What's On My Smart HomeLab Server?

[@wickedcoyote271]

I would definitely love an in-depth series on your network config with vpn and how-to! I’ve been thinking of doing this for connecting my parents home to mine too.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks I'll definitely consider it!

[@pjc0mpton]

Same!

[@northwood82]

Yes please! I would love to have the connection to my parents house!

[@weijde12123]

Same!

[@JavierPerez-fq2fi]

Same here! and as a plus, firewall rules for minimum of parental control would be awesome. Thanks for all work you do Lewis

[@TheMongolPrime]

I seriously loved this video! I had no idea you had such a similar background to me. I thought you were only into HA and similar ecosystems. More of this stuff please!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

HA is actually a fairly recent thing for me (last 5-6 years) in comparison to how long I've been into some other stuff! Appreciate it thanks🙏🏻

[@mhanley05]

I would love an in depth video on all of this. Basically starting a home lab 101 Hardware choices Network setup Virtualization setup Security setup Then do a 201 where you go into details of cool tweaks, apps, and things that make life easier. I mean who doesn't want that!? Great video ❤ Setting up homer now!

[@RealWorldMaverick]

This would be really cool.

[@reuben8192]

I'm definitely in need of a guide on these topics as well. I've dabbled in this type of tech, but I'm really not a programmer/developer, and don't have the time to learn how. That doesn't make it any less appealing. I currently run home assistant on an old laptop, and have a low-end synology system. It would be great to learn how to better manage the hardware and software a little more. I need a getting started/getting down to basics, instead of the piece-meal approach I've been using.

[@RCrosswell]

Agreed. With Open Source tech, KZbinrs have paved the way to show the 'good' tech and this reaps it's benefits forwards for all parties. But all of us who want to build a home lab, have probably started but not gotten far. For instance I have a a Terramaster NAS running TrueNAS but I can never really get the Docker apps to run properly. I have had multiple failed attempts at running Home assistant and NextCloud. I have Photo Prism running but I have lost photos in between syncs. It would be nice to see what hardware is working for you and maybe we can use that as a benchmark for home. I'm a senior IT engineer in my company and have TrueNAS, XCP-NG etc but on enterprise level kit. It's a hard transition to find out what works at home. I might be speaking for a lot of us where we are either Windows lead users but engineer skills. Transitioning to Open Source is a lot harder especially for troubleshooting, but we want to go down the route to hone the skills, save some cash and do things in the right way.

[@Ddraig62SPD]

Excellent insight for a newcomer to the homelab/server world. Have just installed TrueNAS Core and upgraded to Scale on a salvaged 2011 desktop machine as an experiment, so I'm just getting a feel for the most popular apps that folks are running before taking the next steps. Really useful overview and nice to hear the Scottish brogue again ( I spent 21 years working in Lanarkshire for one of the few remaining semiconductor facilities before retiring back in my Welsh homeland with my Scottish spouse). Sub'd :)

[@TheDropForged]

Finally!!! You have no idea how much I wanted to see your homelab!!! Since you said you are in IT, I knew I wanted to see your homelab.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha appreciate it! 🙏🏻

[@TheDropForged]

@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks Lew for replying. I definitely want to see contents on homelab.

[@gerryf7015]

Nice! Lewis. Would love to see how you manage your network with pfSense, VLANs and the general setup for IOT devices. HA remote management, etc. I know, a bit of a busman's holiday!

[@Rafael4]

Great video! I’ve always wondered if you had more than just home assistant on your server. I would really like to know more about the hardware you have and how did you setup everything! (Also total power consumption)

[@SoulReaver]

Same, I've been wondering about his hardware more as well.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

It might need to wait till we move, it wouldn't be possible for me to film a video in its current location. But I definitely want to one day!

[@tima9790]

Would like to see this also. I run very similar services on a ryzen 5 mini pc. Works very well! The only thing different is I run unraid on an old HP microserver, no truenas.

[@rrrrrrrr290]

@@tima9790 I'm a unraid fanboy also

[@stevebourgeois212]

⁠​⁠@@EverythingSmartHomehi, I am definitely interested on which hardware you run all this… and it may not need to a video of the hardware but a schema… with server, storage, network components. A basic question I had watching the video was for example… on what hardware is running the firewalls …

[@groto27]

Thank you so much for doing this video! I would love more homelab videos. I’m also a big fan of Techno Tim. It would be cool to see what hardware you actually have like if you have a server rack set up at home or just more details about the hardware. Also deep dives on connecting and syncing data between the local and remote site would be awesome!

