4 ms·

A History of My Homelab

23 points by vhaudiquet 9mo ago

tehlike 9mo ago
Pretty nice. These days data center capacity is measured with wattage. What's yours? My homelab is about 650Ws as is, and should cost around 300$/mo in electricity (california premium).
- vhaudiquet 9mo ago
  Fortunately, the R740 is around 230W, and the switches, routers, and everything around seems to only take 40W. Which means I'm below 300W, and I guess we have cheaper electricity in France as I don't pay as much as you (I think less than 50€/month for the homelab)
- lostlogin 9mo ago
  I was trying to sort a decent UPS, then got distracted by solar and bought a house battery. Once that addition was complete I wanted to get power usage down. macOS is a pretty terrible OS for a homelab, but the mini is amazing. It’s averaging about 5.5w and has an awful lot of power available. UTM makes it more bearable and running services in Ubuntu works fine.
  - tehlike 9mo ago
    Yeah - I don't have macs, but i use older Lenovo tinys. They run at around 10watts, and plenty of compute for what i need. I also have a monster epyc 7200p, a 1G poe switch, a 56G mellanox optics switch, another server with HBA connected to a DS4246. Everything I absolutely positively need.
- gh02t 9mo ago
  I'm seeing an average cost in CA of 30c/kWhr, which should be more like $150. Is your electricity bill really running 60c per? Ouch.
  - tehlike 9mo ago
    https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/residential-electric-rate-plan-pricing.pdf https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/resid... I don't have the old rates, i remember having 60cents or so as the baseline but i don't fully recall.
    - gh02t 9mo ago
      Damn, that's still pretty harsh.
elthor89 9mo ago
I really liked reading about the history of your homelab. How do you like the 3d printed rack enclosure? Is it strong enough to hold the weight and heat from the server?
- vhaudiquet 9mo ago
  I used PETG to print it, which should support the heat without problems. I also added two fans behind, so that the disks and enclosure stays cold. For now, I only have 4 drives in it, and it does not move at all and holds perfectly fine.
  - intothemild 9mo ago
    Just to add to this, I would personally use ABS/ASA, or a fibre variant of those, like Carbon or Glass (if you don't have an enclosed printer). PA (like PA612) is also a good option. Basically anything that can handle higher temps. PETG starts to deform at ~75-85'c. The upper end of that should be fine, but the lower end.. certain things can get close to that temp. So if you've got good airflow, and nothing is passively getting to that temps you're probably good. The best thing might be a design that has some core that holds the components.. print that in a higher temp filament, and print the outer shells in something a little more aesthetically pleasing. Also.. remember to check if the filament you're using has any electrical conductivity.
    - vhaudiquet 9mo ago
      Yes, I would have loved to use a 'better' material, but my printer is not enclosed and I'm not sure it can print CF filaments (I think I would need to change the hot end at least). But soon I will hopefully get my hands on a new BambuLab printer which should let me play with those materials!
      - intothemild 9mo ago
        Actually you can. You'd need a hardened steel nozzle and that's about it. CF/GF filaments are designed to be easier to print, even on an open printer. It's almost the main reason they're popular.
zhainya 9mo ago
Great article. Really well written.
vjay15 9mo ago
Amazing, from a pi to a full blown rack, my dream homelab journey. Also, the article about you joining canonical links to the homelab instead!
- vhaudiquet 9mo ago
  Thanks for noticing that! I'll try to fix right away (of course it is not happening on my local dev environment...)
gamedna 9mo ago
Can you share more details about how you connect the 3d rack enclosure to the 740?
- vhaudiquet 9mo ago
  Certainly! The original [link](https://makerworld.com/en/models/488435-12-trays-hdd-enclosure-3u-rack-mountable https://makerworld.com/en/models/488435-12-trays-hdd-enclosu...) already has information. On the back I mounted SATA connectors (SATA-to-SATA, with power). I have a 1U PSU in the enclosure, which has SATA-power cables connected to the back connectors. Then, I have two SAS to 8 SATA cable that connects to the HBA card in my server on the Mini-SAS end and to the SATA connectors on the back on the enclosure. I hope that makes sense :)

