+++
title = "Making an homelab"
date = 2020-07-20
+++

## Motivations

- Fun ! (We are hackers, aren't we ?)
- Private git hosting, syncthing, game servers and build servers ..
- Gaining more and more experiences
- Portfolio ;) ?

## Software
There are already plenty of ways already for managing servers and services,
such as ansible, terraform, kubernetes + docker, ..
But why should I spend a LOT of time learning all these tools seperately
(and together) ?
Right, they are used for professional needs.
But I got a keyboard.
Seriously.
Let's spend twice that time on making my own infrastructure scripts !

[Gitlab repository](https://gitlab.com/rgoncalves.se/infrastructure/)

## Enjoying a dell r710 rev II

### Using an internal SSD

As I decided to turn my r710 as a bare-metal server with OpenBSD, I had to do 
some hacks to get a working internal SSD.

- Yes, I could have used the internal USB 2.0 port with a USB drive, but we are talking about a bare-metal server, not EsXi loaded in ram.
- Yes, using the internal SATA ports (as SATA 2) will reduce the speed allowed by my SSD, but it's a spare one, and the main goal is to get an **internal 2'5 drive** or replace that term with whatever you want.

![](/images/r710_and_switch.jpg)

## Building a rack

Never use pine wood. It tends to break easily. A friend of mine told me to use
oak wood, but the cost is a bit high for my needs.

I finally ended up using pine wood (here planks).
The key is to build a shelf intended to support at least 100Kg.
So don't use beams or other shitty structure, 4 four plains planks are enough.

Below, before and after :

![](/images/homelab_old_01.jpg)
![](/images/homelab_wip_01.jpg)
![](/images/homelab_wip_02.jpg)
![](/images/homelab_front_01.jpg)