Homelab Show & Tell

[TheDataCentreBrit]

Whether you’re just getting started in enterprise tech or you’re a seasoned IT pro, there’s something exciting about building and maintaining your own homelab. This is a space dedicated to the enthusiasts, the tinkerers, and everyone who finds joy in running server racks, configuring virtual environments, or testing out new technologies at home. Homelabs give us the freedom to experiment, learn, and build outside the boundaries of work environments, and we want you to share your setup with the Orbital Jigsaw community.

We’d love to see what you’ve built! Share photos of your rigs, a breakdown of the hardware you’re using, any special configurations you’re testing out, and a bit about what projects or skills you’re honing in your homelab. Whether your setup is a single desktop or a full-blown network closet, every build has something unique. Post away and inspire others – let’s see what everyone is working on, discuss best practices, and geek out over gear.

To get things started, here’s my own homelab setup. Looking forward to seeing yours!

• 3x Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB
• 5x Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB (4x Crucial 500GB SSD, 1x Samsung 1TB NVMe)
• 3x Minisforum MS-01 (i9-13900H, 96GB DDR5, 500GB Crucial P3 NVMe, 2TB Crucial T500 NVMe)
  Netgear GS116PP PoE+ 1GbE Switch
• MikroTik CRS309-1G-8S+IN 10GbE Switch
• APC Back-UPS 850
• Asustor AS6604T 32GB (Running TrueNAS Scale)

Currently the lab is running Sidero Labs Talos Linux, Longhorn, Rook-Ceph, Sidero Labs Omni, Home Assistant and a few other home automation tools.

 

[Drew_C]

That's such a clean looking setup! I intend to build a pair of Minisforum systems like yours and I just keep putting it off.

I'll get my gear documented and share here soon!

 

[Mal]

This is the current iteration of my lab. It's definitely not as pretty as Jason's, but it's hidden in a closet so I don't look at it much. From top to bottom:

• Basic 8-port KVM
  Mikrotik CRS317-1G-16S+
• Mikrotik CSS326-24G-2S+
• 2U Silverstone (from CL or Marketplace, unsure of exact model) - i7-11700, 64GB DDR4, 1TB + 2TB NVMe, Google Coral USB for Frigate
• 3U Chenbro RM31616 - i5-12600, 128GB DDR4, 2x 2TB NVMe, 1x 58GB Optane, 10x 14TB Exos SAS, 4x 12TB Exos SAS, couple 10GB SFP+ cards
• 2x Minisforum MS-01 (behind the plates and AC Infinity Fans)
  • i9-12900H, 96GB DDR5, 3x 2TB NVMe, 1x 58GB Optane (each)

Pretty typical usage... the 2U Silverstone runs Ubuntu. Its main job is Plex but it's also a docker host for various containers (frigate, arr stack, some others). The 3U Chenbro and MS-01 boxes are all running vSphere with vSAN. The 3U server has virtualized truenas for all my storage. Other apps split across the cluster: AD/DNS services, Security Onion, Graylog, Nessus, Unifi controller, nginx proxy, Home Assistant, FreshRSS, and Bitwarden. I think those are the main ones.