47 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
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class = "post"
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date = "2017-04-02T14:47:09-04:00"
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tags = []
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title = "Homeproduction, part 1: Hardware"
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type = "post"
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weight = 1
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draft = true
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[Part 1](/post/homeproduction-part-1/) - [Part 2](/post/homeproduction-part-2/) - [Part 3](/post/homeproduction-part-3/)
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```
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Why do you do this?
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Because I want to.
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- The Matrix, -ish
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```
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## Homelab? Homeproduction!
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If you're reading this and have no idea what a 'homelab' is, it's a hobby for system administrators whereby we set up our own "lab" environments at home, to play around with and generally learn on. Some are small, just a home server and a switch, and some are basically mini-datacenters. Mine's closer to the latter.
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In my case, I strongly value service independence and control of my own data. I put little trust in large corporate Internet companies, from privacy, security, and reliability perspectives, and would simply rather host my data myself. For this reason, I've spent the last 4 years building up my "homeproduction": a homelab used day-in day-out for my data needs, along with my family and friends.
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This is the first in a series of posts describing my lab as it exists today in April 2017. There will be three sections: Hardware, Storage, and Services.
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## From the bottom up: Power
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The homelab really begins with power - no electricity, no homelab! For optimal efficiency and to prevent overloading, my lab has a dedicated 20A 120V circuit run to it. The story of this circuit is a little funny: my box has a fixed number of fuses, and was full for as long as I could remember. But I never noticed one circuit was dedicated... to the doorbell! Goodbye fixed doorbell, hello homelab circuit!
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From the surface-mounted 20A plug, the single power input to the rack goes into an APC Smart-UPS 2200 RM XL, which provides 2200VA of protecting for approximately 10 minutes at 2/3 load. With my current contingent of gear this is the perfect size and has kept the system going through several small power outages.
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Power is distributed through the rack on two power bars, which provide A/B power feeds to dual-PSU gear. One of these distribution bars also connects to a second, smaller power bar for wallwarts. The goal with the dual distribution bars would be to eventually obtain a second UPS and provide truly redundant power (from the wall at least - it's a house!), but so far I haven't seen any need to (for the aforementioned reason!)
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All-told, the rack today uses at its peak about 1500W as reported by the UPS, averaging closer to 1300W.
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## The Rack
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The rack itself is an evolution from a few previous designs, including a large Lack-based setup and a smaller audio rack. In its current form, the rack is made primarily of 2x4s, pannelboard, and angle iron for rails, sitting atop six large castors to allow for easy movement.
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