Gallery Home lab (pic heavy)

[zoob]

Hey all,

I've been working on my 'home lab' setup for quite some time now, and I'd like to share with you my progress.

Started out with a Stacker 830 from several years ago, with some various forms of RAID on Areca cards. I moved house a few times, then finally ended up where I am now. A Supermicro 846 followed shortly after, however it sat unused for a long time (see my other thread here: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...04-supermicro-sc846-freenas-server-build.html)

Eventually someone gifted me a small rack. It also sat unused for a couple of months until I got the 846 running at an acceptable volume. I also got a free 42U rack that sat unused in my garage for about 2 years.

The goal was to have all my server things in the basement, and a silent upstairs office. I wanted to wire my house but was too afraid of drilling holes in new construction, especially with it still being under warranty. I've played around with Wireless N bridging since around 2010 with no real success. It was 'good enough' to stay up and working but not 'good enough' for what I had in mind. MoCA v1 was OK but limited at 100 Mbps. Wireless AC became affordable and I moved to it (bridging two AC66U and then shortly after two AC68U which I used for a while). MoCA v2 came out supporting gigabit and that was the catalyst. By then, I finally grew a pair and started drilling holes in my house.

I can't find the whole chronological order, so we'll start at the time I have my SC846 setup.

Album here: Home lab cleanup - Album on Imgur

Here's the current state as of 2017-01-11:

Pics to follow.

 

[zoob]

Old server on left, new server on right.

Moving in the bigboy:

MoCA 2:

PFsense whitebox installed:

Decom old server:
It went through various forms but kept the same case.
i7 920->i3 530->i7 2600K->i7 3700K->i7 4770->W3520 w/ECC
I'm sure some steps are missing. It used to handle Plex and did double duty as my HTPC through an HDMI balun.

Random cat:

Coffee table lab:
From bottom to top (in the picture):
OpenHAB for my Z-Wave setup
RasPlex as my new HTPC
Nothing
Nothing
Pihole
Django server

 

[zoob]

I blew up the motherboard in my R2312 VM server so had to use Intel warranty. Server was bought off eBay and was thankfully still under Intel warranty.

Wired up with two SSDs as my Proxmox/VM storage.

Intel R2312 VM host installed (PFSense then becomes virtualized). Pic looks a bit too recent, but I'll put it here anyway.

With PFSense running as my router, I change my ASUS 68U to be only a wireless AP. Then comes the UBNT gear.

The UAP needs to be ceiling mounted right? Let's go fishing. I don't use central vac. Let's re-use some pre-run 'conduit'.

Mapping out how I want to run:

Bugger:
There actually is a hole under the insulation for the magenta line which was meant for the romex.

How it's actually run. Somehow I still make do.

Central vac fish line run by vacuuming a tissue on twine (no proper tools at this time):

Run 1 done:

Main floor vac view (taped up to help suction):

Additional run:

Testing:

UAP mounted, sorta:

 

[zoob]

Something larger than a 3/8" bit:

More runs. Kinda shitty bend radius. I wanted to extend the line straight up, but due to the electrical wiring issue described above I had to make do. RG6 is for my attic antenna, and the extra loop also double as another pull cable :thumb:

Testing the gigabits with two Chelsio T420-BT adapters:

Proud cat:

In comes the 10Gbe gear. I first tested with Mellanox cards earlier this year. It whet my appetite for SPEED.

The Chelsio cards came, I tested my "CAT6e" runs and they were good, so I jumped in with both feet and here's the XS708t I snagged off eBay.

Unifi switch came out shortly after, for way less cost. Was hesitant to purchase due to issues with DACs and various NICs, but it's been relatively good to me.

I started adding security cameras and IP phones, so logically a POE switch comes next. But it can't be any POE, I need POE+ for the new Unifi APs. I also want 10GBase-T so I don't run into any bottlenecks.
Making sure it works. It ripped off the shipping container and was loose inside the box.

It's louder than I'd like.

Everything in:

 

[zoob]

Built an NVR for my security cameras. Pic doesn't show the HDD caddy. It's in an iStar 213 MATX 2U case. Various parts from HWC members

Mounted in the rack:

More cable runs means more supply runs:

Infinite cables CAT6A. I think I made a mistake with this. Should have gone with CAT6 for smaller OD and no plastic spine.

Monoprice vs Infinite cables keystones:

Carage:

Kitchen:

 

[zoob]

Clean up time.


Coffee table lab also gets a clean up:

Done:

Rack:

Done:

 

[zoob]

Rack:
24U keystone patch panel
Dell Powerconnect 2724 Switch - Management/BMC/IPMI
HP 1950-24G-2SFP+-2XGT-PoE+(370W) Switch - Access switch / POE switch
Netgear XS708t Switch - 10GBase-T testing. Eventually this will move into my office.
Ubiquiti Unifi US-16-XG Switch - All my servers are connected to this. 2 port LAG to Netgear, 1 port uplink to HP (2 port LAG to follow when I get more DACs).
2U NVR - For my IP cameras. Runs BlueIris, have a few cams recording around my house.
Samsung monitor & keyboard - I have a KVM I'll be hooking up in case I need to connect locally instead of through BMC/IPMI, or if I want to view footage in the basement for whatever reason.
4U Supermicro SC846 - Bulk storage/etc. Runs FreeNAS. Jails: Plex, Plexpy, Sabnzbd, Sabnzbd, Transmission
1U HP DL60 G9 - Not powered on ATM. Will become my Core services VM.
2U Intel R2312 - Core services VM. Runs Proxmox. pfsense, unifi controller, freepbx, docuwiki, guacamole, tvheadend, and whatever other VMs I want to spin up for testing new things.
Cyberpower 1500PFC UPS
Dell APC 1500VA UPS
Rogers modem, Obi202, Silicondust HDHomerun

Coffee table:
RPi2 OpenHAB - Uses an Aeon Z-Stick Gen 5 for my Z-Wave setup, controls some living room lighting, entryway sensors
RPi2 RasPlex - Plex to my TV with CEC so I can use one remote.
RPi2 Nothing
RPi2 Nothing
RPi1 Pihole - DNS server - Caches and also blocks ads
RPi1 Django server - Runs some cron jobs to check my email for certain things and automatically collects reward points on certain sites.

 

[lowfat]

Nice!

How did you get the US-16-XG in Canada? Shipped to a box across the border?

 

[zoob]

I used shipito. They were expensive. Around $90 USD to ship the switch (huge box), plus taxes @ Canada Post at pickup. Took about 1 week to arrive.

For the new UAP-AC-HDs I am using crossborderpickups. They charged around $35 CAD for shipping/CBSA paperwork, plus taxes pre-paid. All-in (taxes+shipping) around $100 CAD for the two APs. Way cheaper, but a little bit slower. Still waiting for them...

 

[JD]

I used shipito. They were expensive. Around $90 USD to ship the switch (huge box), plus taxes @ Canada Post at pickup. Took about 1 week to arrive.

For the new UAP-AC-HDs I am using crossborderpickups. They charged around $35 CAD for shipping/CBSA paperwork, plus taxes pre-paid. All-in (taxes+shipping) around $100 CAD for the two APs. Way cheaper, but a little bit slower. Still waiting for them...

Interesting, never even thought about doing that!

Nice setup though! I'd like to move everything scattered around the house into a single rack someday too...