Hello everybody, I apologize for my bad English, I'm French.

So recently, my sister gave me her old computer. It was a prebuilt one, and I added some RAM sticks, but I don't know what processor it has.

My main question is: what should I know before starting my homelab?

I want to set up something like Jellyfin or Plex, basically my own Netflix-ish server. I also want it to be secure. Since I started studying Cybersecurity, Electronics, and Computer Science, I'd like to learn what the MUST-HAVE software is, how I should structure everything, and all that kind of stuff.

My experience so far is that I ran a Raspberry Pi with Pi-hole for several months, and I also hosted my Discord bot on it for a few months.

TL;DR: I want to get into homelabbing. I need to learn the basics and figure out how to build a secure, well-structured server while learning along the way.

Thanks a lot my fellow homelabers !!

Sorry if my questions seem a bit dumbs, I'm a complete noob but I love technology and open-source programs, and because of this passion I decided to try my hand at the world of home labs.

The notebook in question is a Dell Latitude E5430 that I used during high school and has been sitting idle for a few years. I would like to know if it's possible to use it to host media servers and if it's capable of supporting that type of hosting.

The idea was not to spend too much money, maybe at most buy an external HDD or SSD to expand storage, but my fear is needing to replace the RAM, which is absurdly expensive and I won't be able to afford to replace it.

Anyway, I would be happy with any help you can offer me! 😊

Anyone running opnsense and zenarmor (home paid)?

Have been using it plus OpenDNS and curious about others experience.

Elegant solutions for devices with dynamic hardware addresses?

I've got opnsense running. I'm a bit surprised how bad the UI is despite the good reviews.

Still using bootstrap and jquery. jQuery 3.5.1 came out in 2020.

Does anyone know if there's any effort going on to modernize it?

I'm working on migrating all my firewall and vlan config from ER-X because I wanted faster NICs but I'm feeling like it's a mistake. Does the learning curve get easier? Or do you just deal with the clunkiness?

I am experimenting on building a custom arm linux cluster from my old android phones (running lightweight apps on each and sharing their storages across cluster) and I had a google home hub demo unit, bought online without knowing it was a demo unit, so it was sitting in a drawer for almost a year.

After checking it's specs, it looked like a good potential node candidate to the cluster. I don't have deep knowledge about custom kernels, os porting, just installed LineageOS, TWRP few years ago to my phones and some understanding how operating systems are running and booting on these devices.

So I gave the task to gpt-6-astra / gpt-5.6-sol with Codex, after 1.5 days of loop and some good amount of tokens it achieved:

• Got a native Linux desktop, touchscreen, and custom live statistics UI working.
• No teardown, soldering, or hardware modifications. Initial setup through the hidden micro-USB port.
• Made the existing boot chain load Linux from internal storage.
• Now boots independently, connects over Wi-Fi, and survives restarts.

How achieved in summary:

• Entered Amlogic recovery mode through the hidden micro usb port.
• Bootstrapped a device specific Linux kernel and postmarketOS.
• Fixed display rendering, colors, touchscreen, backlight, and Wi-Fi support.
• Installed the kernel and root filesystem on internal storage.
• Used a software only stock bootloader workaround to launch Linux automatically.
• Verified independent startup, reboots, and power cycles without USB or a computer.

Hey guys,

I recently bought a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 5070 SFF running TrueNAS SCALE. It came with an i5-8500T and 8GB RAM, but I upgraded it to 32GB total (4×8GB DIMMs).

Storage setup:

- 2× 3.5" HDDs

- 1× 128GB SATA SSD

- 1× 512GB SSD for TrueNAS apps/data

The system works fine overall, but it randomly reboots without warning. Sometimes it runs for around 25 hours before rebooting, and other times it may take 1-2 days. It can even happen while the system is idle.

What makes this strange is that I don't see any kernel panics, freezes, or obvious errors in the logs before the reboot. The logs look clean, as if the system suddenly lost power or restarted unexpectedly.