23 points by vhaudiquet 9mo ago

Pretty nice. These days data center capacity is measured with wattage. What's yours? My homelab is about 650Ws as is, and should cost around 300$/mo in electricity (california premium).

vhaudiquet 9mo ago
Fortunately, the R740 is around 230W, and the switches, routers, and everything around seems to only take 40W. Which means I'm below 300W, and I guess we have cheaper electricity in France as I don't pay as much as you (I think less than 50€/month for the homelab)
lostlogin 9mo ago
I was trying to sort a decent UPS, then got distracted by solar and bought a house battery. Once that addition was complete I wanted to get power usage down. macOS is a pretty terrible OS for a homelab, but the mini is amazing. It’s averaging about 5.5w and has an awful lot of power available. UTM makes it more bearable and running services in Ubuntu works fine.
- tehlike 9mo ago
  Yeah - I don't have macs, but i use older Lenovo tinys. They run at around 10watts, and plenty of compute for what i need. I also have a monster epyc 7200p, a 1G poe switch, a 56G mellanox optics switch, another server with HBA connected to a DS4246. Everything I absolutely positively need.
gh02t 9mo ago
I'm seeing an average cost in CA of 30c/kWhr, which should be more like $150. Is your electricity bill really running 60c per? Ouch.
- tehlike 9mo ago
  https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/residential-electric-rate-plan-pricing.pdf https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/resid... I don't have the old rates, i remember having 60cents or so as the baseline but i don't fully recall.
  - gh02t 9mo ago
    Damn, that's still pretty harsh.

elthor89 9mo ago

I really liked reading about the history of your homelab. How do you like the 3d printed rack enclosure? Is it strong enough to hold the weight and heat from the server?

vhaudiquet 9mo ago
I used PETG to print it, which should support the heat without problems. I also added two fans behind, so that the disks and enclosure stays cold. For now, I only have 4 drives in it, and it does not move at all and holds perfectly fine.
- intothemild 9mo ago
  Just to add to this, I would personally use ABS/ASA, or a fibre variant of those, like Carbon or Glass (if you don't have an enclosed printer). PA (like PA612) is also a good option. Basically anything that can handle higher temps. PETG starts to deform at ~75-85'c. The upper end of that should be fine, but the lower end.. certain things can get close to that temp. So if you've got good airflow, and nothing is passively getting to that temps you're probably good. The best thing might be a design that has some core that holds the components.. print that in a higher temp filament, and print the outer shells in something a little more aesthetically pleasing. Also.. remember to check if the filament you're using has any electrical conductivity.
  - vhaudiquet 9mo ago
    Yes, I would have loved to use a 'better' material, but my printer is not enclosed and I'm not sure it can print CF filaments (I think I would need to change the hot end at least). But soon I will hopefully get my hands on a new BambuLab printer which should let me play with those materials!
    - intothemild 9mo ago
      Actually you can. You'd need a hardened steel nozzle and that's about it. CF/GF filaments are designed to be easier to print, even on an open printer. It's almost the main reason they're popular.

zhainya 9mo ago

Great article. Really well written.

vjay15 9mo ago

Amazing, from a pi to a full blown rack, my dream homelab journey. Also, the article about you joining canonical links to the homelab instead!

vhaudiquet 9mo ago
Thanks for noticing that! I'll try to fix right away (of course it is not happening on my local dev environment...)

gamedna 9mo ago

Can you share more details about how you connect the 3d rack enclosure to the 740?

vhaudiquet 9mo ago
Certainly! The original [link](https://makerworld.com/en/models/488435-12-trays-hdd-enclosure-3u-rack-mountable https://makerworld.com/en/models/488435-12-trays-hdd-enclosu...) already has information. On the back I mounted SATA connectors (SATA-to-SATA, with power). I have a 1U PSU in the enclosure, which has SATA-power cables connected to the back connectors. Then, I have two SAS to 8 SATA cable that connects to the HBA card in my server on the Mini-SAS end and to the SATA connectors on the back on the enclosure. I hope that makes sense :)