I did one at home. For the network side, I used some Ubiquiti equipment. For example, the EdgeRouter X is hard to beat for $50 and it will NAT a full gig of internet traffic. I also have it programmed (from command line) with zone-based firewall between VLANs, time-based rules, etc.
As a dev, I learned a valuable strategy from the way their command line tools work. The device configuration is stored as JSON in MongoDB. And their command line is basically just a wrapper for setting values at a JSON path. You can look at a JSON config and figure out what command you need to run. And vice versa. And the CLI still manages to feel similar to other kinds of routers like Cisco. Brilliant design.
I couldn't agree more. I have almost exactly the setup you describe! You don't need that much hardware actually. Be careful with old (1u) rack servers. They eat power and are incredibly loud! I have a Dell T110 that is absolutely perfect. It is designed for small office use and it is power friendly and quiet. I can't tell how much I have learned from setting everything up. You'll run into all kinds of interesting problems that you'll learn to solve. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I'm a father of four. I started out as a self-taught programmer, completed a B.S. in Computer Science and am currently employed full-time since 1998.
I also own a small mobile software company.
Definitely interested in getting more stuff in my homelab so far I have a box using unraid, but I want to learn how to do more. The next thing that I've seen that has a lot of setup/tutorial already is pfsense.
I already have homelab, and running Giltab server locally with runners (in cloud and my pc) and one mastodon instance on raspbery pi which have data stored on primary server. I have opened ports for gitlab to internet so (maybe its wrong question) but its necessary to hide real ip (my wan IP) address or its doesnt matter?
Hi I'm Ibrahim I'm The CEO/Founder of TGD Dev™
I like to play games and do work
Sometimes I work on websites and stuff
I have a Dev Side And A Gamer Side On Dev I use my Dev side.
Game industry vet, coming out of a 10+ years coding hiatus.
A harm reduction urban Guerillero by day (well, really by night most shifts), reborn code thug and game developer when I can.
Location
Montréal, QC, Canuckistan
Education
Mostly self taught and professional experience
Pronouns
Il/lui, he/him
Work
Harm reduction and HCV treatment counselor by day, Indie gamedev on the rare nights I have energy ;)
Wow, that is quite beyond my P133 PC conversion to linux router and firewall for my PPoE home ADSL connection in the early aughts 😁
Actually inspired me for my long term plan, which ultimately has me working remotely while globetrotting on the cheap : could have my #homelab stashed at friends or family once I take off and still use it for testing and deployment, even have a few production, money earning instances running on it.
Great article !
Cheers
Hi I'm Ibrahim I'm The CEO/Founder of TGD Dev™
I like to play games and do work
Sometimes I work on websites and stuff
I have a Dev Side And A Gamer Side On Dev I use my Dev side.
Hi Mike. From what I actually understood of this article this sounds like a great idea. I am, unfortunately, not very familiar with some of the things you were talking about, but I do have my friend google, so I will look into this further. Thanks,
Mike
I'm a quality hero, customer champion. Experienced software tester and newbie developer.
Okay, so I've actually been dabbling in code for a long time. I've just not gone very deep in any language .
There is also a dedicated community reddit.com/r/homelab for this that can be of help or inspiration.
I did one at home. For the network side, I used some Ubiquiti equipment. For example, the EdgeRouter X is hard to beat for $50 and it will NAT a full gig of internet traffic. I also have it programmed (from command line) with zone-based firewall between VLANs, time-based rules, etc.
As a dev, I learned a valuable strategy from the way their command line tools work. The device configuration is stored as JSON in MongoDB. And their command line is basically just a wrapper for setting values at a JSON path. You can look at a JSON config and figure out what command you need to run. And vice versa. And the CLI still manages to feel similar to other kinds of routers like Cisco. Brilliant design.
I used my old gaming computer to host VMs.
I couldn't agree more. I have almost exactly the setup you describe! You don't need that much hardware actually. Be careful with old (1u) rack servers. They eat power and are incredibly loud! I have a Dell T110 that is absolutely perfect. It is designed for small office use and it is power friendly and quiet. I can't tell how much I have learned from setting everything up. You'll run into all kinds of interesting problems that you'll learn to solve. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I have been wanting to get into this, this is a great starting point for some further research, thanks!
Very nice introduction, I'm just starting out with my home lab! Everything is on my old laptop so far, plex, vsftpd and dnsmasq.
I used to have one of these, but time and kids haven't permitted it. I think maybe it's time to start again 😁
I think this can also apply for a Raspberry Pi if you are thinking about small projects.
I'm getting more into this stuff and homelab is a good word for this.
I also love /r/battlestations and would love to bring more content like that onto DEV. 😄
Definitely interested in getting more stuff in my homelab so far I have a box using unraid, but I want to learn how to do more. The next thing that I've seen that has a lot of setup/tutorial already is pfsense.
I already have homelab, and running Giltab server locally with runners (in cloud and my pc) and one mastodon instance on raspbery pi which have data stored on primary server. I have opened ports for gitlab to internet so (maybe its wrong question) but its necessary to hide real ip (my wan IP) address or its doesnt matter?
Yes If You don't THEN Hackers Can TRACK your IP
Wow, that is quite beyond my P133 PC conversion to linux router and firewall for my PPoE home ADSL connection in the early aughts 😁
Actually inspired me for my long term plan, which ultimately has me working remotely while globetrotting on the cheap : could have my #homelab stashed at friends or family once I take off and still use it for testing and deployment, even have a few production, money earning instances running on it.
Great article !
Cheers
Battle stations for gamers are for comfort though.........
Plus cool RGB lights!
Only problem is Their very heavy.........
You'd need a van to move it!
Besides that it's amazing!
You could make an ULTIMATE Homelab If you combined battle stations AND homelabs
That would be AMAZING!
But expensive... Those things cost 12 THOUSAND to 15 THOUSAND US Dollars!
But combined with A Homelab? man that's gonna come in the Thousands.....
But if you're willing for amazingness COMBINE them!
When you code with the lights off and set the RGB lights to green Its gonna look like your an extreme coder!
That's what I think
Hi Mike. From what I actually understood of this article this sounds like a great idea. I am, unfortunately, not very familiar with some of the things you were talking about, but I do have my friend google, so I will look into this further. Thanks,
Mike
Very inspiring!
Reminds me, I really must move beyond my Raspberry Pi 3 and reformat my old gaming PC into a home lab. I think it has 12gb of ram and a gen1 i7 920.