HomeLAN

My system at home consists of my main Battlestation Prometheus, which was recently upgraded to an AM5 platform and my Home Lab Chaos that has also evolved over time.

Stuff started out with some older Dell Servers (R210 II running OpnSense, R720 running TrueNAS Core) but since I’ve been working with Cisco equipment on the daily at work it was just a matter of time until I’ve upgraded to one myself eventually.

Is all this overkill for what I do? Totally. But I’ve learned so much just by figuring this shit out while configuring the gear, that I don’t consider it as a waste.

Prometheus

I use this system for almost everything, gaming, coding, administration, YouTube, browsing the Web, you name it. The System went by many names over the years: Shockwave, Archangel, Arctic Blue, and some more. One constant throughout all the years was however that I loved custom watercooling. Not because it’s better or is more quiet.. no I just loved how it looked. I mean I don’t say no to the other benefits.

Watercooling:
CPU Cooler: EK-Velocity² D-RGB AM5
GPU Cooler: inno3D iChill Frostbite
Pump: EK-Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 D5 PWM D-RGB
Radiator: 2x EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Front & Top)
Tubing: EK-Tube ZMT Matte Black 16,1/11,1mm
Fittings: EK-Quantum Torque STC-12/16
Fluid: EK-CryoFuel Clear

Chaos

My first steps into building a HomeLAB was when I bought a ASUS RT-AC88U and flashed OpnWRT on it. I’ve been hooked ever since. Since I didn’t want to spend several thousand Euros on equipment where I only use like 5% of it’s features, I went to eBay to get some professional enterprise gear a bit more affordable.

Modem: AVM Fritz!Box 7590
Some may wonder why I use a top end WiFi Router as a glorified modem, but it’s quite simple: They work. I have been using AVM products ever since I got a DSL internet connection and my Deutsche Telekom supplied modem died and on me. Support then offered an upgrade to a Fritz!Box and I have been using them ever since – even through multiple other ISPs. My current internet connection at home (250MBit/s VDSL2 35b G.Vector) required me to upgrade to their newer model though.

Router: CISCO ISR 1117-4PLTEP (Astraea)
Well the choice of this router might be a bit strange. The VDSL doesn’t support super vectoring (G.993.2 35b), Annex B… so why use this over something like the 1112 or 1113? Simple – Price. The better suited models go for over 300€ while I got mine for less than 200€ – including shipping. And since it has LTE Backup included, I can scrap the shitty LTE USB Stick I had in my FritzBox and use some actual IP SLA Tracking to get my routes in place instantly instead of relying on the FritzBox to finally switch over to the Backup.

Switch: CISCO Catalyst 3560G-24PS (Sagira)
This switch may be a “bit” older, but since I don’t need anything more than 1GBit/s in my homelab anyways it’s suiting me very nicely. The PoE on all ports is a nicely added bonus to reduce wiring to the APs and Cameras. This switch also needs to be configured via CLI since it doesn’t really have a (useable) Webinterface.

DNS Server: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (Soteria)
Raspberry OS 64Bit
– Basically just running PiHole as DNS Server and AdBlock
– Also added a PoE Hat so that I don’t need the external Power Brick

Server: TrueNAS Scale (Mitsuko)
– CPU: Intel(R) i5-3470, 4x 3,2Ghz
– Mainboard: ASUS P8B WS
– RAM: 16GB Micron DDR3-1600
– HHDs: 4x 500GB WDE HDDs, 2x DELL 1TB HDDs
When swapping over from my Dell R720 I wanted some old office PC that could just run my TrueNAS and DVR VM. Well this popped up on eBay and had enough space for my HDDs and stuff. Spec wise it might not be much, but it’s enough for the task. Had to be a bit creative with the HDD mounting and cabling, but in the end everything worked out. I chose this system because it was still small enough to fit into my Server Cabinet.
I am using SyncBackPro to sync files on change to a SMB share and then a nightly upload to Google Drive. Also snapshots are saved nightly and uploaded to my vRoot Server at netcup (where this Homepage is hosted).
Also running is AgentDVR, a video surveillance software that works with my Relink E1 Pro and CodeProject.AI image recognition to keep an eye on my cats when I am either sleeping or not there. I decided to go with AI IR instead of the usual “if something moves”, because the camera is setup in our living room and I don’t want the whole HDD full with us moving there. Internet access is blocked for all IoT Devices – so I cannot access the Dashboard from the outside – but hey, so can no one else.
The VM itself is running Ubuntu Server and the Apps are all running in Docker Containers. Very slim and lightweight setup. I could have run them directly on TrueNAS, but I really don’t like their app integration.

Server: Virtual Machine (Calamity)
Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS running Docker
– AgentDVR (IP Camera Server and DVR)
– CodeProject.AI (AI Server for object detection)
– Uptime-Kuma (Uptime monitoring and notification)
– MRTG (Traffic Analysis)
– Watchtower (Auto Update of Docker Containers)

WiFi: Meraki Go GR10-HW
Two Access Points designed for office spaces in a 55qm flat? yeah .. totally overkill. But I got those pretty cheap and they’re cloud managed, support up to 4 SSIDs each with their own VLAN Tag, can be powered by PoE and don’t look obnoxious. At least I can still access my WiFi in the parking lot =D