[@northwood82]

I am struggling with the same vaultwarden dilemma as you. Now you gave me the solution, thank you!

[@donaldhoudek2889]

Loved the video, I will probably need to re-watch a few times to get all the things I want to do on my system. Again Excellent video

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Appreciate that my man!

[@junkins]

Wow! You've just opened me up to a lot more. Haven't heard of Homelab yet, but now I'm really curious.😊 Thanks Lewis.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha enjoy another rabbit hole 😂

[@wrozwad]

Thx a lot for you video! I'm currently in the middle of renovating my apartment, and it inspired me to create a better "multimedia device box". So, instead of a regular small enclosure for the modem and router, I now have three 19-inch 2U rack boxes :D

[@KubedPixel]

What I'd really like to see is a how-to guide on these sort of walk-throughs. Too many youtubers tend to say 'look what I've got' and not actually help the community in getting the same setup. E.G I spent HOURS which I'll never get back.. trying to get Bitwarden on my own infrastructure and got so so so so fed up of issues and roadblocks that I gave up and ended up begrudgingly paying for the cloud version.

[@PersonXes]

Nice overview Lewis, I secretly hope that in ten years time the IT world has advanced so much that you don't need to spend weeks/months to get a set-up like yours up and running. Would love to use many of the tools you are running but simply don't have the time to get it right 😂

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha we can dream right! To be fair you don't just do all of this overnight, like home assistant, it grows over time as you do 😅

[@MrVdbglenn]

I'd like a video about the specific hardware you used in all your locations and why each was chosen. I'm looking to setup a home lab myself. And am for ever doubting how far I should go. If I had carte blanc I'd have used our offices old blade servers and storage 😂 but my electrical bill would skyrocket

[@reinhardtsmit4488]

Great overview, thanks! I'd love to see a specific video on your firewall and why for example the firewall provided within a Ubiquity UDM or UDR might not be sufficient for a (power) home user.

[@villehelander4165]

Nice video! Make a video also from your hardware what you use for running these services?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Sure!

[@joshcliffejones]

Good video! Nice to hear what other likeminded geeks (in a good way) are using! I actually scaled back my IT set up at home a huge amount over the last few years as i just wanted some simplicity and not to have to do my day job out of hours too, not to mention when the electricity prices were sky rocketing! My set up used to sit there sinking back 600W of power...no more! I do still have a little baby "server" (effecient and compact desktop) and a Synology NAS that i use for my media requirements and even then the are most often only on during the cheap electric hours overnight to perform downloads and updates, etc. If i want to watch something hosted on them i have rigged up HA to use WOL :) Other than that, its just a basic Linksys Velop network, layer 2 Netgear switches a Pi 4 for HA and a server running TrueNAS Scale that i only fire up very rarely as it is used for testing personal and work solutions.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha I used to want that too, then I realised I'd be sad knowing all the things and features I was missing out on so I just accept the power bill for the fun aspect of it! But no there is definitely something to be said for a simple setup!

[@harveydanger398]

How do you use RP 4 for HA?

[@leifhanson8900]

Awesome, you are my goto for TrueNAS. I am going to have to look into Scale. I truly enjoyed it!

[@iankrauss4315]

This is awesome! I could really use a guide for getting something like this set up!

[@erikchilders5496]

This guy is the best out there for this stuff.

[@asishreddy7729]

I would love to know how you manage all the hardware on your home lab, and how you protect vs data loss, system crashes and minimise downtime of your hardware/services!

[@jamieintrocaso3920]

This was fantastic. I'd love to see a video on how you have your network set up. I have a similar setup with OpnSense and Unifi, but all on 1 lan. I've not been able to break off separate vlan for different devices and dmz.

[@tmaris]

For sure do more videos on your homelab!

[@makanimike]

really interesting video! I am definitely interested in more details about what hardware you use in your 2 (4) locations and how you handle all your home automation hardware! I suspect you use vlans, and I am eager to learn about that, since I have no clue, and this will be thing I will eventually do (probably when I move homes next time) Edit: i think it would also be cool to see some of your media related automations. In particular with jellyfin and even getting voice working with it. I'm imagining you could just speak to your home theater. "Let's watch GoT" and then lights dim down, blinds roll down, tv Starts, jellyfin starts the next episode.

