this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Does anyone else use old equipment for homelab use? If so, what are you running? (i.imgur.com)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by L3s to c/sysadmin
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A few years ago I had a couple old and slow Optiplex's running Hyper-V, with Windows/Linux VM's, doing things like NPS, AD, etc.

Had some old equipment collecting dust, so I've built out a decent homelab and am curious if anyone else has done the same, and if so what are they running on them for fun?

In my new "rack":

  • PowerEdge R430
    • Running ProxMox, with a Windows VM (DC), and a Linux VM with Docker for Plex
  • EqualLogic PS4100
    • VM storage for both PowerEdge servers (10TB)
  • Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 24 250w
  • PowerEdge R720
    • Running ProxMox, with some Linux VM's, most utilizing Docker for Plex "assistance/automations" (ahem), NextCloud for phone photo backup and wife's photography, and another DC as a failover of R430's DC.
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[–] Skyline969 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have the CPU and RAM of two PowerVault NX3200s that were destined for the skip jammed into one chassis. It powers one hell of a nice Plex server running on UnRaid.

[–] L3s 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nice! How do you like Unraid? Haven't messed with that yet, but it looks pretty slick

[–] h0rnman 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I also run an unraid instance. I just use a regular tower build with an asrock rack board (the ipmi is nice), a r5 3600, 32gb ECC, and 4x4TB drives. I also have 1 ssd for vms and 1 ssd for a write cache. I think the biggest advantage of unraid is the simplicity once you grok how storage works regarding parity and how you add container apps. VM management and container management are extremely simple, and the next release (in rc now) is supposed to make ZFS a first class option.

[–] L3s 1 points 2 years ago

Sounds awesome! Definitely going to need to check out Unraid once my work life slows down a bit.

[–] Anarch157a 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

old Asus A320 with a Ryzen 2600G and 16 GB of ram. Both memory and CPU were on my previous gaming desktop, I gave them to a friend that needed it. When he said he didn't need it any more, I took both back plus I bought his mobo.

I'm running Proxmox with one full VM for OPNSense and some containers for Pihole, HomeAssistant, Jellyfin, Gitlab, and file server.

I figured that repurposing old desktop parts as I upgrade is better and cheaper than buying old server gear. I get better performance with less power draw and less noise.

[–] L3s 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

ProxMox took me some getting used to, but it's a solid hypervisor for homelabs. Never used OPNSense, how are you enjoying it?

[–] Anarch157a 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's pretty good, certainly beats what I had before, which was a bunch of manual iptables rules 😱

[–] L3s 1 points 2 years ago

Ooof! That sounds fun lol

[–] DesertCreosote 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I run a few older things.

In my rack, I have:

  • 1x 48-port POE Juniper EX220 used as a core switch with a fiber backbone to my upstairs switch; wish it was 10gig, but it was cheap and I needed ports.
  • 1x Dell R720 with 2x Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 @ 2.70GHz, 256GB RAM, and 80TB of raw storage in a RAID-5 array (64TB usable).
    • Runs ESXi with VMs for everything from vSphere to Plex to some websites I host myself.
  • 1x Dell R710 with 2x Intel X5650 @ 2.67GHz, 40GB RAM, and 24 TB of raw storage.
    • Currently unconfigured since I recently migrated off of this server to the R720.
  • 1x Dell R610 with 2x Intel 5550s, 96GB RAM, and no drives.
    • Got this on a whim, planned to use it for a project, never got to it, now it sits on the bottom of my rack and reminds me of my folly.

Upstairs I have another 48-port Juniper EX220, and I plan to fill most of the ports with 4+ Ethernet drops to every room in my house, plus extras for WAPs, cameras, and remote sensors.
I also use Ruckus R710s for wireless connectivity; I have two right now, and plan to eventually get one of the outdoor-rated Ruckus WAPs to mount on my chimney since WiFi coverage gets a little sparse when you get halfway across my yard.

I was remarking to a friend the other day that I've managed to build myself a pretty stellar setup for the early 2010s, at a fraction of the cost it would have taken back then. Though it definitely eats lots of power!

[–] L3s 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Very nice setup! My work environment was only VMware ESXi's, it's a solid solution but gets expensive!

[–] DesertCreosote 3 points 2 years ago

It certainly can. The VMUG subscription helps out there a little, but it's definitely a little pricey.

[–] doubletwist 2 points 1 year ago

Does anyone NOT use old equipment for a homelab?

I've got 4 x Dell R620 servers, though I've recently shut down 2 of them because they are running in an unconditioned garage closet and it's been absolutely hot this summer.

Also have 4 old 16-disk trays from a Nimble SAN, but again only running one of them (16 x 3TB SAS) for heat reasons.

