Homelab

I just set up a local DNS server in my LAN with a custom domain "jellyfin.local". I set my router up to advertise this DNS server via DHCP. This seems to work for my Linux laptop. But neither my windows machine nor my android phone use my local DNS server.

I believe the issue may be that my router is crappy, and while it does announce my DNS server correctly for IPv4, I am unable to stop it from announcing some other DNS server for IPv6. I believe that this may confuse my Windows and Android devices, which probably prioritise DNS via IPv6, and hence use the wrong DNS server.

I could now buy a better router. But before I do that, I wanted to know if someone else successfully uses a local DNS server with Windows devices, Android devices, Smart TVs, and so on. Specifically, with a properly configured DHCP server, will all modern devices use the correct DNS server?

Update

Thanks for all the informative comments! I have now resorted to using a global DNS record (jellyfin.mydomain.de) to point to my local server. That seems to work and the easiest option.

Would anyone be interested in a Cisco 3750 (WS-C3750G-48PS) for their #HomeLab or #SelfHosting set up etc?

There are 48 x Gig RJ45 ports, 4 x 1Gb SFP ports, and have PoE (15.4w) on all copper ports up to 370w total. This is usually good enough for CCTV cameras, VoIP phones and WiFi APs.

It's an old model, but works fine. It will be wiped and won't have any SFPs or console cable, but I can provide a power cable if needed.

If you don't want to buy a console cable I can configure it with an IP and credentials.

I was given several by a friend, but don't need them all. One of them is still my core switch, which is on 24/7.

I am willing to post to the UK only, as it will be too expensive to send overseas (unless you're willing to pay, but then would be cheaper to just buy one off ebay locally...)

Any takers?

I don't want to just give them to a recycling company, and ebay would probably be too much hassle.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-3750-series-switches/product_data_sheet0900aecd80371991.html

DM me here or on Mastodon if you're interested 😀

Figured this might be of interest for some homelabbers. For intel CPUs supporting vPro/AMT you can basically get KVM via MeshCommander (or a Fork like MeshMini). This also allows to mount a .iso file from your client like you would a USB stick via the MeshCommander Remote Desktop! So, once you have the remote access configured, you can completely reinstall your computers remotely as long as they are connected to the network.

One thing to notice is that the boxes need to have some DisplayPort output used to actually show something in Remote Desktop which kind of contradicts the whole setup. But there are DP dummy "cables" for exactly this purpose for 5-10bucks.

Generally spoken, the process is like this:

• Set up MeshMini on some server you don't want to access with it (some spare raspi or the like)
• Set up AMT/MEBx in the BIOS of the vPro box
• Register box in MeshMini

I’m running a miniPC with Proxmox and using MergerFS to manage storage. I’ve attached an SSD and an external USB drive, but these drives are almost full.

I recently bought a secondhand QNAP NAS with 4x4TB drives to expand my storage. My goal is to mount these 4 drives on my miniPC and add them to my existing MergerFS configuration. I may also want to use one of the drives as a SnapRAID parity disk.

However, I’m struggling to navigate the QNAP settings and am unfamiliar with NAS systems. It keeps pushing me toward creating a storage pool, adding RAID, and enabling snapshots, but I feel I don't need any of that since I'm using MergerFS. I’m having trouble finding guidance on how to configure the QNAP settings for my use case.

What settings would you recommend on the QNAP NAS to achieve my goal of mounting the 4 drives on my miniPC?

This is a simple way to load balance at home

I am looming to move to Kubernetes with longhorn as the storage back end. However, I am very confused on how to expose services. Right now I have two reverse proxies to route outside traffic to the appropriate services. I am looking to recreate this in Kubernetes.

What is the easiest way to do this? I am confused about how kubernetes does networking. Is there a easy way to make a service listen on a IP that can be resolved by a reverse proxy?

Edit:

K3s has a built in system

https://docs.k3s.io/networking/networking-services

https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2022/05/traefik-ingress-example-yaml-and-setup-in-k3s/

I recently learned about a product called a Zimaboard, which to my understanding is like a raspberry pi, and the default OS on the listing says that it comes with CasaOs. Doing a quick search, I found the website and tried their demo, which had a very modern look with many popular apps available and so I got curious as to why this wasn't as popular as other server os.

I want to know if any of you had a go with any of these things and if you have some experiences or opinions regarding it.

