Documenting My Homelab – Say what?

May 17, 2015

For quite some time now I have wanted to start blogging about various projects. My server stack, DIY projects, and surviving without cable or satellite TV. But by nature, I am a developer. I write code, not sentences. So bare with me as I travel into uncharted territory in the world of blogging.

What is a homelab?

In it’s shortest form, it is a network setup in ones home. They can range from something as simple as a spare server to a complex setup involving many server racks, servers, switches and other equipment you would expect to see in an enterprise-level setup.

My current hardware consists of the following:

  • Netgear WNR2000 Router (Acting as access points) (3x)
  • TrendNET 8-Port Gigabit Switch (2x)
  • Netgear 24-Port 10/100 Switch
  • 1U Firewall
  • 1U ESXi 5.1 Virtualization Host
  • 4U NAS (File Server)
  • 4U HTPC (2x)
  • 1U Security Camera DVR
  • Flush mounted 17″ monitor
  • 1U KVM switch
  • 1U Slide-out keyboard/mouse
  • 2U Battery backup

All of this equipment resides in a 42U Rittal full enclosure in my basement. When I first started this project 3 years ago I had no idea that I would end up with a setup like this. I started simply with an old 386 Compaq and a copy of Ubuntu running ZoneMinder to power a single IP camera. Over the next several years I slowly aquired new hardware from eBay, Craigslist, my employer and anywhere else that I could find a great deal. All in all, including the cabinet itself, I have spent under $1,000 on everything combined. The only thing built with existing components is the NAS. I had the CPU and 2GB of RAM laying around that I wasn’t using. Keep checking back as I plan to do a seperate write-up on the construction and configuration of my file server. It’s a rather unique solution that has served me well for several years.

The point to my last paragraph was that if you do your research and keep your eyes open for some good deals, you can end up with a very nice homelab without spending a lot of money at all. So stick around and follow along on my journey as I continue to experiment and try out new hardware, software, services and concepts.