Simplifying My Homelab

Over the last few years, I’ve experimented with running my homelab on different types of hardware. It’s been a journey of trial, error, noise, and heat - but also a lot of fun.

The Evolution of My Homelab

1. HP Workstation Laptop
I started out with a powerful HP workstation laptop: 64 GB RAM, dual NVMe slots, and a dedicated NVIDIA GPU. It was fast and handled everything I threw at it - but it wasn’t exactly practical long-term.

2. Synology NAS
Next, I moved everything onto my Synology NAS. Having compute and storage in one box, with 144 TB of capacity directly attached, sounded great in theory. In practice? Not so much.
All eight disks were spinning at 100% constantly, creating lots of noise and heat. Not ideal for a quiet home setup.

3. HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9
From there, I migrated to an HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server I salvaged from work. I upgraded it with 10 TB of SSD storage and maxed out the memory to 768 GB. It’s still running today, mainly hosting my Minecraft servers and some legacy systems I haven’t migrated yet.

4. Old Gaming Desktop
In early 2025, I repurposed my old gaming desktop. I removed the GPU, swapped the water cooling for a tower fan, and replaced all fans with Noctuas to quiet things down. With 64 GB of RAM, it was more than enough for my needs - and far less noisy than the ProLiant.

5. Raspberry Pi 5 (The Future)
Most recently, I bought a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM. This has become the heart of my homelab. It runs my websites, databases, and Dockerized services.
The only exceptions are services that require Windows or a 64-bit AMD processor, which I still run on the gaming machine.

I also keep an old Raspberry Pi 3 around for experiments. Right now, it’s powering a DIY monitoring system that uses a webcam and Python scripts for motion detection, snapshots, and live streaming via a browser.

Current Setup

• HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 → Legacy systems

• Gaming Machine → Services requiring Windows or AMD64

• Raspberry Pi 5 → Web server, databases, Docker services, and scripts

• Raspberry Pi 3 → DYI monitoring system

The End Goal

My ultimate goal is simple: run my entire homelab on Raspberry Pi devices. They’re small, quiet, power-efficient, and - most importantly - fun to tinker with.

Since 2022, I’ve registered a few domains.
After reviewing them, I realized that I’m no longer using all of them - and some are simply unnecessary.

As a result, I’ll be letting a few of them go.
I’ll keep the domains that provide active services or those I find useful or worth holding on to. The rest will be released once they expire.

Last year, I purchased a keyboard3 Wireless from ZON at NetOnNet. It's a great keyboard, and since I work in a hybrid setup, I wanted to get a second one for my office to avoid carrying mine back and forth.

However, when I searched for the same keyboard, I couldn't find it anywhere. Not only was it no longer available for sale, but the official website (https://www.zon.gg/) was also down.

While finding a replacement keyboard isn't a big issue, I realized that with the website gone, there was no way to download the official software or user manual anymore.

So, I decided to search through my archive of old software and managed to find a copy of both. To ensure others can access it as well, I’ve uploaded the files to multiple locations:

• https://archive.aksel.telle.at/archive.php?dir=.%2Fzon.gg

• https://mirror.fawdaw.com/zon.php

• https://archive.org/details/zon-software_202503

Hopefully, NetOnNet will restore the official website, making the software available again—even if they no longer sell the keyboard.

I have a compact 2-bay NAS, the ZyXEL NSA325-v2.

It was an excellent and affordable device back in the day, but it has become outdated over the years. While it still handles basic NAS functions, it relies on SMB1.

Since SMB1 is insecure, unsupported, and disabled by default in modern operating systems, the NAS is no longer a viable option out of the box.

There are a couple of ways to extend its usefulness:

1. Installing a Custom Firmware – Upgrading to OpenWrt or Debian can breathe new life into the device, unlocking new features and improving security. However, this requires some time and technical effort.

2. Using NFS for Secure Access – A simpler solution is to enable NFS, which allows safe access from both Windows and Linux.
   
   

I decided to go for the second option. Using NFS for Secure Access.

First you need to install the NFS Application on the NAS. The built in application installer no longer download application files from the web, so you need to do this manually.

• • Download the required files: https://s3.pxcd.org/atelle/blog/files/zy-pkgs.zip 

  • Use the package NFS_1.1.4_arm_004.zpkg

If you're unfamiliar with installing packages on the ZyXEL NSA325-v2, check out my blog post for a step-by-step guide.

Once the package is installed, go to Network - NFS and create a new share.

I named my share "atelle" and set tie DN/IP Filter to * with Read Write.


Once you have created the NFS share, you should see something like this:



To use NFS (Network File System) on Windows, you'll need to enable the "Services for NFS" feature, which allows Windows to act as an NFS client and access shares from other NFS servers (like Linux or UNIX systems).

Open a Command Prompt with Administrator Privileges: Search for "cmd" in the Windows search bar, right-click on "Command Prompt," and select "Run as administrator".

Then mound the fileshare with the following command:

    mount : 

In my case, the NAS have IP 10.10.10.33, and the name of the fileshare is /i-data/90a7a77c/nfs/atelle. I will mount it to drive letter Y:

    mount 10.10.10.33:/i-data/90a7a77c/nfs/atelle Y:

You should now be able to see your network drive in file explorer.

Today, I re-wrote my website to support Authentik as the new way of logging in. Since there is no registration, Authentik makes it easier for me to log in.

What is Authentik?

Authentik is an open-source identity provider that offers authentication and authorization for applications. It supports a variety of authentication methods, including Single Sign-On (SSO), OpenID Connect, and LDAP. Authentik is a great tool for centralizing user authentication while maintaining security and flexibility.

Why I Chose Authentik

I have implemented Authentik into many of the services I use in my HomeLab. It provides a seamless authentication experience, allowing me to manage access to my services from a single platform. By integrating it into my website, I can now log in securely using my existing Authentik setup, eliminating the need for separate login credentials.

Implementation Details

The integration process involved configuring Authentik as an identity provider for my website. Since my website does not allow public registration, using Authentik simplifies authentication for me. The implementation included:

• Setting up an OpenID Connect provider in Authentik.

• Configuring my website to authenticate users through Authentik.

• Ensuring proper role-based access control for different services.

Benefits of Using Authentik

• Centralized Authentication: One login for multiple services.

• Improved Security: Supports 2FA, LDAP, and other security measures.

• Ease of Use: No need to manage separate login systems.

Integrating Authentik has significantly improved how I access my self-hosted services. Moving forward, I plan to refine the setup further and explore additional features that Authentik offers. If you’re looking for a flexible authentication solution for your projects, I highly recommend giving Authentik a try!

Happy New Year!

WiGLE Stats

Domain Portfolio

norhood.com (Registered 2012-06-03)

fawdaw.com (Registered 2014-06-21)

pxcd.org (Registered 2018-11-28)

akseltelle.com (Registered 2021-07-13)

hobbyrack.no (Registered 2022-10-28)

hobbyserver.no (Registered 2022-10-28)

hellofriend.no (Registered 2022-10-31)

telle.at (Registered 2022-11-02)

ticketcore.net (Registered 2023-04-24)

monitorcore.net (Registered 2023-06-30)

crypt3r.com (Registered 2023-12-10)

https.no (Registered 2024-03-17)

bilreg.net (Registered 2024-04-02)

bilreg.info (Registered 2025-06-13)

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