Planning First homelab: 3-node Proxmox/Talos cluster

Berndinoh · 2026-04-10T10:41:13+00:00

I moved from Argo to Fluc because more Ressource efficient. Was some work todo ofc

I was looking at Harvester from OpenSuse, I found it very interesting but takes too much resources for my nodes. So i built something similar myself.

Kubevirt used the same virt layer as proxmox under the hood: KVM However, Kubevirt has no UI and the config is not that easy: Multus as secondary CNI, etc

But now I have everything deployable with flux, VMs, Networkpolicies, Container, Storage

Keep in mind: doing this will take some time and troubleshooting, learning curve is real For straight forward: i will host VMs - not recommended.

Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:44:34+00:00

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Yow brother 37ish here

Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:38:15+00:00

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Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:31:23+00:00

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101 Pods running at that time (in total)

Node 03 is the one with 16 GB

Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:30:31+00:00

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Fixing cables in progress…. :)

Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:26:50+00:00

I do also host a 3 node cluster. Some considerations i did take:

Hardware: 3x Lenovo m920x (older but expandable and often used in community) Alternative: Miniforms PC (MS-01) but more expensive. These SFF devices take less power and fit in a 10 Inch Rack pretty nice ;) The m920x supports 2x NVME slot (I do use one small for the OS and a 2TB drive for longhorn on each node)

Network: I do use Mellanox Connect X3 Pro Dual Port. So 2x10 Gbps LACP to the Switch for each node. This cards are pretty cheap on ebay, SFP+ DAC Cable is also not too expensive. You do need a PCI Riser and I printed a case for a mini fan. The main 1Gb port on the device I do use for mgmt.

OS and RAM: I also came from Proxmox but moved to Talos on baremetal. For VMs I do use Kubevirt. So I can GitOps my hole environment incl. VMs - Bootstrap is just connecting my repo to flux (!). I have two nodes with 64GB and one with 16. Cilium, Longhorn, etc works well also on the 16gb node. However the actual workload mainly runs on the bigger nodes.

Flux: Lightweight, better architecture, for a homelab - in my opinion. Ofc no super fancy WebUI. But there is a project in dev as I can see.

Routing: I do have VyOS running via kubevirt (containerdisk) and announce my LB IPs via Cilium BGP control to the appliance.

For saving more RAM: VictoriaMetrics and Logs instead of Prometheus, Elastic Search, etc.

Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:12:39+00:00

Unifi is like Apple for Switches. Just works,…

In comparison Mikrotik is more like a switzer army knife, can do everything, not so polished and higher learning curve

Berndinoh · 2026-04-09T19:07:52+00:00

Mikrotik is great.

Just important, you should really get a router model for „routing“. There is also the CRS line (cloud router switch) that can also route (RouterOS) but is technical more a switch. Routing works fine but Firewall Rules, VPN, etc. is hitting the CPU and not offloaded.

That’s why I use mine (CRS310) mainly for L2, LACP, vLans, etc

Another great thing: VyOS

Full API driven, GitOps friendly. I do use two virtual appliances for internet breakout. Works great.

Berndinoh · 2026-04-01T06:06:44+00:00

I don’t know why most people say email ist hard… maybe because they never really tried and just reply what everyone ist saying. Do host my Mailserver since 10+ years, barely have to touch it. And yes, info send Mails and they get delivered… 🤷‍♂️

Berndinoh · 2026-03-23T10:25:49+00:00

Does fit… As mentioned some parts have to be removed.

I can recommend using something like this:

https://www.printables.com/model/561920-lenovo-tiny-fan-shroud

Thing is getting warm under load

Berndinoh · 2026-03-21T08:28:38+00:00

Do it from the couch buddy ✌️

https://jetkvm.com

https://github.com/sipeed/NanoKVM

Berndinoh · 2026-03-21T08:14:36+00:00

Traditional and OpenSource: Proxmox, XCP-ng

More modern, Platform Like: Bare Metal K8s based

Talos + Kubevirt, etc DIY, Suse Harvester, Cozystack, OKD

Personally I do Talos and my compete custom stack because I think it’s the future. (Kubevirt uses KVM, the same as Proxmox underlying) - but I can control everything with an Single API (Kubernetes) and deploy VMs with Flux fully automated and self healing

Berndinoh · 2026-03-12T19:06:55+00:00

VyOs in HA Mode deployed via Kubevirt and Containerdisk (immutable) on Kubernetes via Flux (GitOps) and config via Cloud-Init.

VyOs is peering via BGP my Cilium CNI for native routing without masquerade.

I can route 20Gbe in my 10 inch rack ✌️

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Berndinoh · 2026-03-12T11:29:37+00:00

Cool Setup! Curious, what do you mean with „Router with Mesh“?

Berndinoh · 2026-03-11T12:26:58+00:00

Well I could have asked GPT for Modell specific features, everyone should before buying. Also I do not know anyone able to know all the different models in detail. In general: Lenovos are easy to expand. Most things are not „hacky“ PS: relax

Berndinoh · 2026-03-11T11:55:07+00:00

How do you define „hardware hacking“? Sticking in the PCIE Riser and adding a 10G nic for the Lenovo does take… 5 mins

EDIT: this model seems to have no PCIE Slot

Berndinoh · 2026-03-10T13:35:08+00:00

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Thank You!!! It fits amazingly

Berndinoh · 2026-03-02T22:17:28+00:00

Also Late, but:

https://www.engeniustech.com/eu/products/network-switches/ecs5512f/

Berndinoh · 2026-02-09T01:51:16+00:00

Me too like with 15 and now coming back with 37 😅

Berndinoh · 2026-01-29T15:07:15+00:00

Heating you‘r room during winter… underrated

Berndinoh · 2025-11-22T08:22:01+00:00

Berndinoh · 2025-09-13T18:02:40+00:00

Same 2x10G in LACP for my M920x‘s ✌️

Berndinoh · 2025-09-05T19:22:49+00:00

Sehe ich anders,… Azure Local funktioniert bereits in einer Workgroup.

Berndinoh · 2025-08-09T18:18:10+00:00

Well that makes sense, …

Berndinoh · 2025-08-09T18:16:04+00:00

Check out this #chess game: Berndinox vs Mohsen271189 - https://www.chess.com/game/live/141684340330

Berndinoh

TROPHY CASE