2021-06-08 12:29:34 +00:00
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---
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title: My Homelab Build
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date: 2021-06-08
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tags:
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- homelab
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- no-kill-like-overkill
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---
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# My Homelab Build
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There are many things you can be cursed into enjoying. One of my curses is
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enjoying philosophy/linguistics. This leads you into many fun conversations
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about how horrible English is that can get boring after a while. One of my other,
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bigger curses is that I'm a computer person. Specifically a computer person that
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enjoys playing with distributed systems. This is an expensive hobby, especially
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when all you really have is The Cloud™.
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One thing that I do a lot is run virtual machines. Some of these stick around, a
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lot of them are very ephemeral. I also like being able to get into these VMs
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quickly if I want to mess around with a given distribution or OS. Normally I'd
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run these on [my gaming
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tower](https://christine.website/blog/nixos-desktop-flow-2020-04-25), however
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this makes my tower very load-bearing. I also want to play games sometimes on my
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tower, and even though there have been many strides in getting games to run well
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on Linux it's still not as good as I'd like it to be.
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[In fact, it's actually kinda convenient that it's _hard_ for me to play games
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on Linux so that it's harder for me to have entire days eaten by doing
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it. Factorio and other games like it are _really_ dangerous for
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me.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
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For many years my home server has been a 2013 Mac Pro, the trash can one. It's a
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very capable machine. It's a beautiful looking computer, however in terms of
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performance it's really not up to snuff anymore. It works, it's still my
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prometheus server, but overall it's quite slow in comparison to what I've ended
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up needing.
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It probably also doesn't help that my coworkers have given me a serious case of
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homelab envy. A few of my coworkers have full rackmount setups. This is also
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dangerous for my wallet.
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My initial plan was to get 3 rackmount servers in a soundproof rack box. I
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wanted to get octo-core Xeons in them (preferably 2 of them) and something on
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the order of 64 GB of ram in each node. For my needs, this is absurdly beyond
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overkill. Storage would be on NVMe and rotational drives with
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[ZFS](https://openzfs.org/wiki/Main_Page) as the filesystem.
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[I thought overkill was the motto of this blog.](conversation://Mara/happy)
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[Nope. It's "there's no kill like overkill". Subtle difference, but it's a
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significant one in this case.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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Among other things, running a datacenter in your basement really requires you to
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have a basement. This place that my fiancé and I moved to doesn't really have a
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proper basement. One of the advantages of having a proper basement is that you
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can put servers in it without really bothering anyone. Server fan noise tends to
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range from "dull roar" to "jet engine takeoff". This can cause problems if you
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are and/or live with someone who is noise sensitive. Soundproof racks exist,
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however I wasn't sure if the noise reduction would really be enough to make up
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for the cost.
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Then there's the power cost. Electricity in Ontario is expensive. Our home
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2021-06-08 12:53:34 +00:00
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office also only has a 15 amp breaker, which gives us roughly 1800W to play with within that room. With our work laptops and gaming towers
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set up, the laser printer was enough to push us over the line and flip the
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2021-06-08 12:29:34 +00:00
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breaker. A full rackmount server setup would never have worked. Electricity is
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covered by our rent payments, however I don't really want to use more power than
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I really have to.