[@garethbryant2475]

Started down the rabbit hole after watching this with proxmox and truenas, would love to see more in depth videos on a homelab ☺️

[@georgeparaskevas8091]

Very nice video. Jellyfin is indeed an app to look into. But, what made me give you the thumbs up, was definitly seeing Still Game in your catalog. Bravo.😂

[@danfitzpatrick4112]

Amazing setup! Nice work man!

[@gavintheurquhart]

Thank you. Took me too long to get to watch this but it's inspiring. I hope you get to do some walkthroughs of the setups, mainly Proxmox, Opnsense and TruNAS. Oh, and definitely Homer. Never heard of that kind of dashboard. I am blessed/plagued by the very same memory. Passwords, IPs and product activation codes too. Hence my home is useless to anybody but me. I have a continuous worry about what happens if I am no longer there. From a hardware point of view all switches and controls work like normal if HA goes away, but there is so much more. Really hoping you can do some tutorials. Thank you!

[@chrisdixon5241]

Great video, and very timely as I need to redo my own setup! It slowly evolved, having new bits tacked on, rather that being properly planned and needs tending to. I'd definitely be interested in more in-depth, perhaps covering the hardware and how the various services are deployed and interconnected - for example what is the firewall physically running on and is opnSense running on it or in a container on proxmox and just communicating to it via some APIs.

[@Reducer]

Good stuff! I've learned a lot from setting up my current Raspberry cluster (which is more of a learning exercise than something I actually do stuff with), but I have some new hardware coming in where I'll start over fresh and use all the stuff I've learned. I do have a TrueNAS running (on metal), I tend to use it to quickly test things due to how easy they are to install there to see if they're something I want to use, and then I make a "real" Terraform config for it to run on the cluster.

[@fredarmstrong6418]

Loved this video Lewis. Great to see what you are doing. I am curious about a few minor details. Which services are running in containers vs VMs. Like HA, Adblock, Reverse Proxy, etc....

[@JimmyJamesJim]

You mentioned not being a fan of the Unifi switches; curious to know what switches you are using and the differences that brought you to that decision. Great, useful video!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I have Aruba 3810ms - I'm not suggesting you should buy those those, once you see the price you will see why 😂

[@JimmyJamesJim]

@@EverythingSmartHome cheers to that. Used Aruba in a small to mid-sized professional environment, so I'm familiar. Thanks for the information all the same!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Are you thinking of the Aruba Instant On line of switches? I'm more referring to HPe line of switches that were rebranded Aruba during the acquisition - they are very different to Aruba Instant On (more like Cisco switches)

[@JimmyJamesJim]

@EverythingSmartHome you're likely correct; it's been a few years since I worked in that environment, and the current shop utilizes Cisco switches, which I am also not using at home due to pricing. I have no strong feelings on the Unifi switches (they meet my needs), but I'm always interested in recommendations and insight from folks who have more access to and experience with different hardware.

[@MichaelDorchain]

Nice! You could skip the dashboard and have it handled in HA. I can basically stop/start my containers from HA with addons like Monitor Docker and What's Up Docker. It would be nice to see what kind of hardware you use for freenas, proxmox and opnsense.

[@ceddirr]

It depends on your HA installation If it is a docker container, you don’t have access to HA addons, you have to install the service on a separated container

[@MichaelDorchain]

@@ceddirr it's true, I do have 2 docker containers to do that. I guess I should not have said "addons" :)

[@ceddirr]

@@MichaelDorchain oh very nice! Could you please share their container names, I’m very interested! :)

[@jayjake]

I love these vids, can't wait to make myself my own linux iso media center

[@EverythingSmartHome]

😂

[@onedjscream]

Great video. I think a tutorial on how to connect 2 home’s networks and send a TV through VPN to other home would be really cool. This way I can watch shows available in my mom’s network for example.

[@lsav1085]

More of this please, the firewall and vpn topics are especially interesting for me! Thanks

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@mickdejong]

I basically have the same stack running @ home, just also use overseerr for media requests and such. + some other things. Only difference for me with the stuff you run is that I use XCP-Ng as a hypervisor.

[@ChrisRider]

How did I not know about Homer? This will make my life a lot easier - setting it up this morning.

