This is a snippet of my Personal Server Migration, but I thought it would be more useful as a stand-alone tutorial. One of the challenges in dealing with unprivilaged LXC containers is that the UIDs/GIDs are mapped to 100000 in the host. This is a security feature, so the root user in the container doesn’t have root access if they are able to escape their container, but it’s also kinda a pain when sharing files between the host and container.

In this project, I explore an all-in-one home server using low cost hardware, bringing together as many common home applications as possible in a single box. Terramaster NAS as low-cost Proxmox node? Teardown and SW Install! In the first video, I introduce the hardware for this project - a cheap Terramaster NAS! It combines two HDD bays and two NVMe slots in a very tiny and low power brick, with dual 2.

I’ve been using Mikrotik RouterOS for awhile now, both using their hardware and their virtual image (Cloud Hosted Router). It’s a great product for routing and firewalling, while it’s not a NGFW it’s an absolutely amazing router and their L2/L3 switches are also a great value for the price. So anyway, I often setup images of the latest CHR in Proxmox VE for testing things. I create vmbr bridges in Proxmox to point-to-point link multiple CHRs, and can lab out complex network setups.

When you’re troubleshooting network issues, it’s often extremely helpful to view and analyze packet captures. The de-facto tool for this is the open-source Wireshark, which has an extensive protocol decoding capability. So, as a Proxmox user, it would be nice to be able to analyze VM networking issues using Wireshark. Unfortunately for us, Wireshark is a graphical application and Proxmox’s web UI doesn’t support it. However, we can use the command-line tool tcpdump to create a pcap file, and then analyze that file in Wireshark.

Today I’m taking my 10 servers and hopefully working that list down to just 7! JUST SEVEN! So, driven by my desire to consolidate my critical services into one box so I can lab away with the rest of the boxes, I am taking the time to shut down some of the most critical servers in the house and re-home them, then disassemble the parts for the next project. Come along with me on this adventure!

As an engineer, I LOVE looking at DATA! So today, I’m setting up my Proxmox system to push data to InfluxDB, where I can view it using Grafana. With this setup, I can keep track of how many resources all of my homelab services are using, which really helps when trying to size VMs, hosts, containers, etc. Contents Video Install InfluxDB 2.0 Install Grafana Example Dashboard Using TLS Video Install InfluxDB 2.

I’ve used a lot of different small form factor machines over the years, from the Raspberry Pi to used ebay thin clients. All of them are good at some things. But when Icewhale sent over their x86-based Zimaboard for me to take a look at, I’ve been impressed with the flexibility it has for me to test new software and hardware in a relatively cheap way. It’s not spectacular at any one thing, but it’s versatile enough that it’s a great foundation for so many of my projects.

I have a rack-mounted KVM now, and it’s great, but I’m working on building out a new Proxmox cluster which might not have a graphics output at all on some of the nodes. So, I need a new remote access solution for them. The new nodes I’m planning on building will all be based on used consumer hardware, so I’m limited by what would be available on normal mATX boards. This doesn’t include IPMI, and if I go with AMD-based CPUs, doesn’t include an iGPU either.

Since I use a lot of repurposed computers as servers, I don’t have many with IPMI / remote access built in. Usually I can configure them remotely through SSH or their web UI, but sometimes things go wrong and it’s nice to have remote console access. Enter, PiKVM, a project to build a networked KVM switch with a Raspberry Pi. Unfortunately, I have a more than one server, and building a PiKVM for every one gets expensive, so I’m combining it with an 8 port rack mount KVM switch so I can remotely view and control all of the servers in my rack.

Are you playing with Proxmox clustering, but want faster networking without paying for multi-gig switches? For small clusters, sometimes it can make sense to use fast point to point links between nodes. This could be in a small 2 or 3 node cluster, where you can use dual port 10 gig cards and direct attach cables without a switch. Maybe you’ve got a wacky 5 node cluster with quad port gigabit cards on each node, and don’t want to buy a 20 port switch and do link aggregation.