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Selfhosting on an old laptop (self.selfhosted)

submitted 1 year ago by bloodtide to c/selfhosted

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I'm currently running homebridge and pihole from an older Lenovo (i5, 256 SSD, 8GB ram) laptop (tweaked power settings to allow idle when closed) hardwired into a switch. I am currently running Ubuntu Server LTS, and have uptime ~2 weeks. I'm a little worried about reliability, I was originally using Ubuntu Desktop LTS, and I had an issue with the OS crashing after a 4 days of basically idle...

So my question is, is this a feasible solution? Should I pursue something like a SBC or migrate the machine to an old desktop instead? I don't mind working on the machine occasionally, performing maintenance etc but I don't want to have to troubleshoot the machine on a weekly basis.

I also would like to get into more self hosting, I find it to be super interesting and fun, does anyone have any projects they wouldn't mind recommending or sharing?

Thanks guys!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure. It's plenty feasible. I've used old laptops, desktops, a server board running naked under my desk with parts strewn about... anything can run your homelab.

The only thing you may have issues with long term in a laptop like that is the battery turning into a spicy balloon. Regardless of whether its healthy, or totally "dead" and wont charge, it can and will still start to offgas and can catch on fire. If it has a removable battery, take it out and run the laptop on a normal UPS that is designed to sit fully charged and plugged in 24/7.

[–] bloodtide 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oof the spicy pillow...didn't think about that one. I will def take a look into running it independent from the battery thank you

[–] sgtgig 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most BIOS allow you to set a charge cap to the battery. 60% is a good number for something that will always be plugged in.

But if you can just take it out that's fine too, but not having to buy a UPS is a nice bonus to laptop servers

[–] bloodtide 1 points 1 year ago

thank you I'll take a look into that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lenovo laptops often have a setting to limit battery charge to 80% which would solve that issue, but I think usually you have to do it from their windows utility software.

[–] Duckman 1 points 1 year ago

There’s a way to do it on Linux. It requires the acpi_call kernel module and a couple of shell commands. Here’s a write up: https://tildehacker.com/lenovo-ideapad-battery-conservation-mode-gnu-linux