[@andyklyon]

Would love a bit more in depth on where you are running this stuff? Are you running your truenas on one box, proxmox on another? Are you using a containerised version of adguard or opnsense etc

[@ruifre]

Can you share what hardware are you using in you home lab?

[@RLR997TT]

Would love to see an IPTV in future, as well as the site to site VPN piece. Love your work!

[@JamesMyatt1]

Please do a video on the networking setup, especially the site-to-site VPN. Like you said, it's great for supporting family members and offsite backups. Something everyone needs.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Absolutely!

[@bennie_pie]

Thank you for the tour! Snap on Promox, transitioned from Virtual Box, Home Assistant of course, Unifi Access Points, however opted for Heimdall, Tailscale for Vpn (it's flippin amazing), Edgerouter, Cloud Backup and running VS Code Server. Playing with Microsoft Autogen multi AI agent framework with a view to integrating this into my setup using the likes of Claude 2 or perhaps a self a local model. On the to do list is Jellyfin and Nextcloud but need some better hardware first! Keep up the great work on the videos!

[@locosmuevenmundo]

What an awesome video, I'm planning to start my home lab but I don't know where to start, and your set up seams great. It would be great if you had like a mini series or tutorial on how to setup everything, on which order to set it up and also possible option for hardware. I have an old laptop with an i5 8200u with 16gb of ram you think it will be suitable for such application?

[@MarkGhali]

Lewis! I totally have this I memorize license plates without even trying, same with passwords and IPs! I will recognize cars by their plate sometimes.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Me too!! It's so strange 😂

[@tin2001]

I used to remember IP addresses for stuff... then I started using loads of containers so each service was its own server, and there were way too many and changing relatively often. Now I use a DNS server linked to the DHCP server to create DNS entries automatically. I can remember the Miami Vice themed host names easier than numbers.

[@My-noname]

I can relate to that. I came back to a customer I had no contact with for 5 years, to help them with their old Unix box. Just sat down and logged in as root. Think it was more of a muscle memory thing. Afterwards I had a word with the boss about changing the password now and then. 🤣

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Haha definitely been there too!

[@danielorneling2831]

2 questions 1: What 3D printer is there in the background of your videos? The same one you use Octoprint for? 2: How do you run Open sense FW? On separate hardware dedicated to Opensense, or tied to a separate NIC on your Proxmox host?

[@PCBWay]

This is really Inspiring, Lew!!!👍👍👍👍👍

[@scottpreston491]

Would be interested to see what spec hardware your using for Virtualisation

[@EverythingSmartHome]

One day I might do a tour...one day 😅

[@adriaanstruwig7921]

Can you please make an in-depth video showing how to install proxmox on a PC, with HA and Truenas? Would love to see a detailed video explaining the complete setup!

[@chrissparky1]

I'm curious to know more about your networking setup, do you have your automation devices in a separate network/vlan from your personal devices?

[@steveellis3235]

I love hearing what others are doing :-) question - Opensense in VM or independent HW?

[@rschmidt563]

As far as I remember you're living in the UK, aren't you? Was thinking about power consumption of your setup. As I live in Germany and power got quite expensive, I'm always thinking about downgrading my hatdware to still be able to sell it as a hobby to myself 😂 Greetings and keep up your good work!

[@boydfields]

Great video, great presentation. Given me ideas! Thank you.

[@magnuscarlsson6785]

Great overview! I'd love to see a deep dive into how you manage your multiple HA, especially the beta vs production. Do you move switches between them?

[@manuelmueller3931]

Yes please consider to make an in-depth series of your network config with vpn and how-to make it! I’ve been trying this for a decade without success.

[@jesper1010]

More of these videos please! Gave me some good ideas for my own lab!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏🏻

[@KevinJohn556]

I used to have a good memory now I only remember faces and odd facts. Got that super combo of TBI + PTSD wrecked my memory. I know its an older video but may I ask your specs because I am just getting my first bare metal and like what you have going and want to see how much I can do with mine.

[@GregRafferty]

10:26 Did I spot a photo of the Green Loch? One of my favourite places.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

You did, it's AMAZING. Ours too!

[@jamesthomas4080]

Great timing, I'm planning on setting up a new server next week. I've run into one fundamental question and maybe you can weigh in. Should I run Proxmox as the hypervisor with HAOS and TrueNAS VMs or just install TrueNAS as the hypervisor and do a VM for HAOS within it? Any ideas on the pros/cons of each?

