Zum Inhalt der Seite gehen

mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag

My Cute Homelab™️ [1] got a few minor updates over the weekend. All 3 ThinkCentre Tiny PCs are now from the m910 series. Two of them now have 2 network ports each. All have HDMI. And I added a 4 port KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) switch for an even cleaner look and less cable switching. I consider this homelab done from the hardware side. Now the fun begins. With the software.

[1] jan.wildeboer.net/2025/05/Cute…

#SelfHost #Homelab #SlowHosting

My updated Cute Homelab. A 6 units high 10 inch rack, filled with, from top to bottom: a 8 2 port network switch. A patch panel with 9 Ethernet and 3 USB 3.0 ports. A 4 port KVM switch and 3 Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny m910 PCs.

My Cute Homelab

As I experiment a lot with open source solutions, I am always in need of a bit of compute power to run stuff on. Nowadays, with containers and automation through CI/CD, that has become a lot simpler compared to, say, 5-10 years ago.
Jan Wildeboer (Jan Wildeboer's Blog)
#selfhost #homelab #slowhosting
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (5 Tage her)
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

Kevin Neely :donor:
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Kevin Neely :donor:
• •
Love it! I'm in the opposite position: mostly done with the software side of things (as much as that can ever be true), but I'd really benefit from re-organizing the hardware side into a mini-rack like that.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

maikihde
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
maikihde
• •
Nice setup. How did you add the 2nd network ports, via an usb to ethernet adapter?
Als Antwort auf maikihde

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •

No. By adding a M2 card :) See social.wildeboer.net/@jwildebo… The m910 PCs have two ports on the back where these network ports fit perfectly. The other port has the HDMI connection.

Jan Wildeboer 😷

2025-07-19 15:01:46

mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag

This 3rd server is a bit special, as I added a M2 network card with a 2.5G ethernet port (RTL8125). And as expected, it JustWorks™. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 immediately saw it during install. So now I have at least 1 machine with 2 network ports and can add these M2 thingies to other boxes too. At around €15-€20, it was worth a try and now that it works, I can have even more fun with my setup!

2/5

#SelfHost #Homelab #SlowHosting

A M.2 EA Key Gigabit LAN Ethernet Card 2.5G Single Port, that fits perfectly in a ThinkCentre Tiny m910x and adds a second network port to the machine for around €20

Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (6 Tage her)
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
The complete setup is still cheaper than some new Nvidia GPU card models. And far prettier, at least IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) ;) (My homelab is an AI-less safe space, so my compute requirements are extremely low :)
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (5 Tage her)
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

Matthew Booth
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Matthew Booth
• •
Are you running a local LLM, btw? Gave it some thought for my Home Assistant, but decided that the hardware cost for anything worth running is currently prohibitive with no guarantee it'll stay relevant for long. I'm just using a cloud based provider for now, but hoping it settles down enough to make a sensible purchasing choice at some point.
Als Antwort auf Matthew Booth

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
@mattb Not on my M1, but if you take a new Mac mini with M4 (or a used mit M2/3 Ultra) and enough RAM, you should be fine.
@Matthew Booth
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

ruurd@mastodon.social
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
ruurd@mastodon.social
• •
is there an ARM based alternative you think?
Als Antwort auf ruurd@mastodon.social

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
@ruurd I am sure. I have waited for (too) many years for affordable ARM based boards that run RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) to become available, however, and switched to these refurbished Tiny PCs that are available :)
@ruurd@mastodon.social
Als Antwort auf ruurd@mastodon.social

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
@ruurd But they will come ReallySoon™ — at least that's what I'm hearing since at least 5 years now ;)
@ruurd@mastodon.social
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

ruurd@mastodon.social
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
ruurd@mastodon.social
• •
it's a bit like Linux On The Desktop, amirite? (Even if I think that there are at least two desktops in Linux that could be quite useable in a number of settings... - other discussion)
Als Antwort auf ruurd@mastodon.social

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
TBH (To Be Honest) I care more about RISC-V nowadays. That's the more Open ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) and that ecosystem already has some cool boards on the market.
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (5 Tage her)
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

ruurd@mastodon.social
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
ruurd@mastodon.social
• •

I got sidetracked looking at SGI stuff. I used to have a couple at home.

I understand what you're saying.

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
Some more minor updates coming. At the end of today all 3 machines will have two network ports and a 1TB NVME drive. I might throw in a Raspberry Pi to serve as local console/monitor device that shows some fancy graphs on the KVM, just for fun.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷

James Fairbairn
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
James Fairbairn
• •
very nice! I have 4 Tinies that I recently retired from being a k3s cluster (don’t ask) and am wondering what you do with all the power bricks in the back. Zip ties, or something more scientific? Or just chaos?
Als Antwort auf James Fairbairn

Jan Wildeboer 😷
mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Jan Wildeboer 😷
• •
They are sandwiched between the underside of the lowest PC and the bottom of the rack, with double-sided tape holding them in place. They perfectly fit there.
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (5 Tage her)
⇧