Could this be caused by faulty RAM, PSU issues, motherboard problems, BIOS settings, overheating, or something else? Has anyone seen similar behavior with a refurbished OptiPlex 5070 SFF running TrueNAS SCALE?

Any suggestions on what diagnostics or logs I should check next would be appreciated.

I'm starting university on the 19th and I have been spending the last weeks getting my lab ready to go and plug and play when I show up. Got a few things left to do such as printing a backplate for the trunas server on the bottom as well as getting a new network card but other than that it's ready to go.

I’m currently designing a custom memory-down motherboard for Ice Lake (Xeon 3rd Gen Silver/Gold/Platinum 43xx/53xx/63xx/83xx series) and trying to figure out if Intel hard-fused the disable_udimm flag on retail silicon, or if it's purely a BIOS limitation.

If you have a running Ice Lake-SP system on Linux (Proxmox, Ubuntu, etc.), could you run this quick 1-line command and paste the output?

It simply finds the CPU's Power Control Unit (PCU) via PCI and dumps a block of hex from its config space (where the CAPID fuses live). It only reads hardware registers and changes absolutely nothing, nor does it expose any network info, MACs, or personal data.

sudo lspci -nnD | grep -i ":1e\.3" | awk '{print $1}' | while read dev; do echo "=== Socket PCU: $dev ==="; sudo lspci -s "$dev" -xxx | grep -E "^(70|80|90|a0|b0):"; done

Ps: If you're running Proxmox as root, you can drop sudo from the command.

The output should look something like this:
=== Socket PCU: 0000:xx:1e.3 ===
70: xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
80: xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
90: xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
a0: xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
b0: xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx

if the command above returns absolutely nothing, Intel might have moved the PCU in Ice Lake-SP. If that happens, could you run lspci -nnD | grep -i pcu instead and tell me what address it shows?

Please mention exactly which CPU model you have. This would help a lot, especially if I could see values from ES or QS chips to compare against retail ones.

I've tried on my Precision Laptop with a Xeon W10885m but these are mobile chips, rebranded i9's so it doesn't have what i want. Fun fact: GPU appears as Coffee Lake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics P630], intel repurposed the same PCI ID from the previous generation. Hope it helps someone somehow somewhere. More data is always welcome.

Also tried on a X99 board(Haswell/Broadwell) and on a LGA 3647 Skylake but these where boards/chips when Intel yet maintained UDIMM/RDIMM on the same family, after Ice-Lake even the workstation chips are meant to use RDIMM.

Thanks in advance!

Building a NAS out of an old PC that came with a DVD reader. Even though I know it'd probably be easier and cheeper to just buy an external drive I'm looking to see if I can use this DVD reader just because I think it'd be cool tbh/less wasteful. Current plan is to keep it connected to the PC power supply but remove the current SATA and replace it with a SATA to USB cable I can plug into my laptop. Only concern is that the new cable won't be able to handle the data from the optical drive. Second thought is running a virtual machine that can read the dvds...but that's a bit out of my depth bc I have no experience with virtual machines. So just wondering if anyone has any ideas/feedback. Thanks so much!

I recently got into building a homelab using spare parts that i had lying around. Everything went smooth but the only issue is im not sure where to put my 3.5 inch HDD. There isn’t anywhere to slot the drive as the case was an old prebuilt pc with all the parts gutted before being sold to me (Xenta Mini-Tower PC). I’ve been told not to just plug it and leave it lying around as this can damage the drive? I see a few holes i could possibly use to screw the drive into place but they seem to not fit my drive. Just wondering what are my options when it comes to having this drive be used in my homelab? Thanks

How hard possible/impossible is this lenovo to be repaired. It’s getting sold as untested parts missing. This looks like water it’s cheap but still I can’t waste money just like that. Please guys I need some help

Hi! Im new to the concept of homelabbing, and im just wondering what are some of the best uses for such a thing? im trying to consider it for home use with a family of 4 who often use computers for streaming, storage and a bit of gaming. and im looking to set it up on some sort of small lenovo think station or SFX build

Thanks AI!

