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Computing & Internet

Walkthrough of my Homelab

March 20, 2025

Over the past two years, my home server setup has evolved from a simple WD NAS EX2 Ultra running Plex to a full-fledged homelab. The journey began with just a WC EX2 Ultra NAS, but soon expanded to include Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. A new gaming PC freed up my old HP machine, transforming it into a dedicated home server. Inspired by a friend, @reetesh‘s, impressive Heimdall homepage, I dove head-first into the world of homelabbing. Two years later, I’m excited to share how my setup has grown:

Homelab Server 01: Beelink Mini PC for Home Assistant

Specs:

  • 12th Gen Intel AIder Lake-N N100 Processor
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 500 GB SSD
  • Zooz 700 Series Z-Wave Plus
  • Home Assistant Skyconnect

Homelab Server 02: Old HP Gaming PC

Specs:

  • AMD Ryzen 5 3500 6-Core Processor
  • 32 GB RAM
  • Nvidia 1650S
  • 256 GB boot SSD
  • 1 TB SSD Samsung SSD 870 EVO – this was primarily for apps, now I have no idea what it is being used for (I don’t understand how TrueNAS Scale works)
  • 1 x 8 TB data drive (this is for data that I need to move between systems)
  • 2 x 20 TB data drives in RAID1
  • TrueNAS Scale

Apps Running:

  • ddns-updater – required for updating all the web URLs and IPs
  • drawio
  • flame
  • Frigate – object detection by Frigate was truly the desire that made me go down the homelab path (including Home Assistant)
  • Glances – one of the coolest pieces of software to get the coolest homelab dashboards
  • Metube – love this to download YouTube videos
  • Nextcloud – this has been a nightmare to keep running
  • Nginx Proxy Manager – this is critical for my setup, and my first mobile app
  • Open WebUI – frontend for my Ollama server (I run Ollama on my desktop powered by a 4090)
  • Plex
  • Syncthing (heart of my backup strategy)
  • Unifi Controller
  • Vault Warden (OSS Bitwarden server)

VM:

  • Windows 10 for Scrypted

Homelab Server 03: E-waste’d Cisco C240 M4

Specs:

  • Intel Xeon E5-2640 v3 @ 2.60GHz
  • 64 GB RAM
  • 250 GB boot SSD
  • 4 x 300 GB SFF HDDs (see, I didn’t know when I selected this server that it didn’t take regular-sized HDDs)
  • Proxmox

VM #1 on Proxmox – Ubuntu Homeserver Apps:

  • Portainer
    • Code-snippets
    • Enclosed
    • ESPHome
    • Heimdall
    • Homebridge
    • Homepage
    • Linkwarden
    • llmcord
    • plex-stats
    • Speedtest Tracker
    • Uptime Kuma
    • Watchtower

VM #2 on Proxmox – Ubuntu Webserver:

  • This runs Cyber Prism App

Other things in my homelab:

  • WD EX2 Ultra NAS 2 x 20 TB in RAID1 (This product sucks, wish I could go back in time and not buy this, buy a Synology NAS.)
  • Firewalla Purple
  • Ubiquiti network stack:
    • Switch Pro Max 24 PoE
    • Rack Mount OCD Panel
    • Toolless Mini Rack
    • Power Distribution Pro
    • 24-Port Blank Keystone Patch
  • Amplifi Alien
  • CyberPower OR500LCDRM1U UPS
  • CyberPower CPS1215RM Basic PDU
  • 2U Server Cabinet Case 19 Inch Rack Mount Lockable Drawer
  • 12U Rack

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Upgrading the HP gaming PC into a custom-built gaming PC

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Tags: cisco, home assistant, home networking, home server, homelab, smart home

Me

Hi, I’m Manan and here I write about gadgets and technology. Find me on Twitter or Mastodon and my stream on Twitch. Get updates over email. Or grab the RSS.

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