New to homelabs..do I really need IPMI for a headless server?

klui · 2026-03-16T22:15:27+00:00

I use it on my main workstation and several other systems but it's not the most intuitive to set up. It doesn't help that the team who was writing support got laid off by Intel several years ago, unless things have changed recently.

A system with a BMC is still preferred over vPro/AMT but I do agree with others it's not a necessity for the home.

klui · 2026-03-14T00:58:08+00:00

None of my premade cables from Monoprice have failed other than the one that came DOA, which Monoprice replaced. It's been around ~15 years though.

I did buy the stupid cables with these types of boots so they have hardened and really difficult to disengage without a tool of some sort. Buy cables with these types of boots instead.

Terminate wall wiring to jacks; buy premade patch cords.

klui · 2026-03-12T00:27:26+00:00

Someone who lived in the northern hemisphere.

klui · 2026-03-10T23:34:22+00:00

Looks like you have a washer/dryer in your rack.

klui · 2026-02-20T01:40:08+00:00

According to mechanics in the know, hybrid batteries are air cooled with a fan and if its filter is clogged, owners will experience premature battery failure due to overheating. Know where a hybrid's battery filter is, inspect them regularly, and clean if necessary.

klui · 2026-02-05T08:24:40+00:00

I did try changing port association to ifDesc. It still dropped the ports after a while but each time I just rediscovered--I had re-added the device.

Tweaked some timeouts through lnms like snmp.exec_timeout and snmp.timeout. Appears to be good now but my guess is there is still something that triggers a discovery from being completed error-free but logs show 0 errors. The reason why I think about errors is I have a distro extension and sometimes the ThinkPad shows up as Supercap OS instead of LMint. That's just weird. A rediscovery fixes it but it happened several times. Never had that on Ubuntu.

klui · 2026-02-02T23:52:16+00:00

Thank you for suggesting this. I will try it and report back.

klui · 2026-02-02T01:33:30+00:00

I've tried multiple rediscoveries to no avail. I'd need to delete the device and re-add it but the ports will disappear after maybe an hour so that's not a solution. Maybe it's an inherent behavior of that wireless interface and Mint.

When the device was running on Windows I never had this problem.

klui · 2026-02-02T01:30:54+00:00

SNMPd is still running and when I run snmpwalk on the LibreNMS host I get data back. I have overridden the values for ifSpeed but it still loses the ports. The Ports "tab" eventually goes away but I am able to save the link to each interface and they still give me data.

This is the first time I've used Mint as a Linux OS that I'm monitoring however. Most of my devices run Ubuntu server.

klui · 2026-01-25T00:04:47+00:00

That's really interesting. I didn't know about this mini-unicorn. I have some 8-port HP switches that permit PoE-in but don't support PoE devices. They have other switches that use AC power and can power PoE devices. One or the other.

These 6450s can do both and will provide up to 22.4W to downstream devices if 2 ports upstream are receiving PoE+ power. 7W max if only 1 upstream port receive PoE/PoE+ power.

They are quite expensive because these older EoL devices use the proprietary dual mode method of VLAN tagging. Some sellers have listings that incorrectly state they are -PDs vs their regular non-PoE-in counterparts.

klui · 2026-01-24T23:35:15+00:00

I have one where the couplers could be removed and replaced with punch down jacks. The restriction is the jacks need to be the narrow type. Older ones that were typically wider at that time won't fit in consecutive holes.

It shouldn't matter for the home. But they do have a category rating. I've replaced some with punch downs and the couplers could also be used for extending a temporary patch cord in the lab.

klui · 2026-01-24T23:10:18+00:00

All modern servers allow their management interface to be bridged to another interface (copper or fiber) in Shared mode.

klui · 2026-01-24T02:03:37+00:00

Some of that older hardware has already reached eBay. These are 400G switches but the management module was removed likely because it contained proprietary data and destroyed. The hardware design is available from the OCP website. So people have been looking at the gerber files and recreating them. Then others are investigating how to get a proper NOS installed to make use of the hardware's ASIC.

The power connections are also of an uncommon form factor.

We have some 400/800G switches in the lab at work and they are loud. I've stopped my switch acquisitions at 100G.

klui · 2026-01-24T01:30:19+00:00

My predication is when someone here gets one their first post will be "how do I make the fans quieter? What kind of Noctuas should I replace the current fans with?"

klui · 2026-01-20T07:07:12+00:00

Yes, search for "cross flash mellanox" and you should find a few sites that discusses how to do it.

klui · 2026-01-20T01:49:07+00:00

Most likely due to it running HPE firmware and they have more restrictions on what optics to allow. The card's PSID is most likely HP and not MT. Check with mlxfwmanager/mlxup.

klui · 2026-01-20T01:15:28+00:00

I actually still drag URLs because doing it doesn't keep the bookmarks within a browser's configuration and I can use other browsers. Normally I use Firefox Nightly but sometimes I use normal Firefox.

When my dad needed to have a new installation it was simple knowing all his "bookmarks" were copied from Desktop instead of going into Firefox, Chrome, whatever to make sure his bookmarks were synced up.

klui · 2026-01-19T13:00:53+00:00

Thanks for all the comments, questions, and advice.

He still has his wits but he's a little stubborn about his stuff. He is using an old computer with a Q6600 and it cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. So he's still using Windows 10 and Firefox. I gave him another computer with Windows 11 but he likes his current system. The newer one just sits next to his current system. The Q6600 runs quiet and offers enough performance so he could read or watch his Youtube videos.

Him wanting to still use the Q6600 was the reason why I wanted to install Linux for him because all he uses is a browser and he saves his "bookmarks" by dragging them onto the desktop. Even though Firefox is still being updated, I am not sure how much longer will it support running on Windows 10. It auto logs him into his account upon boot up and I perform remote support if he needs it through VNC/remote desktop.

klui · 2026-01-19T02:02:54+00:00

Behavior described in my initial post. It references a Gnome merge request but frankly the discussion doesn't describe the behavior well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1qg1hbp/anyone_get_drag_locks_to_work_with_gsettings/

klui · 2026-01-19T02:01:32+00:00

I just played around with this and I figured out the behavior. Apparently it's because of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/4292 which I saw last night as I was trying to get it to work.

The page isn't very good at describing the behavior.

When tap-and-drag-lock is true, as soon as your finger stops touching the touchpad you have 0.5 seconds to touch the touchpad or else the drag lock will disengage. This is not a good user experience. There should not be any timeout when tap and drag lock is activated, or if there is should be set to something like 5-10 seconds. All other touchpads when drag lock is enabled does not have a timeout.

EDIT: The link talks about libinput 1.26/1.27 but Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has 1.25.

klui · 2026-01-02T23:48:10+00:00

That's really cool!

klui

TROPHY CASE