It's very modern looking UI gives of "Apple" vibes which makes me trust things less, but that's just my caveman brain acting up, hence the reason I'm asking.

With my Raspberry Pi basically being software/service complete, I'm starting to think more about my router and I need to make sure I'm thinking about this right.

As I envision it, my router would run OpenWRT, Pi-Hole and a VPN. Is that correct or have I got this wrong?

My homelab is still in its infancy as I'm at the start of my self-hosting journey. I'm now down the rabbit hole though and where I can self host, I'd like to.

Not long back, I asked for some advice regarding an IFTTT replacement. I only need a tiny subset of the service, in that I want it to check some RSS feeds and send a notification if it finds one. The people of the fediverse are amazing and I got some great recommendations, however some felt like a great fit but didn't pan out. That left me with less and less.

One of the suggestions though was n8n and as I looked into giving it a whirl, I noticed it needed Traefik to be installed.

Now here's the thing, I haven't sorted out my router yet and since nothing I'm doing is facing the net, I'm kinda just chilling without a proper set up. I'm wondering, if I install Traefik along with n8n, will it break my other services? Will I still be able to install my homebrew router with OpenWRT when I finally sort that out and will it impact the IPTV which I'll sort out when I've sorted out the router?

Hiya folks, I am looking for a wifi extender that can serve as a temporary Ethernet solution for my server.

In short; My housing situation is temporary and while I do have access to WiFi, I do not have access to the router. So I thought I'd buy a WiFi extender that my server can connect to, until I move again (need to stay here 5 months). I thought about trying to bridge my connection from my Desktop PC to the Server, but realised that means I need both of them on at all times. So I'd rather buy an extender which I might be able to use long term.

I have been looking at Ubiquiti equipment, but seem a little expensive for me right now. However, this brand does look tempting to invest into in the future (feel free to suggest other brands, if you recommend any others!). But yeah; for now I think a WiFi Extender could do the job, one that has an Ethernet port ofc.

Edit; I could also invest in a cheap network card for the server ofc, might that be a better solution?

Any suggestions are much appreciated 🌻

I'm thinking about moving my laptop into the virtualization age with the power of vfio. I want to install Debian and then pass though my GPU and peripherals. I will manage my wireless connections though openwrt.

The problem is, the VMs don't have a way of seeing the battery level of the host. This results in a short battery life. Is there is any way of passing though a virtual battery. I see a old issue on virtual manager but it seems dead. Shouldn't this just be a matter of passing though the block device?

I would like to create my own router with OpenWRT and there are an overwhelming amount of hardware options by the likes of nanopi, bananapi, etc. Does this community have any recommendations? :)

Here are my requirements:

• 1.5Gbps support
• I plan to connect a total of 3 access points to it (just using spare routers. One of them can support 1.5G)
• either a port to connect a pihole or another way to set it up
• ideally VLAN support but I can also use a guest network for a few smart devices
• no plans to run a homelab off of this setup, so doesn't need to be fancy
• lower cost is preferred.

The drive works in other devices but when I boot I don't see the device with lspci and there isn't any errors in dmesg.

Is there something I'm missing? Why wouldn't a pcie drive work?

Edit: I sent it back Edit 2: I got a new one and it worked with sata

So I'm trying to bridge to physical locations together. At one location I control the firewall and at the other I don't. I would normally use Wireguard but its all dynamic IPs so it would break every so often.

My though was to use I2P to create a bridge between the 2 places. I will use 0 hops on each with encrypted lease sets. Am I crazy or is this a good solution.

Update: don't

I am having trouble deciding between Proxmox and TrueNAS scale for a homelab on my Dell OptiPlex. I am worried that I'll be limited by TrueNAS at some point, so why not just make it a VM? Will there be any significant performance loss if I just make a TrueNAS VM within Proxmox and give it all the resources? I have a total of 4x 8TB HDDs. One isn't functioning but I'm pretty sure I can fix it, although I don't trust it now.

Or perhaps Proxmox is unnecessary for my use case? Please let me know what you think! I intend to run the following:

PiHole with Unbound DNS Jellyfin Home Assistant with smart devices on separate VLAN Playing around with webhosting, maybe even a small personal Lemmy server. Miniflux RSS Personal documentation solution such as Logseq

I also have a few spare Raspberry Pis and I'm wondering if they could be made into Proxmox nodes...