Found a seller with Brocade ICX-6610-48Ps for 45$ each, and picked up a loaded MD1200 (24x2.5") for a touch over 100$.

Finally had my power usage SOMEWHAT under control… and now, I guess its time for the cycle to repeat itself…

I’m gonna have to add more solar panels to support this hobby. lol.

If, your hardware supports Intel vPRO / AMT (Half of my optiplexes did, as did my HP z240s)… That is a built-in hardware KVM.

MeshCommander can expose this is a nice way -> https://www.meshcommander.com/meshcommander

As a splunk architect- I really enjoy it.

For home use, its ok. But, without the enterprise features, it limits a lot of the capabilities.

You CAN use cribl.io with it, to replace a lot of the missing features… and to reduce the amount of data being stored. It has an extremely generous 1T/day free plan.

You can also use the universal forwarders, as they do not have a license attached.

Data is only licensed when it is written by an indexer.

There, are also ways of using the enterprise plan… by selectively not storing certain files under /etc… and restarting the container every few days.

I have ran the majority of the containers you listed above, in kubernetes.

It worked fine.

2014 Mac Mini’s… great specs… 250$

Those… have a dual core i5, clocked at 1.4ghz??

Go pick up a slightly newer optiplex, with a 6 core i7. It will use less power, and will be faster, and likely cheaper.

I personally, use a bash script, which runs as a daemon, that dynamically sets the fan speed based on temps.

So, under idle, the servers run nearly silent. Under load, the fans can spin up.

When the script/daemon stops, it restores the default fan curve.

There was even cheaper options linked in this sub yesterday… including ones with 10G uplinks, and 8x 2.5G ports.

Dumb UPS + Smart Plugs (S31) / Smart Strip (HS300) = Smart UPS.

S31: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2023/sonoff-s31-low-cost-energy-monitoring/

HS300: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2022/kasa-powerstrip-as-pdu/

Yup. You can do that.

Although- you wouldn’t “import” your existing containers. but, you can…

1. Create manifests for your containers (Kubernetes runs the exact same docker containers). or, find helm charts for your containers.
2. Import the storage from docker into your new PV/PVCs.

I would, suggest learning kubernetes first though. Learning curve can be rather steep.

Also, rancher + k3s would work perfect for your Pis.

Well, I run my containers in kubernetes.

And, it more or less includes full support for prometheus/grafana/alertmanager/etc.

So- I use that.

I personally use a combination of…

Per Circuit Monitoring: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2023/home-solar-project-part-3-monitoring/

Sonoff S31s for individual devices: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2023/sonoff-s31-low-cost-energy-monitoring/

A few HS300 Power Strips: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2022/kasa-powerstrip-as-pdu/

I honestly got tired of APC/CyberPowr units either taking a complete shit (internal failures), or yeeting batteries every year or two.

I ended up building my own damn UPS, a few years ago.

https://xtremeownage.com/2021/06/12/portable-2-4kwh-power-supply-ups/

I have tested with up to a 1,500 watts constant load, and it was able to power a 1.5kw load for around an hour and a half.

It should be good for 20 years or so. Expensive, but, damn, peace of mind is nice. Under typical load, it can power my entire rack from around 4-6 hours depending on load…

I personally use a combination of…

Per Circuit Monitoring: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2023/home-solar-project-part-3-monitoring/

Sonoff S31s for individual devices: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2023/sonoff-s31-low-cost-energy-monitoring/

A few HS300 Power Strips: https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2022/kasa-powerstrip-as-pdu/

Q: How can I setup an ipv6 GIF tunnel

A: (Except): UniFi devices do not natively support GIF tunnel

Q: How can I manage static routes on a layer 3 unifi switch.
A: (Excerpt): In addition to routing traffic between VLANs, L3 UniFi Switches offer the following features:
Static Routing: Create static routes to a next-hop IP address or interface.

^ Lie. Static routing is broken on unifi layer 3 switches.

I personally, choose to not support companies who are assholes.

And, especially companies who call their open source competition, “Nazis”.

Screw netgate.

Well, I use micro-inverters on my panels… which converts their DC, into AC on the panel itself.

The microinverters are around 98/99% efficient, and actually PRODUCE more energy than they use- by allowing each panel to produce its maximum capacity, regardless of if one of the panels is randomly shaded.

And- overall, the efficiency gains has been easily quantifiable, especially during the winter when one of my panels is partially shaded by the power riser.

That being said.

If you really want to avoid the inefficiency- and you use 48v battery banks, connect your server to those. But- not to the panels DC.

eh, around 500w average.

Got a couple SFFs. Got a couple Micros.

Got an 2730xd loaded with over 128T of storage, tons of NVMe and 256g of ram.

Got 6 switches total. 10G ran everywhere too. Lots of POE stuff.

You only NEED one cable + one controller.

Only when I swap or upgrade internal hardware.

These run 24/7/365.

As somebody who has spent a ton of time messing with both 10/40/100GBe…

https://static.xtremeownage.com/pages/Projects/40G-NAS/

My advice-

1. use Intel or Mellonax NICs when possible.
2. 10GBase-T (RJ45 / Copper) runs REALLY hot, uses ~9 watts, and the modules are expensive. Use Fiber / DAC / AOC / Twinax when possible. Its cheaper, cooler, more efficient.
3. Mikrotik switches are fine. Nothing fancy, but, they work. I have one in my 10G network.
4. Cat6 is perfectly fine for 10G, I have 60 foot runs of it through my house.
5. Make sure flow-control is enabled on your switches / NICs. Can make drastic differences.

I PERSONALLY use a unifi aggregation switch as my layer 2 10G switch. With 6 of the 8 ports filled, it only draws around 8 watts of energy, and is completely silent. This- is quite fantastic.

I also use a Unifi PRO switch, for 10G routing, which is also silent, and pretty efficient.

Granted, these are a lot more expensive then mikrotik switches. Mikrotik can handle the job just fine.

If noise/power isn’t a concern, pick up a brocade icx6610-48-p on ebay. The absolute beef-daddy of switches, for 100$. 16x 10G SFP+, 2x40G QSFP, 48x1G poe.