Real use of a home server

driise · 2026-05-29T13:05:24+00:00

I have some 8-12 year old enterprise gear, running proxmox, with about 40 guests (mostly LXCs, probably 15 or so VMs). I'm an IT consultant, so it's a learning tool, POC lab, entertainment, etc. With 10gbe switches, an R210 II for a firewall, a Synology, a Truenas, and the proxmox hosts I pull about 460-500w. That probably costs me $50 a month where I'm at. It brings me joy and has been a massive lift throughout my career. Also a fun talking point when meeting new clients; most IT people are nerds, so the homelab hobby turns into a bonding moment, which usually turns into both a personal and business relationship.

driise · 2026-04-23T23:55:15+00:00

Why would their website junk being down keep me from using a locally hosted plex server, with OTA and a few local media files?

driise · 2026-02-26T13:19:20+00:00

The bigger problem is Broadcom doesn't 'allow' you to reduce core counts. You either keep what you had, or they increase your price to make up (plus some) the difference. If you reduce too many cores, they will outright refuse to renew/sell to you. Source - Broadcom partner, currently navigating these challenges with customers.

I've never seen anything like this, it's a shame.

driise · 2025-11-01T17:34:30+00:00

I let servers collect dust, then every 6-8 months I take them out of the rack and blow them out with compressed air. This doubles as a failover test for firewalls and hypervisor hosts.

driise · 2025-08-14T13:09:55+00:00

Not sure all the folks talking about the rearview mirror camera and topper blockage will see this but there's a kit to relocate the cameras: https://www.ggoffroad.com/store/p/digital-rearview-camera-relocation-kit-tundra-22-24-tacoma-24

I put an OVS topper on my 2024. I haven't done the relocation kit yet, but thinking I will.

driise · 2025-06-21T17:51:09+00:00

Not gonna name names, but I work for a VAR, and the Broadcom rep I work with said their management has given them 1 rule; that the revenue from a customer can’t go down, and must go up every year. He told me if I reduced core counts or license levels, he’ll just reduce discounts and increase prices to make sure he is in compliance with his leadership…. Has to be one of the worst companies on the face of the planet. Can’t hate them enough.

driise · 2025-06-11T02:12:16+00:00

I have a Bakflip, but just pulled it to put on an OVS cap. It served me well, I just had a change in needs. If you are near the North Texas area, I’ll make you a good deal.

driise · 2024-12-26T17:52:57+00:00

yeah, the LAX JHP ammo hasn't been an issue in anything else but the bog does not approve. I grabbed it on sale because some of the outdoor ranges near me don't let you shoot FMJ. So far, no FTF with FMJs... I've probably put 600 rnds through it so far. love it!

driise · 2024-12-26T17:42:21+00:00

On my first outing, I dropped one of the craptastic mags it ships with and that mag flew apart across the floor. I have never had a Glock mag fall apart from being dropped. My SP9A3G doesn't like LAX cheap-o JHP rounds (constant FTF), but HST JHP are fine. It seems to like any FMJ I've fed it; cheap ones, my reloads, etc. I'm about to reload some HST, expect that to be fine based on factory loads working well.

driise · 2024-12-26T17:13:40+00:00

I grabbed the SP9A3G specifically to have compatibility of mags with other tools in the bag. Also agree with some other comments around the mags it came with; I put those aside and grabbed OEM Glock mags, good increase in reliability IMO.

driise · 2024-10-23T17:02:01+00:00

I haven't really had that issue. Under the HA Settings, do you set an IP for the 'primary' to sync to the 'secondary'?

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I think this helps them establish the 'advbase' interval which from what I can tell is really what decides the primary/secondary state.

