My main motivation when building out my Homelab was to segregate my containers on one device and storage on another. I previously had been running all my apps on my DIY NAS using TrueCharts within TrueNAS Scale.
My Homelab is run on a Gen 12 Intel NUC maxed out with 64GB of memory.
| Intel NUC 12 Pro Kit NUC12WSKi3 | Crucial P5 Plus M.2 2280 | Crucial 64GB Kit (2 x 32GB) DDR4-3200 |
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I'm currently running Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS as I wanted a dependable OS to run headless.
I took the DIY NAS approach as I was super interested in getting up-and-running with TrueNAS Scale.
- CPU: Intel i3-4150 + Stock Cooler
- MOBO: Asus H81I-Plus Mini ITX
- RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz (2 x 8GB)
- RAID CONTROLLER: LSI 9207-8i (IBM M5110)
- STORAGE: x4 WD 10TB Red Plus HDD
- BOOT: x2 Kingston 120GB A400 SSD
- PSU: Corsair SF450 SFX 80-Platinum
- CASE: Jonsbo N1
The pool is setup as two 2-disk mirror vdevs providing my household with 20TB of usable storage for photos, media, Time Machine backups, and my various other archival needs. I highly recommend checking out the JRS blog if you are wondering why I chose mirror vdevs instead of Z1 or Z2.
Living in a 950 sqft Loft apartment, I don't have to worry about signal strength. My setup consists of a Google WiFi puck in the Living Room. This is my primary router: one end connects to my in-wall ethernet port and the other end to a Netgear 8-port managed switch. I have an TP-Linke 8-port unmanaged switch plugging into the managed switch in order to expand the number of available ethernet ports.
| Google Wifi | Netgear Managed Switch | TP-Link Unmanaged Switch | MoCa Network Adapter |
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But you can't have a mesh network with just one puck, so in order to eliminate the potential for any deadzones, I've placed another puck upstairs in the Loft.
I routinely stream games via Moonlight from my desktop computer (in the Office) to the TV (in the Living Room). Initially, I did this over WiFi, but had very little success. Fortunately, there is a coax outlet right under my desk, so using ethernet-over-coax, I am able to hardwire to the network switch in the Living Room.