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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • The lift here is that you setup the end users client. If they aren’t local, buy one and ship it. Since it will be on your always on tailscale vpn, you can then interact with it remotely if needed.

    Android tvs can be had for $35, Raspi 5 are around the same range, with apple tvs about $130. Have people pony up the cash and mail one of what they want out to them.

    That may be too much to ask if you share to a lot of casual friends/family, but its been a successful answer for me.


  • Jellyfin takes more work, but can be a “simple” end user experience if you set it up for them.

    Use a reverse proxy to get a letsenceypt cert for your jellyfin server. SWAG, Caddy, lots of options. Then setup a free tailscale account and add your jellyfin server to your tailnet. Install the jellyfin and tailscale apps on the user android tv/apple tv/computer, then enroll the devices in your tailnet.

    They will have always on, ssl secured, vpn protected media sharing for free.






  • Look into podman quadlets. Its containers as systemd services, and its excellent. They run as root by default, but can be run at a user level pretty easily. Ive had no permissions issues as long as you define the user/group in the config and ensure they habe the correct rights to the required folders.

    It does take translation from docker compose files, but it’s entirely doable. Most of the environmental variables translate straight across.


  • Also the modding community is absolutely outstanding. Endless, high quality content that basically works out to dozens and dozens of base game quality DLCs for free. You can almost literally enhance or fix any facet of the game. Have an issue with the gun animations? Fix is there. Want 400 rug patterns? You got it pal. Want to fully overhaul the game with hundreds of vehicles and fuel mechanics? Done deal.

    With even just the most popular “vanilla expanded” mods from Oskars team, the modded game easily gains 5-10x content for absolutely $0 dollars.



  • Honestly glad to help. We all start somewhere.

    You should be able to access idrac, if it’s licensed, by pointing your browser at the ip address that its dedicated nic has. Find that address from your router or whatever else you have that is handing out dhcp. It is a management portal, yes. You can control power, fans, get info about the servers state, set up logs and monitoring, and even use its “virtual screen” to see what you would if you hooked a monitor up to the server. The above is a great way to remotely add an OS or troubleshoot a server.

    Idrac will either have a default password you can google or the server will have a little plastic pull out tab with a unique password you can reset on login.

    If your server doesn’t have it, as you generally have to pay a fee to have it on, it’s okay. A monitor is a good stand in for one server. Less convenient and feature packed, but that’s homelabbing sometimes.


  • Well, the first step is realizing it’s okay not to use it. My homelab is a mix of salvaged mini PCs and prosumer networking gear. It has nothing to do with the 6/7 figure gear I use at work, and I prefer it that way. Its simpler and lower stakes, is quieter, and uses way less power.

    That all said, it’s a great server. if you do want to use it, there are many ways to start. First, you don’t need to plug both power supplies in, but you can. The server can run entirely on one of them. It has two in case one fails it can keep running, not because it needs 2x the power. For the monitor, yes you will likely need VGA. Servers rarely have modern video ports, because vga just works, costs nothing to add to a server, and is almost never used. Most of your physical interaction with a server should be though “out of band,” which dell calls “idrac.” This is a seperate networking port labeled on the server that lets you connect to a local website, put in a password, and then fully control the server. That includes powering it on, reboots, loading disc image iso files, on and on. The idrac will stay powered even when the server is off.

    You may or may not have qn idrac license for that server. If you dont and your boss can’t give you one, you can use something like jetkvm instead when it’s released.

    As to what to do either it, i would recommend installing different hypervisors or kubernetes suites and playing around. Proxmox, xcp-ng, k3s, harvestor, on and on. Once you find one you like, figure out how to use automation software to setup VMs and containers, like cloudinit, terraform, ansible, or nixOS.

    Good luck, and enjoy. Getting started from scratch can be a lot, but it can also be a lot of fun. Go into it expecting to fail, fail a lot and try to learn what you like. That’s the best thing a homelab can do for you.