My Homelab Setup

https://arslan.io/2024/09/10/my-homelab-setup/

by ingve • 2 years ago

72 51 2 years ago

This reads like an ad for Unifi, but I don't see it called out as a sponsored post. Would've been better if the post mentioned why he chose that stack from a technical standpoint aside from "sourcing issues" and "seeing the UI showcased at a friends".

A4ET8a8uTh02• 2 years ago

Yep, I use similar setup, but it hardly seems that unique or interesting from technical perspective. It does feel like an ad.

farslan8• 2 years ago

It's my personal blog post and I shared what I got, how I configured my Rack, which settings I used for my WLANs, how I use double WAN, the tools, and many other things. At the end, I even shared how much I paid (I live in Turkey, there is no sponsorship here, there is not even a Unifi store). So no, it's not an ad, just my personal experience.

farslan8• 2 years ago

OP here. It's not an ad at all. There is a lot of stuff there, not just the Rack. I even wrote about Wi-Fi optimization, the tools I used, how much I paid (I mean if it was sponsored, why would I pay for it).

mahin• 2 years ago

Maybe you could elaborate here: why did you choose Unifi?

disposition2• 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing! I've been running an EdgeMax router and U6 router for some time without issues, but hope to upgrade to a DreamMachine some day. The information you shared will definitely help when that day comes.

phoronixrly• 2 years ago

Yeah, zero makeshift raspberry pi rat's nests of wires, assigned to do tasks that raspberry pis suck at (networking, or storage, or wifi, or anything else for that matter). How can you even call this a home lab by HN's standards...

rasse• 2 years ago

Judging by the Vitsœ shelving and the Lego Porsche 911, I'd guess aesthetics played a role in the purchase decision.

From a strictly subjective and non-technical point of view, aesthetics is one of Ubiquiti's merits.

senectus1• 2 years ago

no shit, I lol'ed at the "tool that lets you judge the strength of your wifi"

thats pure snake oil.

fragmede• 2 years ago

in what way is that snake oil?

mfwit• 2 years ago

This reads far more like 'My Home Network Setup' than 'My Homelab Setup'.

ThatMedicIsASpy• 2 years ago

Yeah there isn't anything about the Homelab really.

daghamm• 2 years ago

Not to put down Arslans work, but for me the best part of homelab is doing much with very little resources and this post is kinda opposite.

nelsonic3• 2 years ago

"I spent around ~$5750 for all my devices and accessories. This includes 7 APs, 6 PoE cameras, and several switches. I rebuilt it from scratch, and my house is big."

I wonder how many people this is applicable to... We have a similar setup but for a co-living house with 24 people.

It can read like an Ad for Unifi but, in our experience no other brand comes close in terms of hardware+software quality, reliability and no leaking data.

farslan8• 2 years ago

OP. Bummer that the article gave that impression. I'm just a passionate person, if you read my blog and the other articles, people would see every single of my blog post is like that. I just like to shoot nice photos and write about my experience, nicely.

asalahli• 2 years ago

The photos are indeed beautiful

nelsonic3• 2 years ago

Don't worry. People are naturally skeptical when they see high quality content it feels like "advertorial".

It's clear you are just sharing your experience of using the Unifi products/ecosystem and setting up an impressive home-lab. I was taken aback that an individual would spend almost $6k on their private home network. But you're clearly not short of a penny so why not spend it on having a kickass network? ;-)

I'm sure other successful software engineers have similar setups / investments; they just don't share them in public.

candiddevmike2• 2 years ago

no leaking data

Ubiquity collects MAC addresses (https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042384093-Analytics...) and have had data breaches in the past (https://www.twingate.com/blog/tips/ubiquiti-data-breach)

Mashimo4• 2 years ago

Mhh, I'm not so sure I would count that breach against them. It was an inside job from an employee who wanted to export money. I would guess most companies fail at that threat vector.

Thought that link made me curious, why did UI have peoples social security numbers? (I'm not American)

sponaugle2• 2 years ago

I like it. I use Ubiquiti gear for most of my homelab and home networking stuff with the exception of the 40g and 100g stuff. It is both easy to use and provision as well as easy to upgrade… and of course it works.

Sometimes people do really ridiculous stuff with their homelabs, like this guy: https://youtu.be/-b3t37SIyBs?si=t_h49fv594dChYf9

Tongue-in-cheek on that of course. ;)

Mashimo4• 2 years ago

Do you really need 2 APs per floor?