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2021-06-08 20:53:01 +00:00
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After more research and bisecting a bunch of options through
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2021-06-08 12:29:34 +00:00
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[PCPartpicker](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com), I ended up with a set of hardware
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that I am calling the Alrest. [Here](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/8jC7bh)
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are its specs on PCPartpicker. It is designed to balance these factors as much
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as possible:
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- Cost - I had a budget of about 4,000 CAD that I was willing to spend on the
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whole project
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- Parts availability in Canada - Parts are annoying to get in Canada in normal
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cases, COVID has made it worse
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- Performance - My existing balance of cloud servers and old laptops has gotten
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me fairly far, but it is starting to show its limits
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- Cores - More cores = more faster
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The Alrest is a micro-ATX tower with the following major specifications:
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- An [Intel Core i5
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10600](https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-10600+%40+3.30GHz&id=3750)
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- [32 GB DDR4
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ram](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/LBJmP6/oloy-warhawk-rgb-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3200-cl16-memory-nd4u1632161dcwdx)
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(I have no idea how this happened, but the cheapest way for me to get the ram
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I wanted was to get RGB ram again)
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- 1 TB NVMe drive (I had to get them from multiple vendors because of Chia
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miners causing companies to limit drives to 1/2 per person)
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[Why do you have a i5 10600? You could get a beefier
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processor.](conversation://Mara/hmm)
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[All the beefier CPUs don't ship with an integrated GPU, so I'd have to get a
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hardware GPU (which is near impossible due to memecoin farmers and the car
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industry hoovering up all the semiconductor supply) that would waste power
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showing a login screen for all eternity. Not to mention those beefier CPUs also
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don't ship with a CPU fan so I'd need to get a heatsink. I wish Intel made
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better processors with both an iGPU and a heatsink. I'm probably a huge
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exception to the normal case of system buyers
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though.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
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Thanks to the meddling of a server sommelier that I banter with, I got 4 nodes.
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<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p lang="en"
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dir="ltr">Aaaaand homelab<a href="https://t.co/DhdWbCt5lV">pic.twitter.com/DhdWbCt5lV</a></p>— Xe
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from Within (@theprincessxena) <a
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href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1400592778309115905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
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3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async
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src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
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[The nodes in the cluster are named after gods/supercomputers from Xenosaga and
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2021-06-08 12:33:41 +00:00
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Xenoblade Chronicles. KOS-MOS (a badass robot waifu with a laser sword and also
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the reincarnation of a biblical figure, Xenosaga is wild) was one of the
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protagonists in Xenosaga and Logos (speech, reason), Ontos (one who is, being)
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and Pneuma (breath, spirit) were the three cores of the Trinity Processor in
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Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The avatar you see in YouTube videos and VRChat
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resembles the in-game model for Pneuma. Alrest is another Xenoblade reference,
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2021-06-08 20:53:01 +00:00
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but that is an exercise for the reader.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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2021-06-08 12:29:34 +00:00
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Building them was fairly straightforward. The process of building a PC has
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gotten really streamlined over the years and it really helped that I basically
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had 4 carbon copies of the same machine. I hadn't built an Intel tower since
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about mid 2015 when I built my old gaming tower while I lived in California.
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Something that terrified me back in the day was that tension arm that was used
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to lock the processor into the motherboard. I was afraid that I was going to
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break it. That tension arm is still present in modern motherboards. It's still
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terrifying.
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The motherboards I got were kinda cheapo (a natural side effect of sorting by
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cost from cheapest to most expensive, I guess), but they did this one
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cost-saving measure I didn't even know was possible. Normally motherboards
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include a NVMe screw mount so you screw the SSD into the board. This motherboard
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came with a plastic NVMe anchor. I popped one end into the board with a spudger
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and fastened the drive into the other.
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<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"
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data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">An m.2 anchor? That's a new one for
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me <a href="https://t.co/okCZmet6uE">pic.twitter.com/okCZmet6uE</a></p>—
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Xe from Within (@theprincessxena) <a
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href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1400197906527928322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
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2, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async
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src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
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The anchors work fine, but it's still the first time I've ever seen a
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motherboard do that.
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If you look at the parts list, you'll notice that I didn't get a dedicated CPU
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cooler. Those are annoying to install compared to the stock cooler, and I don't
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really see myself running into a case where it'd actually be useful. I picked
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the one high-end Core i5 model that came with both an integrated GPU and a stock
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cooler. One weird thing that Intel did was make the power cable for the stock
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cooler wrapped in a chokehold around the CPU cooler itself. I didn't realize
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this at first and was confused why my experimental/test machine for the cluster
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was throwing "oh god why isn't the CPU fan working" beep codes and refused to
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boot past the BIOS. Always make sure the CPU fan power cable isn't strangling
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the CPU fan.