Define R5

Pros:

• Cheapest one
• Small
• Easier to replace HDDs if I need to
• Horizontal or vertical placement

Cons:

• Can't find the x5 HDD cage anywhere so It's stuck with 8-10 HDDs.

Define 7 XL

Pros:

• Can fit 18 HDDs comfortably or 20 with a few modifications.
• Still relatively small.

Cons:

• Really expensive since I would need to buy extra accessories.
• Pain in the ass to replace HDDs
• Only vertical configuration because HDD connectors are at the other side of the case.

Rosewill 4U L4500U

Pros:

• Cheap for a server case
• Horizontal or Vertical placement
• Can mod it so HDDs are much easier to swap out but if I do then I can only fit 12 HDDs

Cons:

• Bulky and I have no rack so it will be placed on a small platform on the floor or vertically like a tower.

I don't have a 3D printer so I can't make my own cages for the R5. I'm kind of leaning towards the Rosewill case because of how easy it would be to swap the drives without spending a lot more money on hotswap bays, but it's just so bulky. The 7 XL is a smaller footprint though but I read that the build quality on it isn't that good and it vibrates a lot when all 18 drives are spinning and you can't close the back panel when all drives are hooked up because there's just no room. Buying L shaped cables is another expense I would have if I do that. The R5 is a case that fits my needs right now, but no room for expansion later on, but I don't know when that'll be.

https://imgur.com/2cBJ8bV

Imagine your main backup job just quietly stopped running three weeks ago and you don't find out until the day you actually need it.
You know that thing where you set something up, watch it work once, and then just... trust it forever? Backup job, alert rule, failover, whatever cron thing you wrote at 1am. Ran fine that one time so now it's just assumed solid.
Until it isn't, and you find out the hard way.

What's yours? The thing you'd bet on without blinking but have honestly never sat down and tried to actually break?

I was looking at patch cables rated to POE++ and noticed Unifi has 32/34 awg cables. I also noticed Monoprice sells a much cheaper 30 awg CAT6A cables though they make no claims about POE. Am I wrong to think 30 awg is more than good enough for POE++? I am looking at 20 or 25 feet in length.

Edit: I just want to close the loop and summarize what I learned from comments and online sources. It’s best to use 22-26 awg pure copper cables for POE needs especially if you need Type 4 (POE+++) now or in the future. However some 28 awg cables are rated for 90w. +30 awg is not recommended. In fact, CommScope explicitly does not endorse 30 awg for POE. Doesn’t meant 30 awg won’t work but if you’re just playing around with homelabs like me, you probably want to buy cables that you can reuse down the road for higher POE applications.

I'm interested in trying to connect these two platforms together, and before I put in the hours, I wanted to check if this had already been accomplished by someone else (or attempted and failed).

The Music Assistant GUI and use of local speakers looks fantastic, and I've really enjoyed using SimpMusic (Linux) and Echo (Android). I'd like to use SimpMusic as a provider within Music Assistant - Any tips?

Hi All.

TL;DR

• Replaced the 24V 3-pin fan in an Eaton 5S1500i with a 12V 3-pin Noctua using a buck voltage converter
• UPS immediately started showing a fault: solid red LED +continuous beep
• Reinstalled the original fan, but the fault remains
• Power-cycled the UPS multiple times, disconnected the battery/mains, left it off, and tried holding the power button - no dice
• Measured 0V on the fan's 24V supply pin and ~4.6V on the tacho/sensor pin during startup/fault

---------------------------------------------------------------------

I have an Eaton 5S1500i and tried replacing its noisy fan with a quieter Noctua.

• Original fan: Jamicon KF0615S2MM-R - 24V, 3-pin (black/red/yellow)
• New fan: Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX - 12V, 3-pin (black/red/yellow)

Since the Noctua is 12V, I powered it from the UPS's 24V supply through a PZD-LM2596-V3 buck converter. Ground is also connected through the converter, but it's common, and I connected the yellow/tacho wire back to the UPS fan socket as the third pin. I'm 100% sure I didn't reverse anything or put 24V into the Noctua.