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I would personally not use Truenas as a hypervisor unless it's for like one of two basic things, Proxmox is far more feature rich (though maybe Truenas is a little better now, it's been a year or two since I last looked at it to be fair)

[@ulrar]

Also, maybe consider using core. Hassos makes sense if you've got nowhere else to run your containers, but IMHO if you're already managin dockers elsewhere anyway it just gets in your way, may as well have HA with the other containers and not be limited by add-ons. I tried maintaining my own add-ons for unsupported stuff, it's much easier not to and just use good old docker

[@jamesthomas4080]

@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks!

[@KarlMiller]

Great overview of your home lab! WHAT IF YOU DIE?! At about @11.15 you mentioned how you switched to the paid Bitwarden, partly to avoid trying to explain all of the details of managing the local version to your family. This is a fundamental issue I am struggling with for my home assistant, devices, virtualization, IPs, passwords, etc. The issue is this : What can my family do with all these systems if I get hit by a bus? I have two sons that are also in IT, but I am sure that half of the details would be lost for them if they ever attempted to fix or maintain anything. My wife would certainly not be any help. The closest single solution I have thought of to help them is Ansible as a means of automating control and upgrades, but that doesn't do anything to document or manage existing home automation devices, passwords, IP addresses, router provisioning... and the list goes on. How can we document our home systems in such a way as to help a reasonably current technical person to deal with all of my home systems and web accounts when I die or become disabled? If you're like me, I'd hate to think about all this work being junked just because it's details and places to look for help are not documented. What would you do to prepare for that eventuality?

[@heeelga]

I asked this question myself and I would say the simple answer is: your servers and services will run until your hardware or some of your services die. How long will your services run until they die? Nobody can ever tell, maybe weeks, months or even years. The really important question in my opinion is: do your family members actually NEED all these services? Don't get me wrong, I love my homelab and all of my crazy little services, a few of them are covered in this video. But do I actually NEED them or does my family need them? I think the loss of a husband/father would be far more tragic and some of these services. Yes, switching lights on and off and setting the temperature manually sucks, but it works. The only really important service imho is Bitwarden just like you mentioned. Exporting your personal vault from a client is really easy and Bitwarden will also continue to work just fine with your cashed passwords if your self hosted Bitwarden instance crashes. You're just not able to sync to other clients anymore. Imho it's literally impossible to write down a documentation so detailed that anyone can manage all of your servers and services and I would not wrack my brain about it.

[@KarlMiller]

@@heeelga NEED? That depends on how you value things like control over thermostat, battery management, perimeter alarms, smoke alarms - the inheriting person will be disabled in my case, so I don't want her to loose some systems monitoring and temperature control in Florida because it could impact her health. The use of automation for some people is more important than others. I just want my survivors to continue with whatever they use of my setup so I am looking for best practices of other homeassistant users to prepare for that (documenting device provisioning, scripts, network setup - basically everything I changed about a stock homeassistant install). I am not worried about how long the devices will function without service or doing anything with homeassistant or computers to cope with my passing.

[@aneeshbhatnagar93]

Just curious: Is your TrueNas Scale running as a VM on your ProxMox server as well or is that running on a separate server?

[@xGERKENATORx]

Good video and explanations. I go some ways and you go other which is fine. I recently spun up an unraid box to run all my media apps. But still have storage on the truenas box. So far I’m liking unraid pretty well. Pfsense Esxi Truenas Unifi wifi Cisco 3750e stack Openhab Unraid to run tdarr, plex, tautulli and jellyfin I game so I also have an AMP server No dashboard but I’ve considered it mostly out of boredom. That’s the gist of it.

[@JohnCrewsjokercrew999]

Would love more videos about your setup & how you do it

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Anything you'd like to see specifically?

[@JohnCrewsjokercrew999]

@@EverythingSmartHome I like the idea of running two servers that are on the same vpn connection but on different locations. I think all the things shown tbh would be great. I would love to know more about proxmox as I don’t use it since I don’t know much about it.

[@antonyhakini]

@@EverythingSmartHome I know I have always struggled with remote access, especially setting up TLS to enable https on all my services (I spent hours trying to set it up for NextCloud)

[@robertpoynton9923]

This is a setup I would love to have. But with no experience I'm unsure where I would start. being dyslexic I struggle to find video tutorials that I can find that explains everything I need to know.

