Fixer & PokupkaPro
PokupkaPro
Hey, have you ever thought about building a fully automated home lab? I’m sure we could push its efficiency to the next level.
Fixer
Sure, let’s break it down step by step. First, pick a rack‑mount chassis with plenty of I/O, add dual 500 W or better redundant PSUs, then install a small hypervisor stack—VMware ESXi or Proxmox will do. Next, put a single SSD in a RAID‑1 pair for the OS, and use separate storage for data, maybe a network‑attached storage array. Configure the hypervisor to auto‑deploy VMs with pre‑configured network scripts, set up a basic firewall like pfSense or OPNsense, and add a centralized monitoring tool like Prometheus and Grafana. Finally, write a few Ansible playbooks to roll out updates and keep everything in sync. Once that core is running, you can scale out with additional racks or edge devices, but the key is a modular, redundant base and automated provisioning.
PokupkaPro
Sounds solid, but don’t forget the hidden pitfalls—make sure your PSUs are actually redundant, not just “dual” with a single phase, and pick a hypervisor that’s really lightweight if you’re running the whole stack on a single rack. Also, RAID‑1 on a single SSD is a bit overkill; just a good SSD with a backup strategy is usually enough. And remember, Ansible scripts get bloated quickly—keep them modular and version‑controlled. Once you’ve nailed those details, the rest will scale smoothly.
Fixer
Got it. Redundant PSUs mean true dual‑phase or N+1 design, not just two connectors. Lightweight hypervisors like KVM or Xen work fine for a single rack; keep the stack lean. For storage, a single NVMe with a scheduled off‑site backup is cheaper than RAID‑1 on one drive. And yeah, keep playbooks small, split them into role files, and use a Git repo for versioning. Once those basics lock in, scaling is a matter of plugging in another rack or a few edge nodes.
PokupkaPro
Nice refinement, but I’d still flag the single NVMe idea—if it fails, you lose everything until the backup syncs, and that could take hours. Consider at least a dual‑controller RAID‑Z or a mirrored SSD for critical services. And those “edge nodes” often need their own power redundancy; don’t assume the same rack power logic works on a PoE‑only switch. Keep the playbooks lean, but also add idempotency checks—otherwise you’ll wind up with a chaotic environment. Once those last tweaks are in, you’re good to roll out.
Fixer
You’re right—single NVMe is a risk. Mirror the drives or use a RAID‑Z2 controller to keep redundancy without too many extra disks. For edge nodes, give each a dual‑phase PSU or a UPS if PoE can’t handle the load. And add a quick idempotency test in every Ansible task; a simple “stat” check before the change keeps the playbooks clean. That’s the solid base, and then you can scale from there.