5 ms·

Ask HN: Do you have a homelab? Why and what's your setup?

7 points by ethanpil 6y ago

alexfromapex 6y ago
Yes, because most companies won’t let you play around and learn Kubernetes or Hadoop on their enterprise cluster. I have 3 RPi4s with 500GB SSDs running full blown k8s with my own privately hosted Docker repo.
- alexellisuk 6y ago
  Me too, but with NVMe and netbooted :) https://alexellisuk.medium.com/upgrade-your-raspberry-pi-4-with-a-nvme-boot-drive-d9ab4e8aa3c2 https://alexellisuk.medium.com/upgrade-your-raspberry-pi-4-w...
mech422 6y ago
yes - it was for testing OpenStack setups at home (simulating multiple clusters), and general services. But I'm doing more cloud stuff now, so its mostly turned off. I had way too much gear :-P 1 IBM half rack 8 Dell blades 8 HP blades 3 x 24 port managed switches (2 for rack, 1 for house) 3 x Odroid H2s 3 x windows desktops (games, and ssh to servers) ? x laptops (tons of old laptops ) ? x tablets (ipad/android most used is a lenovo yoga tab.) 2 3d printers 1 gpu miner (Now doing folding@home covid stuff) I think I might have a hoarding problem :-P edit: fix formating
- ethanpil 6y ago
  Wow, what's your electricity bill look like?
  - mech422 6y ago
    I'm in AZ, so in the summer with everything running and under load - about $500/month (not including the 3d printers). That's why most of it is spun down atm. Gradually moving stuff from the blades to ODroid H2s to cut down on power.
- robodale 6y ago
  You win.
  - mech422 6y ago
    Hehe - go big or go home? Its actually getting hard to figure out how to get rid of stuff. Its all working gear, and the blades are all 2xquad cores with 48G ram...but its so old, no one wants it. Local maker space has old gear coming out their ears, schools won't touch anything that old. I really don't want to destroy working gear :-(
noud 6y ago
Talking about home labs: I own a Bresser Biolux NV [1] and I keep several hay infusions on my desk right now. The results are better than I expected. I can look for hours at multicellular organisms and bacteria are visible. Also I own a spectral sensor [2] for very primitive NIR spectroscopy analysis. But this sensor is not really that impressive. Don't expect too much from this spectral sensor. ;) [1] - https://www.bresser.de/en/Microscopes-Magnifiers/BRESSER-Biolux-NV-20x-1280x-Microscope-with-HD-USB-camera.html https://www.bresser.de/en/Microscopes-Magnifiers/BRESSER-Bio... [2] - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14351 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14351
- rory_isAdonk 6y ago
  I've always wanted to purchase one of these. I'm a frugal man saving for his first home, every purchase feels like a step backwards. In instances like this another feeling dominates, I feel unworthy of possessing such a device because I can't use it to understand anything, I can merely gaze into the multicellular world as one would use a telescope to look at the moon. I understand my place in the world marginally better but at the end of day I get no concrete understanding. Certainly nothing novel. I feel like this thought cheapens and spoils joy. I've been infected with it and I don't know from where.
  - noud 6y ago
    What would the giants do? Did Galileo Galilei know that Saturn had rings when he first looked through his telescope? Did Isaac Newton understand the laws of gravity when the apple felt on his head? Did Robert Hooke know all the micro-organisms when he first looked through the microscope? I think it's good to have/know/see something you don't understand. Keeps your mind fresh.
alexellisuk 6y ago
Yes, I talk about my RPi builds in this guide - https://blog.alexellis.io/self-hosting-kubernetes-on-your-raspberry-pi/ https://blog.alexellis.io/self-hosting-kubernetes-on-your-ra... I do like to always have 1-2 Intel NUC headless Linux boxes for running containers and K8s. I run my sponsors portal using an RPi3 and an inlets tunnel. The microservices are served with faasd - it gets light traffic, but is basically free. http://github.com/openfaas/faasd http://github.com/openfaas/faasd
the_only_law 6y ago
Not quite, but I do have grand plans for one. Both for my main home network along with several sub and separate networks for several projects along with simulated retro and other non-IP networks. Right now I'm sitting around with ISDN phones, switches, routers, old network protocol analyzers and terminals and even an old CMTS!