Your internet is only 50 mbit/s any way.

farslan8• 2 years ago

Don't think APs are only about the internet speed. I have a Synology NAS, so streaming and copying files between devices (wirelessly) is also important.

Mashimo4• 2 years ago

What is the speed with just one AP per floor?

szszrk• 2 years ago

What about latency, disconnects, internal traffic, ... different types of construction materials?

Traffic to the internet is not everything. What about self hosting, sharing files between devices, or simply pushing documents to the printer...?

I have a small flat, but it has an L shape, reinforced concrete on many walls, an elevator right next to one of them, and so on. With typical setup here ("router next to tv") I would have no WiFi signal in one room at all. Regardless if it's 2.4/5/6. And it's just "a few meters". So two AP's with low signal strength are infinitely better.

sebazzz• 2 years ago

I live in a three story home, a typical European row house (so completely built from concrete, with wooden doors), and have my Unifi Dream Machine in my utility closet where the electrical board and my home server is, and my a Unifi U6 access point at the top of the top most stairs. It is completely sufficient for 30 wireless clients.

sponaugle2• 2 years ago

2? I have 12 APs in my house. 5 ghz propagation is terrible through insulated walls, especially those with metal film and 5/8's drywall. Add the green stuff and a closed door and APs multiply.

tehlike• 2 years ago

Concrete is pretty limiting.

viiralvx• 2 years ago

This is a really dope setup! Honestly, it sucks that your Wi-Fi is only 50 mb/s, but hopefully that gets an upgrade soon!

farslan8• 2 years ago

My ISP speed is 50 mb/s, not my Wi-FI speed (that can be larger). And thank you, I'm waiting to get Fiber soon :)

hi-v-rocknroll2• 2 years ago

Pricey appliance-oriented development. And no fiber, which is critical for internet to home primary switch. And at least go with 10 GbE PoE+ for WiFi 7 APs. Non-cloud DVR security cameras are fine with ordinary PoE and 1 GbE (because cloud only WiFi cameras are inherently insecure).

I can haz a Unifi VM that works just fine running under VMware ESXi 7 (old) for free, along with a Samba and NFS NAS, Plex, PlexAmp, Transmission (with Deluge as a backup), RustDesk (on Docker), Docker and K8s boxes, and whatever else I want to throw at it. Those all run on a 512 GiB 96 thread box attached to a SAS 3 4U JBOD with 45 HDDs with PCIe passthrough to the NAS VM. 2 UPSes with 2 2U expander battery packs each; I probably should move to some sort of LiFePO4 UPS at some point.

Router is 10 GbE DECISO 740 OPNsense with Wireguard and IPv4/6 dual stack everywhere. Fast, configurable, and works.

Also have 2 dedicated 7950X3D boxes with 2x 100 GbE each for network load testing and development. 400 GbE maybe soon.

caeril• 2 years ago

And no fiber, which is critical for internet to home primary switch

Optical isolation isn't the only way to protect equipment.

hi-v-rocknroll2• 2 years ago

That's not the point. The point is fast links 10-100 GbE.

chrisml• 2 years ago

Nice article but avoid publishing home layouts, video camera locations and networking internals for security reasons.

amatecha3• 2 years ago

Pretty curious, what was the problem with Omada, if any? It seems like a great system and I'm wondering if there are any particular shortcomings in contrast with other similar offerings on the market... Personally I'm looking to do a major home networking upgrade and Omada has come up pretty high on the list for having easily-managed SDN.

applied_heat3• 2 years ago

I have tp link Omada with the controller running in a container on my synology nas, works great. Got it for the fast handoff between APs, I can wander around the yard on teams calls

amatecha3• 2 years ago

Nice, yeah I was thinking exactly the same (controller running in vm/container). I got a demo from someone I know and I was like "daaang", so convenient and awesome haha

Havoc• 2 years ago

Jesus. 5+ grand to network a home. To each their own I guess & looks nice.

Bit confused about what ubiquity is doing with those APs though. Radios capable of 5.7 but they ship with 2.5 eth?

hcfman• 2 years ago

Love the tidy wiring. I need to learn that.

One sad thing about ubiquity cameras is that they don't support mjpeg streams.Which means if you want to do vision object detection tasks you need to waste valuable compute resources to convert the stream to stills. For me that's a killer. Plus I'm not a fan of having to have an app to configure things. like the simple web interfaces on the device.

My Homelab Setup

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