HomeLab Project
( project in construction)
Intention
Since I'm surfing trough the internet I am interested in computers.
I watch a lot of tech videos on YouTube and read a lot of articles.
I build myself a Server to furthermore increase my knowledge.
The choice of parts is pretty self-explaining, old-ish pc parts with decent performance at the lowest price possible.
Requirements
I had an external HDD to back up my data for many years,
but now I think it's time to give it an upgrade by building myself a NAS to back up and store my data more permanently.
I live in a shared flat, therefore the HomeLab had to be quiet and efficient.
I planned the HomeLab that it could represent a realworld scenario. Therefore I need a Firewall, some Switches, a backupstorage and a computing cluster.
The Networking Part (Firewall and Subnetting or VLANs) is planned but not executed.
Components and Parts
Parts needed:
- Firewall (old Laptop with PFsense)
- Switch (HP Procurve 2530 48G)
- NAS
- Computing Cluster
This list sums up the Hardware needed, some I had laying around some I had to buy.
To safe some money I just bought used parts.
NAS
As my NAS I had an i7-system laying around. The mainboard has six SATA-plugs and one m.2 slot, which is enough for my needs.
Hardware:
CPU: i7 6700k
RAM: 32gb DDR4
SSD: 128gb nvme
HDD: 2x 1,5tb WD Green
Case: random 4he Rackmount case
Cluster
As a computing-cluster I chose DELL optiplex micro form factor
CPU: 2x i5 8500T, 1x i5 9500T
RAM: 32gb DDR4-SODIMM
SSD: 256gb 2.5 SSD
ZFS-Cluster: 3x 512GB nvme
The Hardware is mostly complete.
Installed Software
On the NAS I installed Openmediavault and set up RAID1 on the HDDs. I created an SMB-Share and linked it to my onedrive.
As an OS for the Cluster I chose proxmox. I set up a ZFS-pool between the three nvme-ssd's.
I created backupjobs for all VMs and enabled HA on the important ones.