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After all that comes the NixOS install. I had previously made an [ISO image
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that allowed me to automatically install NixOS on virtual
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machines](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/media/autoinstall).
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This fairly dangerous ISO image allows me to provision a new virtual machine
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from a blank disk to a fully functional NixOS install in something like 3
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minutes.
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[In testing, most of the time was taken up by copying the ISO's nix store to the
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new virtual machine partition. I don't know if there's a way to make that more
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efficient.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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Using KOS-MOS as the experimental machine again, I installed NixOS by hand and
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took notes. Here's a scan of the notes I took:
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- [Page 1](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/KOS-MOS+notes+Page+1.jpeg)
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- [Page 2](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/KOS-MOS+notes+Page+2.jpeg)
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I set up KOS-MOS to have three partitions: root, swap and the EFI system
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partition. I then set up my ZFS datasets with the following pattern:
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| Dataset | Description |
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| :---------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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| `rpool` | The root dataset that everything hands off of, zstd compression |
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| `rpool/local` | The parent dataset for data that can be lost without too much issue |
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| `rpool/local/nix` | The dataset for the Nix store, this can be regenerated without much issue |
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| `rpool/local/vms` | The parent dataset for virtual machines that won't be backed up |
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| `rpool/safe` | The parent dataset for data that will be automatically backed up |
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| `rpool/safe/home` | `/home`, home directories |
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| `rpool/safe/root` | `/`, the root filesystem |
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| `rpool/safe/vms` | The parent dataset for virtual machines that will be backed up |
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With all of these paths ironed out, I turned those notes into a small install
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script. I put that install script
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[here](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/0bf2ebdfc6ad9e43f07646d238070074d2890ba0/media/autoinstall-alrest/iso.nix).
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I used [nixos-generators](https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-generators) to
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make an ISO with this command:
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```console
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$ nixos-generate -f install-iso -c iso.nix
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```
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This spat out a 680 megabyte ISO (maybe even small enough it could fit on a CD)
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that I wrote to a flashdrive with `dd`:
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```console
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$ sudo dd if=/path/to/nixos.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M
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```
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Then I stuck the USB drive into KOS-MOS and reinstalled it from that USB. After
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a fumble or two with a partitioning command, I had a USB drive that let me
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reflash a new base NixOS install with a ZFS root in 3 minutes. If you want to
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watch the install, I recorded a video:
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<center><iframe width="560" height="315"
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t4CbatC728g" title="YouTube video player"
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frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write;
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encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"
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allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
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I bet that if I used a USB 3.0 drive it could be faster, but 3 minutes is fast
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enough. It is a magical experience though. Just plug the USB drive in, boot up
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the tower and wait until it powers off. Once I got it working reliably on
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KOS-MOS the real test began. I built the next machine (Pneuma) and then
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installed NixOS with the magic USB drive. It worked perfectly. I had myself a
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cluster.
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Once NixOS was installed on the machines, it was running a very basic
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configuration. This configuration sets the hostname to `install`, loads my SSH
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keys from GitHub and sets the ZFS host ID, but not much else. The next step was
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adding KOS-MOS to my Morph setup. I did the initial setup in [this
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commit](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/commit/6b08de8e97e1b3b5766806adb08ac3352ef5dd44).
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[Wait. You built 4 machines from the same template with (basically) the same
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hardware, right? Why would you need to put the host-specific config in the repo
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4 times?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
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I don't! I created a folder for the Alrest hardware
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[here](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common/hardware/alrest).