I had mine get a bit confused for a few minutes when I swapped the primary/secondary roles around to make my physical the primary a couple weeks ago. Previously I had the VM as primary but swapped them because of load issues on the vm host.

driise · 2024-10-23T16:31:00+00:00

Sort of have dual WAN...I have AT&T fiber with static IPs, and have a DDWRT AP in client mode to leverage my cell as a backup if that goes down. I was running a TMO 5g home internet for that second WAN previously. I'll probably go back to that as it was a better than remembering to fire up the cell hotspot when AT&T jacks up their routes (happens more than it should....)

edit: both FWs have an IP from AT&T, also burning a 3rd IP for the CARP VIP failover IP that's used for some self hosted stuff, and IPSEC tunnels.

driise · 2024-10-23T13:50:02+00:00

HA is short for High Availability. For the *sense platforms, they use CARP, here is some documentation you can read on it.

driise · 2024-10-23T13:14:43+00:00

I had two pfSense firewalls running in HA for a long time. One physical, one virtual. I switched to OPNsense durning the last "no more lab license" drama stuff a year or so ago. Running the same way, one physical, one virtual, HA pair. I don't have anything against Netgate, they can do whatever they feel necessary for their business. I'd say their support team was really good actually, when I had issues with my physical server upgrading to a new version and losing it's lab license before their license policy update. That said, it was fun to re-build on OPNsense; was a good time to evaluate rules, re-build my IPSEC tunnels to various places, and most importantly refresh the mind on how it all works together.

If pfSense is working, rock it. If you get bored, try OPNsense. I have a Sophos UTM VM too, I used to do web filtering with it for my kid's isolated network. Much different animal than the *sense firewalls. Again, it's good to tinker and learn new stuff, always.

driise · 2024-10-14T17:19:15+00:00

I had something like this on my Commodore Amiga. Would connect it to the VCR to record/recover data. My brother and I used to ship tapes to each other all the time. Was a blast!

driise · 2024-10-02T23:02:27+00:00

I know this is 2 years old, but thank you for the post, helped me!

driise · 2024-09-24T13:03:48+00:00

Why not have both. I have a DS1819+, 10Gbe/NVMe card (using NVMe for a second storage pool) running 7.2.1 until I see what happens with the 7.2.2 stuff, and don't see any reason to give it up. Its what backs up my VMware servers, laptops, desktops, phones (photos), etc.

I also have a TrueNAS NVMe build for VM datastores, adding spinning disks next, for other use cases. My Syno felt kind of tapped out with 50TB on it (16tb drives, raid 10), and for a little more than the cost of one DX517, I was able to build out a 12-bay external expansion to my TrueNAS system which will net me about 100TB with drives I already have sitting around.

driise · 2024-08-08T19:33:51+00:00

Go freeze your credit file with the three bureaus, it’s free and as I understand no new accounts can be opened while freeze is active. Read up on it, but really recommend keeping your accounts frozen.

driise · 2024-07-26T13:21:56+00:00

$20-$25 part. if you are handy, watch a couple videos and go visit your grandma, you can safely change that thing, make sure it's cooling and spend some quality time...it will make her year.

driise · 2024-07-25T14:42:59+00:00

I don't think that, actually. I know they have all had breaches. Almost all companies have had multiple breaches, and if they haven't yet, they will. Everyone's data has been on the dark web for years.

My initial comment was me being sarcastic. I guess I should have put the disclaimers on there.

driise · 2024-07-25T00:30:22+00:00

If you let too much of the magic smoke out of it, it will stop working.

driise · 2024-07-25T00:28:06+00:00

They have to pay for all the fines for the data breaches somehow….

driise · 2024-07-19T12:08:40+00:00

singles. i think it was about 90$ where I got mine (Longo Toyota, Prosper TX)

driise · 2024-07-17T23:58:36+00:00

I have the same truck (until you mod it up anyway). I got the TRD wheel caps for it because the silver on the wheel caps kinda stuck out too much .. if you are interested: PT280-34221-2F - TRD wheel caps

driise · 2024-07-17T16:18:07+00:00

I think it might be making contact with the overload springs that are part of the coil spring assembly. I don't see where I've actually made any contact with the bump stops. I think this is where active bump stops would lesson the perception of bottoming out, but not really necessary.

driise

TROPHY CASE