Upcoming homelab projects

My homelab rack has been running as is for a while now — it’s time for a few new projects.

I’m rearranging stuff to better utilize the space, looking into 25 Gbit networking, and putting a HP Z440 server to good use 🙂

Rearranging the rack

Since I’m adding new servers, and more network gear in the future, I’d like to better utilize the space in the rack.

For starters; I’m putting rails on my file server — Zeta. Currently it’s resting on adjustable 4-post server shelves, and while these are very useful, they have a problem… They take up a few millimeters underneath the server, requiring additional space between the servers.

By replacing these with proper rails, I’m able to move my file server down 1U 👍

My Omicron server is currently a dedicated Netdata parent node — this is a bit overkill, and will be moved to a virtual machine instead. It’s not a very powerful machine, by removing it I am freeing up space for more networking gear 🙂

The backup NAS will also be removed, while I recognize that Synology NAS’ are great devices — they aren’t as much fun to play with. Storing backups will be handled by the new HP Z440 server.

25 Gbit networking

I’ve got my hands on two dual SFP28 network cards, and have placed and order for a Mellanox ConnectX-4.

With this I’m going to play with 25 Gbit routing, using a virtual Mikrotik CHR. I’ll need a 25 Gbit switch as well at some point, like CRS510-8XS-2XQ-IN, but that’s a bit further ahead.

I’m really looking forward to see that routing speeds I’ll be able to get using different network configurations 🙂

New HP Z440 server

My initial plan for the HP Z440 was to sell it, but when looking at its I/O I got intrigued. This thing, with its Xeon processor, has two 16X and one 8X PCIe Gen3 slots — and supports bifurcation¹ 😃

I was worried about the power consumption, as it used 75 watts in idle when I first powered it up. But after installing Debian, it dropped to about 40 watts — which is acceptable 🙂

I’ve ordered the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Card V2 — which, with bifurcation enabled, can hold four M.2 disks in an x16 slot.

Maybe a ZFS pool with some NVME drives as special devices? 🤷