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This contains all of the basic hardware config as well as a few settings that I
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want to apply cluster-wide. This allows me to have my Morph manifest look
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something like this:
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```nix
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{
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network = { description = "Avalon"; };
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# alrest
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"kos-mos.alrest" = { config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
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let metadata = pkgs.callPackage ../metadata/peers.nix { };
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in {
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deployment.targetUser = "root";
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deployment.targetHost = metadata.raw.kos-mos.ip_addr;
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networking.hostName = "kos-mos";
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networking.hostId = "472479d4";
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imports =
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[ ../../common/hardware/alrest ../../hosts/kos-mos/configuration.nix ];
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};
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"logos.alrest" = { config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
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let metadata = pkgs.callPackage ../metadata/peers.nix { };
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in {
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deployment.targetUser = "root";
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deployment.targetHost = metadata.raw.logos.ip_addr;
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networking.hostName = "logos";
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networking.hostId = "aeace675";
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
imports =
|
|
|
|
|
[ ../../common/hardware/alrest ../../hosts/logos/configuration.nix ];
|
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"ontos.alrest" = { config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
|
|
|
|
|
let metadata = pkgs.callPackage ../metadata/peers.nix { };
|
|
|
|
|
in {
|
|
|
|
|
deployment.targetUser = "root";
|
|
|
|
|
deployment.targetHost = metadata.raw.ontos.ip_addr;
|
|
|
|
|
networking.hostName = "ontos";
|
|
|
|
|
networking.hostId = "07602ecc";
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
imports =
|
|
|
|
|
[ ../../common/hardware/alrest ../../hosts/ontos/configuration.nix ];
|
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"pneuma.alrest" = { config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
|
|
|
|
|
let metadata = pkgs.callPackage ../metadata/peers.nix { };
|
|
|
|
|
in {
|
|
|
|
|
deployment.targetUser = "root";
|
|
|
|
|
deployment.targetHost = metadata.raw.pneuma.ip_addr;
|
|
|
|
|
networking.hostName = "pneuma";
|
|
|
|
|
networking.hostId = "34fbd94b";
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
imports =
|
|
|
|
|
[ ../../common/hardware/alrest ../../hosts/pneuma/configuration.nix ];
|
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Now I had a bunch of hardware with NixOS installed and the machines were fully
|
|
|
|
|
assimilated into my network. I had my base shell config and everything else
|
|
|
|
|
fully set up so I could SSH into any of the servers and have everything just
|
|
|
|
|
where I wanted it. I had [libvirtd](https://libvirt.org/index.html) installed
|
|
|
|
|
with the basic install set, so I wanted to try using [Tailscale Subnet
|
|
|
|
|
Routes](https://tailscale.com/kb/1019/subnets/) to expose the virtual machine
|
|
|
|
|
subnets to my other machines. As far as I am aware, libvirtd doesn't have a mode
|
|
|
|
|
where it can plunk a virtual machine on the network like other hypervisors can.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By default libvirtd sets the default virtual machine network to be on the
|
|
|
|
|
`192.168.122.0/24` network. This doesn't conflict with anything on its own,
|
|
|
|
|
however when you have many hosts with that same range it can be a bit
|
|
|
|
|
problematic. I have a `/16` that I use for my wireguard addressing, so I carved
