IT Homelab

[Fishy]

I have pihole running with unbound and all my fire sticks and Alexasare on a separate vlan allowed to internet and can't touch my "trusted" LAN

[pxr5]

Upgraded all my network switches from 1Gps to 2.5Gbps models - x1 8-port, x3 5-port and a USB dongle for my laptop. Actually my son had to come round and do it for me as I couldn't get on the floor due to my knee. Thankfully all my runs are Cat6 already so no updates needed there.

[Fishy]

Nice I'm looking for a cheap ish 10gb network switch

[pxr5]

Updated my new Synology NAS already. Firstly, the RAM from the pitiful 2GB that Synology offers to a mind-boggling 10GB . Of course Synology want you to use their memory which costs a crazy amount for just a 4Gb module. I just bought a used Lexar 8GB stick from ebay for £20 (following the RAM megathread on Reddit) - works fine.

Next, I popped in an 400GB NVMe drive mainly for running containers on, though it can also be used as cache if needed. Once more, Synology insist on using their own brand and this time I did get a Syno model, though there is a script frig, that some clever person came up with, to allow other makes; but knowing Synology that will likely get blocked in further s/w updates - so a risk I wasn't willing to make. I set it in Raid1 and I'll add another equivalent sometime in the future for full redundancy.

[Fishy]

Updated my new Synology NAS already. Firstly, the RAM from the pitiful 2GB that Synology offers to a mind-boggling 10GB . Of course Synology want you to use their memory which costs a crazy amount for just a 4Gb module. I just bought a used Lexar 8GB stick from ebay for £20 (following the RAM megathread on Reddit) - works fine.

Next, I popped in an 400GB NVMe drive mainly for running containers on, though it can also be used as cache if needed. Once more, Synology insist on using their own brand and this time I did get a Syno model, though there is a script frig, that some clever person came up with, to allow other makes; but knowing Synology that will likely get blocked in further s/w updates - so a risk I wasn't willing to make. I set it in Raid1 and I'll add another equivalent sometime in the future for full redundancy.

You ever tried building your own synology using xpenology.. I used it as shared storage for my Esxi boxes .. worked really well.. think the last one I used was building it with arcloader which was all menu driven to build your "synology" box of any flavour you liked really.. was pretty solid I have to say

[pxr5]

^ I did consider it a while back, but I like Synology NAS. But this will probably be my last. Ugreen NAS have been getting better and better with their s/w improving; and the hardware is so, so much better than Synology.

[pxr5]

Trying to keep things current can be a PITA sometimes. My x3 Raspberry Pis having been tootling along for a couple of years untended. A quick check and they are way out of date, so time to wipe and start again. Linux is great but things are always changing and some of my saved processes and guides are defunct so it's like learning all over again. I've just got one done and fully operational, took a couple of hours though. I've also decided to rationalise and drop to 2 Pis. I'll bin off the oldest - a Pi3b+ and put all my stuff on the other 2 - a 4 and a 5. Of course I could shift some of this stuff to my NAS'/Docker, but I like to spread the work as it were and not put all my eggs in one basket   Also it keeps my hand in with all things Linux.

[Fishy]

I've grown to like Linux and all my Debian dockers running pihole / Immich/speedtest/ duckdns / Jellyfin/ air sonic and uptime kuma

[Fishy]

Went back to VMware.. xcpng was fine but the ui was pretty tacky and I'm just used to VSphere.. it just works for me.. came across a nice docker management setup called dockhand.. very easy to setup and you can add in your remote ones.. looks hood and gives you a ton of details on each container ...

[Fishy]

Ok so Dockhand now up and running and setup with pushover notifications.. upgraded veeam to v13 and VMware backups running very smoothly over the direct 10gb link..don't think I need a 10gb switch really.. also gave my small comms cabinet a cable clear out..setup a couple of DNS entries on my pihole for the vcsa and ESXi host which means the windows 2025 DC can be retired so have reduced quite nicely the bloat of my homelab down to one ESXi host running a dozen vms and a physical pc running veeam.... Still leaves me the host that was running xcp ng

[Fishy]

Downgraded my internet to the virgin m500.. the 1gb was overkill and I didn't want to pay the price rise

[Fishy]

SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from up to 243 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, SearXNG can be used over Tor for online anonymity.

Thought I'd give it a go.. built a little Debian vm with docker.... Set my homepage to the ip add:port number and away we go.. also set it up to route out via my VPN pipe..

[Fishy]

Setup a vm for Home Assistant.. always wanted to get all my smart devices like Hive Tuya and Tplink onto one dashboard rather than having to use different apps...so some devices on HA now....next step trying to create a usable dashboard...

[Fishy]

Grabbed a new core switch from eBay.. replacing my hp 1920 with an Aruba 1930.. the 1920 has been rock solid but it's pretty old.. been looking for a newer fanless switch for a while.. unfortunately the config ismy straight copy n paste bug hey ho..

[Fishy]

1930 Aruba up n running nicely.. got some 10gb ports to play with so grabbed a mellonox sfp+ Nic from eBay then had fun flashing it.. then discovered Esxi 8 doesn't have drivers for it they dropped it after Esxi 7...  but my windows veeam box can see it no problems.. I actually found another sfp+ hp branded card .. must have hung onto it from work...which does play nice with Esxi 8.. so grabbed a 1m dac cable to connect and it works..