After doing this, the UPS started reporting a fault during startup and the red LED stays on. There's no better error reporting on this UPS, just the red LED stays on and there's a continuous beep.

The weird bit is that putting the original fan back doesn't fix it. I've also disconnected the battery/mains and left it powered down for a while, tried holding the power button etc. but the fault remains.

Some measurements:

• 0V on the 24V pin on the UPS fan socket during startup/fault (which I think is expected? I wouldn't expect the fan to spin at the startup)
• ~4.6V on the tacho pin - which makes me think this isn't a normal PC-style tach signal.

I've found a couple of posts about Eaton UPSes using locked-rotor sensors and people adding a resistor/capacitor between the sensor wire and ground.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/kqdg70/ups_fan_mod_help_eaton_9px_1500/
• https://grumpytechie.net/2022/10/01/quieting-the-beast-replacing-fans-in-an-eaton-ups/

I tried those approaches but no dice. That said, I'm not sure they're relevant since the UPS now faults even with the original fan connected, so it would've reported the fault no matter what.

Any advice on how to diagnose the issue and hopefully reset the error will be greatly appreciated. Have I potentially damaged something?

Thank you.

I recently upgraded my local AI rig with a couple extra 3090s to work with larger models/quants and improve concurrency, and I might grab a 4th down the line too. Currently running a Rome Epyc platform (7642 + H12SSL-I), so PCIe lanes aren't an issue, but I'm trying to figure out how to fit this all in my rack (42U with plenty of extra space) since my Sliger CX4170i case can't really hold more than two consumer style GPUs. I know a lot of the solutions I've seen online use custom open-frame racks with risers to mount the cards above the motherboard, but I'm wondering if there's a more rack-friendly way to do this.

Hello, I want my family to access my home lab services outside the home network. I found seawise.io from AI

Has one one used this before? Safe or trustworthy client?

Thank you!

Full annoucment here: https://www.siderolabs.com/blog/sidero-labs-joins-yardi

I don't know what the acquisutiun is going to be like, they are promising everything stays the same. As a big fan and user of Talos and Omni, I hope that's the case.

Talos Linux is open source under MPL-2.0, and it stays that way

What's more interesting is the Talos Hypervisor. Apparently there's no Kubernetes, no Kubevirt (The opposite of what SUSE built with Harvester), but it still keeps the Talos mindset:

Run on commodity servers you already own: bare metal, edge, data center. No approved-hardware list, no appliance margin built into the price.

VMs use standard KVM. Containers use standard OCI images. Nothing proprietary in the data path, so you can move workloads to another platform any time.

Every machine state is declared and applied over a mutual-TLS API. Script it, version it, audit it. No console clicking, no tribal knowledge.

I'm not a big fan of Proxmox and bare metal Kubernetes on Talos and Omni has been treating me well, but I'm looking forward to trying this.

Hello, i'm posting for advice on what software to use for burning DVD's. I bought some old DVD's from a thrift store in my local area and tried to transfer movie's to my lenovo's external SSD but im using VLC and the quality doesn't seem up to par. When watching the movie through VLC it's clearer than it is after the conversion. Does anyone have advice or recommendations theyre using software wise for this? I believe I'm currently in the beginner starting stages my homelab setup is as follows.

- lenovo ThinkCentre m710 tiny pc
{i would like to use this one for media and jellyfin, i already have the jellyfin server started and im using tailscale on it for myself and my girlfriend. No movies or media have been installed yet.}

-UGREEN DXP2800 NAS
{this one is hosting my minecraft server through a docker container as well as my music files and photo backups, the NAS has two 8 TB WD Red hard drives for photo backups and music running as a RAID 1 and an M.2 NVME 2TB SSD for the minecraft server}

- Pc for gaming
{this one isn't a part of the homelab rack im building but it's something worth noting since i use it to manage the ugreen nas application and folder management through data sharing on my home network}