|
|
|
|
|
out a few ranges that I could reserve for each machine:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Range | Description |
|
|
|
|
|
| :--------------- | :-------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
| `10.77.128.0/24` | KOS-MOS Virtual Machine /24 |
|
|
|
|
|
| `10.77.129.0/24` | Logos Virtual Machine /24 |
|
|
|
|
|
| `10.77.130.0/24` | Ontos Virtual Machine /24 |
|
|
|
|
|
| `10.77.131.0/24` | Pneuma Virtual Machine /24 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Normally I'd share these subnets over WireGuard. However, Tailscale Subnet
|
|
|
|
|
Routes let me do this a bit more directly. I ran this command to enable subnet
|
|
|
|
|
routing on each machine:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
|
|
|
function getsubnet () {
|
|
|
|
|
case $1 in
|
|
|
|
|
kos-mos)
|
|
|
|
|
printf "10.77.128.0/24"
|
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
|
|
|
logos)
|
|
|
|
|
printf "10.77.129.0/24"
|
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
|
|
|
ontos)
|
|
|
|
|
printf "10.77.130.0/24"
|
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
|
|
|
pneuma)
|
|
|
|
|
printf "10.77.131.0/24"
|
|
|
|
|
;;
|
|
|
|
|
esac
|
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
for host in kos-mos logos ontos pneuma
|
|
|
|
|
do
|
|
|
|
|
ssh root@$host tailscale up \
|
|
|
|
|
--accept-routes \
|
|
|
|
|
--advertise-routes="$(getsubnet $host)" \
|
|
|
|
|
--advertise-tags=tag:alrest,tag:nixos
|
|
|
|
|
done
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This command is a slightly overengineered version of what I actually did
|
|
|
|
|
(something something hindsight something something), but it worked! Then I
|
|
|
|
|
configured libvirtd to actually use these subnets by going into `virt-manager`,
|
|
|
|
|
connecting to one of the hosts and changed the default network configuration
|
|
|
|
|
from something like this:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```xml
|
|
|
|
|
<network>
|
|
|
|
|
<name>default</name>
|
|
|
|
|
<uuid>ef4bc889-e01d-403a-9a92-a0e172b8f42a</uuid>
|
|
|
|
|
<forward mode="nat">
|
|
|
|
|
<nat>
|
|
|
|
|
<port start="1024" end="65535"/>
|
|
|
|
|
</nat>
|
|
|
|
|
</forward>
|
|
|
|
|
<bridge name="virbr0" stp="on" delay="0"/>
|
|
|
|
|
<mac address="52:54:00:89:b3:66"/>
|
|
|
|
|
<ip address="192.168.122.1" netmask="255.255.255.0">
|
|
|
|
|
<dhcp>
|
|
|
|
|
<range start="192.168.122.2" end="192.168.122.254"/>
|
|
|
|
|
</dhcp>
|
|
|
|
|
</ip>
|
|
|
|
|
</network>
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To something like this:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```xml
|
|
|
|
|
<network connections="2">
|
|
|
|
|
<name>default</name>
|
|
|
|
|
<uuid>39bf0a49-57ff-4840-8bd6-09c6f3817afe</uuid>
|
|
|
|
|
<forward mode="nat">
|
|
|
|
|
<nat>
|
|
|
|
|
<port start="1024" end="65535"/>
|
|
|
|
|
</nat>
|
|
|
|
|
</forward>
|
|
|
|
|
<bridge name="virbr0" stp="on" delay="0"/>
|
|
|
|
|
<mac address="52:54:00:a6:03:14"/>
|
|
|
|
|
<domain name="default"/>
|
|
|
|
|
<ip address="10.77.128.1" netmask="255.255.255.0">
|
|
|
|
|
<dhcp>
|
|
|
|
|
<range start="10.77.128.2" end="10.77.128.254"/>
|
|
|
|
|
</dhcp>
|
|
|
|
|
</ip>
|
|
|
|
|
</network>
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
And then I spun up a virtual machine running [Alpine
|
|
|
|
|
Linux](https://alpinelinux.org/) and got it on the network. Its IP address was
|
|
|
|
|
`10.77.128.90`. Then I tried pinging it from the same machine, another machine
|
|
|
|
|
in the same room, another server on the same continent and then finally another
|
|
|
|
|
server on the same planet. Here are the results:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Same Machine:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```console
|
|
|
|
|
cadey:users@kos-mos ~ ./rw
|
|
|
|
|
$ ping 10.77.128.90 -c1
|
|
|
|
|
PING 10.77.128.90 (10.77.128.90) 56(84) bytes of data.
|
|
|
|
|
64 bytes from 10.77.128.90: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.208 ms
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--- 10.77.128.90 ping statistics ---
|
|
|
|
|
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
|
|
|
|
|
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.208/0.208/0.208/0.000 ms
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Same Room:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```console
|
|
|
|
|
cadey:users@shachi ~ ./rw
|
|
|
|
|
$ ping 10.77.128.90 -c1
|
|
|
|
|
PING 10.77.128.90 (10.77.128.90) 56(84) bytes of data.