[@simonfr97]

I don't know why, but I'm kinda the same regarding my memory, phone numbers ( yes, even in this day and age ) passwords ( of course! ) and internal reference codes for my work's logistics system, we have more than 10 000 items ( slightly specialized elecronics store ) and about 70 services to offer, each one has a unique code, and I can remember at least 70% of our services codes and probably 100-150 items, granted we don't carry much more than 500-600 references at my physical store I'd definitely would watch a more in-depth video about your network and server setup !

[@darki-12]

Great video, again. I was wondering what hardware you are using for your server and are those all docker containers or is HA your "main os" and you are using everything as add-ons?

[@RaghavendraPrasad]

Thanks for the great video. I would love to have the detaild tutorial on VPN, idea of clicking a switch in Home Assistance the TV should be connected to different country over VPN ;-) Thanks.

[@sdfhjklhsfdjdsflhkds]

As a long time Plex user (with a lifetime PlexPass) I did start looking at Jellyfin, but found the config a little too picky. Would love to see a future video about your (future) migration over to Jellyfin. Maybe that will give me the kick in the arse that I need to turn the container back on and polish the config!

[@bgable7707]

REALLY, 97K views and 2.9K thumbs up in 12 Days!!! Sweet, you are the man. Question what was the s/w that you created your network diagram in?

[@izzie_izzie4217]

Would love a video about firewalls. It's always been a blindspot for me and I've always relied on my router to handle it.

[@SkillFullSheep]

A guide for Homer would be awesome!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏🏻

[@SmartLifeEnthusiast]

On the Homer Dashboard, have you ever looked at Apache Guacamole for quick SSH/VNC/... access to servers through the browser?

[@wilyc0y0te]

Great video! I expected you to be running one Proxmox server with TrueNAS, Home Assistant, etc running in different containers, but it sounds like you have a separate server for TrueNAS?! Which is it?

[@robbieels6628]

I would love a guide on how you setup all of this!

[@tomashermansson6898]

If you have got the custom services to work, please do an video on them aswell... I cant get them working at all... else a very nice dashboarding solution!

[@lnawrat]

@Everything Smart Home, any chance on doing video on your network setup? You have opensense device as your entry point to the local network and then unify controller in vm/container to configure your ubiquity devices? Why not use unify or opensense for all?

[@RenfoJu1]

Nice video as always! Please elaborate on how you work wih multiple instances of home assistant? (Main/dev)

[@TommyBrenner]

Great video Lewis, very inspiring! I've been looking to get started with a proper home lab setup for some time now. Any hardware recommendations? Not sure what to get. My general use case would be TrueNAS, Plex/Jellyfin and OPNsense with VPN (and some room for other future projects).

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Tommy! I would probably look into building something with some desktop hardware to be honest, depends on the budget though really! Discord would be a great place to discuss!

[@TommyBrenner]

@@EverythingSmartHome Cheers. I'll look into it.

[@dankarization]

Would be interesting what have you done with adguard apart from regular settings)

[@BillyDickson]

Nice one, tried Heimdall but settled on Uptime Kuma on docker. Both are great. 👍

[@bluesquadron593]

These are completely different products though.. Dashboard vs monitoring

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Nice one!

[@BillyDickson]

@@bluesquadron593 indeed.

[@YYSilby]

Would love a deep dive into site-to-site vpn solution. Great video! Glad we share so many solutions

[@casual_gamer987]

This is what I am looking to setup. Great video. Quick question - what hardware are you using? I am looking to build home lab and use single or multiple micro pcs with multiple NICs as proxmox cluster and then put everything in it like pfsense etc and put this box behind AT&T passthrough modem.

[@markgilbert5856]

I just create a Dashboard in Home Assistant, paired with Kiosk mode for non-authed users in public/communal spaces.

[@thomasbpetersen]

Hi always great videos from you. What app/software are you using to make your network topology?

[@ha_tinkerer1191]

Hi. Great video! If using a Unifi dream machine SE as the router, is another firewall (open sense) needed? If so, why, and how would they play together? Thanks!

