next to an airport is more peaceful than living next to a loud server.
5. If someone tells you a switch's noise is okay, go for the fanless alternative and place it in an open or cooled rack.
6. If you are new, buy a NUC. If you are really new, buy a mac mini. Both have so much horsepower, they are more than sufficient. Use them until your use case expands beyond their capabilities (it won’t, unless you are doing AI or HPC). I still run 2012 mac mini servers (an earlier home lab edition). They are still more than capable to do the basics.
7. Heat and power are real - however, you aren't really going to know how much you are generating and using until it is built. Don't be surprised if it is much more or less than expected. See #6.
8. Building it yourself isn't always cheaper, and that's okay. The point is to learn. So, set aside some extra money in your budget for surprises. Otherwise, costs can and will spiral out of control when you realize that the drive you were repurposing has a fault, the CPU you're swapping is a knock-off, or the switch you're using isn't powerful enough to handle all the traffic. Keep to your budget and wait. NEVER buy from need. This is a hobby, not a job.
9. Fiber is usually cheaper and faster than copper. It's often more cost-effective to build a 10 Gbe fiber setup (maybe even 40 Gbe) than a 2.5 Gbe or 10 Gbe (RJ45) setup. Start with a switch that can handle it, and you'll soon have an internal network that's no longer a bottleneck.
10. Be careful with your purchases:

Boot drives should be reliable and bulletproof. Spend money.

RAID drives for NAS should be cheap and disposable. Real RAID is expensive (dedicated SAS with cards and lanes to support). Know the difference and what you're building.

More RAM is always better. Find the cheapest ones at the speed you need and buy them gradually, without breaking your budget.

Before buying PCI(e) cards, make sure they're compatible. eBay and Facebook do not know, but Reddit might. Dell and HP have no idea.

And finally, your spouse/SO is not likely to understand why you spent 12 hours installing and reinstalling something. He/she won’t understand the joy when you finally figure out the problem and fix it for good.

Wow, this got longer than intended - if you made it here, put your best tips below and add to what you wish you had known. Anonymous because I have a problem, and I have no interest in seeking help...

Time to go build a bracket to house two fans that won't fit into the existing proprietary design on my rack (WTF). My daughter and I are going to spend the afternoon (hopefully no more) working on 3D printing. Something she is interested in and I know nothing about.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/hawkwoodwork on 2023-11-27 04:01:48.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/lewiswulski1 on 2023-11-26 14:31:13.

Since the pandemic Ive been slowing building up a small homeland with some Cisco switches, a small cluster of dell optiplex 5070 micros for proxmox and a custom built dual socket server for hosting NAS and hosting most of my windows VMs.

I don't know what to do with it anymore I haven't turned on my lab on months. I have had 0 motivation to use it or mess with configs on it.

Should I call it and begin wiping drives and selling it?

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/FamousCapital3204 on 2023-11-26 20:18:13.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/krzostrowski on 2023-11-26 19:49:53.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/diffraa on 2023-11-26 18:16:16.

For reasons unexplained, you have no homelab hardware, but $1,000 in cash earmarked for the purpose.

What are you buying, what are you installing on it, and how is it different from what you've done previously (i.e. lessons learned)?

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/WasinUddy on 2023-11-26 10:52:25.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/OverratedAardvark on 2023-11-26 06:05:51.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/pachumelajapi on 2023-11-26 00:37:40.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/No_Inspection_5686 on 2023-11-26 03:17:01.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/yo_its_freedo on 2023-11-25 23:45:16.

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/alekslyse on 2023-11-25 19:41:14.

I am starting to wonder why my server system is making SO much heat. I live in Norway, so outside temperature is around freezing, and my house I keep it around 25 degrees inside, except no heating in the server room. It got a roof extraction vent that is constantly sucking out air in that room, and I just had it inspected to be working perfectly fine.

Still its always over 30 degrees in that room, and the hot air is oozing from the server. Its just a consumer based drive and a couple of switches, plus a UPS, and its so warm in there.

Im getting afraid the high temperature can affect the hardware when its 30-35 degrees inside the server rack

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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/pacman_jones on 2023-11-25 16:44:24.

tl;dr Impulse-purchased an IBM x3650 M4 7915 to serve as the keystone of my homelab build; I’m either a mad genius or simply insane

I should preface this by saying I’m of a certain age, and with that comes a weird combination of nostalgia and reverence for x86-based IBM hardware. The first computer I could call my own was an IBM PC-XT I got second hand in the mid-90s. Not long after, I graduated to a PS/2 Model 80 that was in amazing shape and kitted out with an original VGA monitor, model M keyboard, and second-gen PS/2 mouse—if only my teenage self understood the treasure that setup would become.

Anyway, last night, in addition to some other odds and ends, I impulse-purchased an IBM x3650 M4 7915 primarily because I really appreciate System x hardware, but also mostly because it was like $110 USD with free shipping.

Planning to use this as the basis of a scratch homelab build primarily for use as a learning platform. I know there’s a lot of trial and error, pain and frustration, but also the acquisition of knowledge, and that valuable kind of growth that only comes in the wake of tremendous failure and defeat, sprouting like fireweed on an expanse of charred wasteland after a cleansing wildfire.

Either I’m a mad genius, or I’m simply insane