7 points by ethanpil 6y ago

Yes, because most companies won’t let you play around and learn Kubernetes or Hadoop on their enterprise cluster. I have 3 RPi4s with 500GB SSDs running full blown k8s with my own privately hosted Docker repo.

alexellisuk 6y ago
Me too, but with NVMe and netbooted :) https://alexellisuk.medium.com/upgrade-your-raspberry-pi-4-with-a-nvme-boot-drive-d9ab4e8aa3c2 https://alexellisuk.medium.com/upgrade-your-raspberry-pi-4-w...

mech422 6y ago

yes - it was for testing OpenStack setups at home (simulating multiple clusters), and general services. But I'm doing more cloud stuff now, so its mostly turned off. I had way too much gear :-P 1 IBM half rack 8 Dell blades 8 HP blades 3 x 24 port managed switches (2 for rack, 1 for house) 3 x Odroid H2s 3 x windows desktops (games, and ssh to servers) ? x laptops (tons of old laptops ) ? x tablets (ipad/android most used is a lenovo yoga tab.) 2 3d printers 1 gpu miner (Now doing folding@home covid stuff) I think I might have a hoarding problem :-P edit: fix formating

ethanpil 6y ago
Wow, what's your electricity bill look like?
- mech422 6y ago
  I'm in AZ, so in the summer with everything running and under load - about $500/month (not including the 3d printers). That's why most of it is spun down atm. Gradually moving stuff from the blades to ODroid H2s to cut down on power.
robodale 6y ago
You win.
- mech422 6y ago
  Hehe - go big or go home? Its actually getting hard to figure out how to get rid of stuff. Its all working gear, and the blades are all 2xquad cores with 48G ram...but its so old, no one wants it. Local maker space has old gear coming out their ears, schools won't touch anything that old. I really don't want to destroy working gear :-(

noud 6y ago

Talking about home labs: I own a Bresser Biolux NV [1] and I keep several hay infusions on my desk right now. The results are better than I expected. I can look for hours at multicellular organisms and bacteria are visible. Also I own a spectral sensor [2] for very primitive NIR spectroscopy analysis. But this sensor is not really that impressive. Don't expect too much from this spectral sensor. ;) [1] - https://www.bresser.de/en/Microscopes-Magnifiers/BRESSER-Biolux-NV-20x-1280x-Microscope-with-HD-USB-camera.html https://www.bresser.de/en/Microscopes-Magnifiers/BRESSER-Bio... [2] - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14351 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14351

rory_isAdonk 6y ago
I've always wanted to purchase one of these. I'm a frugal man saving for his first home, every purchase feels like a step backwards. In instances like this another feeling dominates, I feel unworthy of possessing such a device because I can't use it to understand anything, I can merely gaze into the multicellular world as one would use a telescope to look at the moon. I understand my place in the world marginally better but at the end of day I get no concrete understanding. Certainly nothing novel. I feel like this thought cheapens and spoils joy. I've been infected with it and I don't know from where.
- noud 6y ago
  What would the giants do? Did Galileo Galilei know that Saturn had rings when he first looked through his telescope? Did Isaac Newton understand the laws of gravity when the apple felt on his head? Did Robert Hooke know all the micro-organisms when he first looked through the microscope? I think it's good to have/know/see something you don't understand. Keeps your mind fresh.

alexellisuk 6y ago

Yes, I talk about my RPi builds in this guide - https://blog.alexellis.io/self-hosting-kubernetes-on-your-raspberry-pi/ https://blog.alexellis.io/self-hosting-kubernetes-on-your-ra... I do like to always have 1-2 Intel NUC headless Linux boxes for running containers and K8s. I run my sponsors portal using an RPi3 and an inlets tunnel. The microservices are served with faasd - it gets light traffic, but is basically free. http://github.com/openfaas/faasd http://github.com/openfaas/faasd

the_only_law 6y ago

Not quite, but I do have grand plans for one. Both for my main home network along with several sub and separate networks for several projects along with simulated retro and other non-IP networks. Right now I'm sitting around with ISDN phones, switches, routers, old network protocol analyzers and terminals and even an old CMTS!