[@ahmadsaeid]

Great video. The exposed filament on the back is itching my OCD though :D

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Where should it be? In a dryer you mean? Sorry I'm no 3D printing expert so I actually don't know what I've done wrong 😂 if you mean in a dry container, that's far too much effort for me 😆

[@ahmadsaeid]

@@EverythingSmartHome haha, I just had to put a spool in the oven yesterday, because it became too brittle to print😅 I guess if you print the whole spool in a short period of time, it's fine. But if you are like me, with few prints a year, it would probably be wise to put it in a sealable plastic container, though vacuum sealed bags would be better.

[@111ch1a1d111]

Regarding managing your parents' house, I wonder why there aren't more services for management. Seems like there should be a market for managed HA servers. Maybe a one time setup fee, plus a monthly subscription for updates and maintenance.

[@valleyboy2312]

lol... Your Setup is pretty similar to mine. 2 servers. Dell, R720XD & Dell T630, Proxmox, Ttuenas scalle on both with Win server2019 and RAID6 on spindown for nearline backups. Starr & jellyfin apps on Truenas. Uqbiquiti dream Router and wifi APs with a Juniper 48port POE iwth 4x 10G uplinks and Uqiquiti 10G switch

Fantastic video. Almost the same apps by my side

[@chaosfenix]

I would be interested in your take on Using TrueNAS Scale's ability to run VMs and how it compares to Proxmox. Would it be able to replace Proxmox if you had a powerful enough system or are there certain features that it is missing that really are just deal breakers compared to Proxmox? I am interested in the idea that you could have 1 powerful machine that is capable of running all of the docker containers you need as well as any VMs. The core counts are high enough on older server hardware now that you can pick up a pretty decent used epyc processor for cheap and have plenty of lanes to handle things like GPU Passthrough to VMs.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I wouldn't use Truenas as my main hypervisor personally, unless you only want to run 1 or 2 basic VMs and that's it, with the rest being docker apps. But have you considered virtualizing Truenas?

[@chaosfenix]

@@EverythingSmartHome I have but it seemed a bit too complicated for managing many of the services I want to run. TrueNas Scale's Docker and Kubernetes implementation seems a lot easier to use. They use KVM for virtualization so it seems like it is a good fit but given how new truenas scale is I am guessing that many features are not flushed out yet.

[@noelvaillant7626]

Debian, OpnSense, TrueNAS scale, proxmox... good choices it seems : )

[@codigoBinario01]

Thanks for the video! Regarding photos backup you talk about in the video, I'm looking for a reliable way to get android photos backup, and it seems that not all the android apps works fine (asustor, nextcloud, synology...). What is the most reliable SW according to your experience?

[@dodgecrickets7862]

GREAT VID MY BROTHER!!!!I LOVE THIS STUFF!! but for real bro what cpus are you using to run all of this and how much RAM ... ??

[@jfkgodk]

I have Proxmox on a HP Elite Desk G1 800 with new fans. It's amazingly silent all the time. I also have a UPS (and NUT). I run Home Assistant VM, and Open Media Vault VM with Plex and Tailscale. Also have Turkey lxc core with Docker: Webtop just for fun...

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Sounds like a great setup!

[@jfkgodk]

@@EverythingSmartHome Turkey?! I mean Turnkey 🙂 Greetings from Sweden! Your videos on Home Assistant is fantastic

[@Donly1pt]

I always get enthusiastic about also doing something like this but then remember how much electricity costs in my country and end up going with "naah.. raspberry pi with HA will have to do for now..." 😅

[@GlennPierce]

Get a refurbished dell optiplex or hp. Way more reliable and much faster then pi. My also is only 12 watts. If you spin down hard disks etc

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Absolutely, something like the Dell 3040m or 3050 are very low power but powerful for the size. UK electricity is like one of the most expensive places for electricity right now, painful 🥲😂

[@Donly1pt]

I bought a Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 Tiny but the power consumption is still about 15~20W idle while RaspbPi is 2W.. doesn't sound like much but things add up (isp modem/router, cable box, NAS, TV, etc). I'm on a "war" with idle consumption.

[@asishreddy7729]

Is AdGuard similar to pihole? I noticed you don’t have piHole on your services, whereas every other home lab video on KZbin has pihole on theirs. Just curious if AdGuard is similar and if so then would be nice to know how it compares to PiHole?

[@itst9]

Would love a setup video of proxmox or true nas. Especially disk redundancy in truenas and how to replace a bad hard drive if it fails.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks for the comment!