This is an overview of my active home lab set up. It will be updated as modifications occur and I will link back to more specific articles and setup docs as they are posted 😃
UniFi Dream Machine
The UniFi Dream Machine is great router for small office environments or for adding some pretty slick enterprise-level networking capabilities to your home network.
Tech Specs
- ARM Cortex-A57 CPU, Quad-Core 1.7GHz
- GbE managed switch
- Enterprise networking features :wire
- IDS/IPS built-in 🛡️
- WiFi 5
- UniFi ecosystem integration
Data Core
I had been looking for a NAS to store development files, personal files for myself and family, movies, music, the usual, when I originally came across the Helios4. The development cycle was just about over though as Kobol was busy at work on the Helios64. I was lucky enough to snap one of the pre-orders and it was well worth the wait! Unfortunately though, due to COVID-19 hardships Kobol has announced that they are stopping production 😢
Tech Specs
- ARM RK3399 6-Core CPU (2x Cortex-A72 1.8GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 1.4GHz)
- Mali-T860 GPU
- 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
- 1GbE + 2.5GbE
- 10-20W Idle ~ 30W Max! 🌱
- Integrated backup UPS! 🔋
Power Core
Sometimes you need a little bit of POWER to run services and applications. While the Intel NUC isn’t reeealllyy “powerful”, it does pack quite a high-powered punch on a low-power budget!
Tech Specs
- Intel i5-7260U CPU, Dual-Core 2.20GHz
- 16GB DDR4-2133 RAM
- 250GB Samsung Evo 850 SSD
- 15W TPD 🌱
Kubercluster
4x Array of Raspberry Pi 4 used to run various personal self-hosted web services for home automation, development, and media. The Kubercluster is also a highly useful sandbox for experimenting and practicing Docker, Kubernetes, systems administration, automation, and DevOps. The Kubercluster is managed by Rancher, which is running externally on the Power Core.
Tech Specs
- Broadcom BCM2711 CPU, Quad-Core Cortex-A72 1.5GHz (16-Core total in cluster)
- 4GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM (~14.8GB usable in cluster)
- 32GB Samsung EVO U1 MicroSDHC
- Shared 64GB external GlusterFS volume 🐜
- ~2.5-5W average power consumption (~10-20W combined) 🌱
Gatekeeper
I am using a single RPi4 as my network’s ad-blocking DNS server. While using Pi-Hole for ad-blocking, it using Unbound for actual upstream DNS resolution. It also handles VPN traffic to access services externally from the home net, proxied through an external bastion host.
Tech Specs
- Broadcom BCM2711 CPU, Quad-Core Cortex-A72 1.5GHz
- 4GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM
- 32GB Samsung EVO U1 MicroSDHC
- ~2.5-5W average power consumption 🌱
Geordi-LaForge
Built at the time I was binge rewatching The Next Generation, Geordi-LaForge is a custom small form factor desktop capable of handling heavy development workloads, video processing, video gaming, fixing the Enterprise, and everyday use too! I lean heavily on WSL support for development in Windows to keep interoprability and productivity with Linux tooling.
Tech Specs
- Windows 11 + WSL2
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, 6-Core 3.6GHz
- NVIDIA GeForce 3060 RTX 🎮
- Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX
- 16GB DDR4-3600 RAM
- 1TB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD
Thinkpad
My Thinkpad was my daily driver before building Geordi-LaForge and it still is for the most part due to portability. The laptop came with Windows 10, and at first I was dual-booting both Windows + KDE but after a bad update, the Windows partition was no longer accessible and KDE too had been a bit too unstable for my liking so I wiped the whole drive and install Pop!_OS over it. Pop!_OS has been amazing and I’ve never looked back since!
Tech Specs
- Pop!_OS 21.04
- Intel i5-8265U CPU, Quad-Core 1.6GHz
- 16GB LPDDR3-2133 RAM
- 500GB SSD
- Low-power, 1920x1080, 400 nit screen 🌱
Future Upgrades
I recently was able to find a Dell PowerEdge R510 and R710 for a great deal! Currently they are sitting in my closet but in the next few months I will working to set them up (taking hard drive donations!!! 😉) to run a hybrid home cloud and virtualization server!