|
|
|
|
|
64 bytes from 10.77.128.90: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=1.11 ms
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--- 10.77.128.90 ping statistics ---
|
|
|
|
|
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
|
|
|
|
|
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.105/1.105/1.105/0.000 ms
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Same continent:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```console
|
|
|
|
|
cadey:users@kahless ~ ./rw
|
|
|
|
|
$ ping 10.77.128.90 -c1
|
|
|
|
|
PING 10.77.128.90 (10.77.128.90) 56(84) bytes of data.
|
|
|
|
|
64 bytes from 10.77.128.90: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=5.66 ms
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--- 10.77.128.90 ping statistics ---
|
|
|
|
|
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
|
|
|
|
|
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 5.655/5.655/5.655/0.000 ms
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
And finally a machine on the same planet:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
```console
|
|
|
|
|
cadey:users@lufta ~ ./rw
|
|
|
|
|
$ ping 10.77.128.90 -c1
|
|
|
|
|
PING 10.77.128.90 (10.77.128.90) 56(84) bytes of data.
|
|
|
|
|
64 bytes from 10.77.128.90: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=107 ms
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
--- 10.77.128.90 ping statistics ---
|
|
|
|
|
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
|
|
|
|
|
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 106.719/106.719/106.719/0.000 ms
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This also lets any virtual machine on the cluster reach out to any other virtual
|
|
|
|
|
machine, as well as any of the hardware servers. If I install a SerenityOS
|
|
|
|
|
virtual machine (a platform that can't run Tailscale as far as I am aware), it
|
|
|
|
|
will be able to poke other virtual machines as well as my other servers over
|
|
|
|
|
Tailscale like it never happened. It is a magical experience.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have a lot more compute than I really know what to do with right now. This is
|
|
|
|
|
okay though. Lots of slack compute space leaves a lot of room for expansion,
|
|
|
|
|
experimentation and other e-words in that category. These CPUs are really dang
|
|
|
|
|
fast too, which helps a lot. So far I've used my homelab both while doing [a
|
|
|
|
|
short V-tuber-esque stream where I fix a minor annoyance in NixOS and try to
|
|
|
|
|
explain what was going on in my head as I did
|
|
|
|
|
it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6h6TuiI-jo) and for writing this article.
|
|
|
|
|
Pneuma has sort of become my main SSH box and the other machines run lots of
|
|
|
|
|
virtual machines.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the future I'd like to use this lab for the following things:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Running some non-critical services out of my basement (Discord bots, etc)
|
|
|
|
|
- Implement a VM management substrate called
|
|
|
|
|
[waifud](https://github.com/Xe/waifud)
|
|
|
|
|
- IPv6 networking for the virtual machines (libvirtd seems to only do IPv4 out
|
|
|
|
|
of the gate, configuring IPv6 seems to be a bit unfortunately nontrivial)
|
|
|
|
|
- CI for projects on my personal Git server
|
|
|
|
|
- Research for Project Elysium/NovOS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I hope this was an interesting look into the process and considerations that I
|
|
|
|
|
made when assembling my homelab. It's been a fun build and I can't wait to see
|
|
|
|
|
what the future will bring us. Either way it should make for some interesting
|
|
|
|
|
write-ups on this blog!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here are some related Twitter threads you may find interesting to look through:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- [Day 1 of the build](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1400189266450341899)
|
|
|
|
|
- [Day 2 of the build](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1400549314452148227)
|
|
|
|
|
- [The aftermath of the realization that I can avoid copying a large part of the
|
|
|
|
|
NixOS configuration for each
|
|
|
|
|
node](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1400423623245156356)
|
|
|
|
|
- [A thread where I attempt to install Guix on one of the homelab nodes in a
|
|
|
|
|
VM](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1401614346904559617)
|
|
|
|
|
|