I also have the Nimble controller but the firmware is borked and I can't get a copy without a service contract and you can't get a service contract on this old hardware. I briefly had it working running Linux on the two controllers, which works but is a bit tricky since shutting down one side causes the other side to shut down unexpectedly. So I'm leaving it unused until I can either sell it or find a copy of the proper firmware.

[–] CaldeiraG 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Running 2 mini pcs in a Proxmox cluster with a NAS (24TB) for the mediaserver VM

  • Lenovo Thinkcentre M700 (i5-6400T, 32GB RAM)
  • Dell Optiplex 3080 (i5-10500T, 32GB RAM)
[–] L3s 1 points 2 years ago

Pretty cool, what NAS are you using, and 24TB usable?

[–] Thustrak 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I have a Core i7 3770, 16gb ram and a 80gb SSD on an ASUS workstation motherboard (2 nics onboard) as my firewall. The firewall is running PFsense.

For my server, I have an AMD 3700x, 64gb, with a bunch of random mixed HDDs/SSDs running XCP-NG. The server doesn't get backed up, there isn't anything on there that I can't redo. It is mostly a private game server for my friends and I.

I also have a 2 bay Synology that I use to backup configs and important files.

[–] L3s 2 points 2 years ago

Not shabby, currently in the same boat with backups. Definitely need something so I don't spend a week+ rebuilding everything, but the wife doesn't like how much money I already spend on other hobbies lol.

[–] zorflieg 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Old Dell optiplexes of an 5th gen or higher currently. Some Mac minis i7 2014+, dual core not worth the performance per watt.

[–] L3s 1 points 2 years ago

Nothing wrong with some Optiplex's, what are you running on them?

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

I really like the portable rack config! That would be ideal!!

Very similar set up:

  • Dell R440 (local storage, sadly)
  • Ubiquiti USW-24
  • Low-end Antsle D for random container & VM shenanigans.

I'd like to mess around more with a Pi cluster (or some other low power/RISC setup) or an Intel NUC to keep the noise and power consumption down.

[–] L3s 1 points 2 years ago

Very nice!! Running anything fun on it?

[–] zorflieg 2 points 1 year ago

VMware esxi 7, win10 sandbox. Debian hosts for docker. I also run some a couple of i7 Mac mini's. I try to host on a balance of cheap, power efficient devices that I have spares of in case they blow up because I hate dealing with hardware compatibility issues. Since I decided this and shelved spares I haven't had any failure's.

[–] arensb 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't have any retired hardware from my current job, since I'm 100% cloud (and I don't miss hardware one bit (well, except for the one time I found that I didn't have any spare power cables for the homebrew PC)).

I have, however, converted my old QNAP NAS to TrueNAS, and it's much better now.

[–] L3s 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

On-prem infrastructure is way less fun than having a full cloud stack, how are you enjoying that, and are there any big snags you all have run into?

Currently in the process of doing the same at work, we mainly utilize file servers(already migrated to SharePoint), DC's (in process of going full AAD, Endpoint Manager[intune], AutoPilot), and Print Servers (currently testing full cloud solution to replace). This would allow us to be "server less" and no on-prem infrastructure aside from switching/routing/firewalls, and we can segment our network completely since users won't need to talk to anything on-prem anymore.

[–] arensb 3 points 2 years ago

undefined> On-prem infrastructure is way less fun than having a full cloud stack, how are you enjoying that, and are there any big snags you all have run into?

There are people who do enjoy playing with hardware, and I'm not going to say they're wrong, especially since I'm glad they're around. But that's not what I want to do for a living.

I think the biggest challenge I've seen is: with on-prem hardware, you can brick a server or a router, and have to go down to the machine room to reimage it from the console. With cloud infrastructure, it's possible to not just brick, but destroy your entire machine room.

Having said that, I really like infrastructure-as-code. I've set up racks of hardware, and IaC is way more fun.

[–] Reygle 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Due to work, I'm a VMWare person but I'm gung-ho to learn Proxmox at home. I've got access to old server hardware but don't want it anywhere near me at home- like others say it's way too loud and too wasteful on the outlet.

Was thinking about finding a relatively high core count mini pc, or just building an ITX system.

Would anyone mind recommending a good bit of hardware for light to medium duty use with a couple of VMs?

[–] L3s 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I hear you (pun intended, sorry I'm a dad) on the loudness, luckily we have a basement we don't use very often, but it's quite annoying when I game down there on the weekend.

As for mini-PC, it's probably worth making another post on /c/sysadmin about, I'm not sure how many people will stop in this post since it's a little older and unfortunately I'm not much help there.

[–] Reygle 1 points 2 years ago

10-4 thanks.