I was eyeballing a MD3600 yesterday, for only 150$.

Went back and forth on the idea of running it for an iSCSI san… but, remembered why I prefer zfs and ceph over HW raid.

If you want 10G performance, you need to get a 10G nic. They are only 30-40$ on ebay.

While, you CAN bond a pair of 2.5GBe ports, and POTENTIALLY get 5g of throughput, it will not be on a single session. ie- you can’t download a file at 5Gbps.

10G hardware is cheap.

I use technitium as the primary server, with a pair of backup servers running bind9.

The backup servers do zone-transfers from the primary.

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 mean… I use xtremeownage.com

But, ya know… I own it. Although, I use a few subdomains for my home-network, with a split-horizon DNS setup.

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.

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.

I just use basic DNS ad/scam/spam/etc-blocking, via technetium.

I mostly relays on ublock/sponsorblock, as they are much more effective, and tend to “break” less of the internet.

DNS block-lists tend to do a nuke-from-orbit approach, while not being nearly as effective as you would want. (For example- its not going to effectively hide most youtube ads, facebook ads, etc.), while ublock, is extremely effective at the task.

I blog it. https://static.xtremeownage.com/

I mean… Its my preferred linux distribution for servers.

At least- the minified version.

12-2 is common… and has neutral. If your house did not have neutral, then either you are on a 240v circuit, where both legs are considered “HOT”, or otherwise, nothing would work.

What you MEAN to say, is you don’t have neutral at your light-boxes.

This, is because, way back when, the way to wire light fixtures- your main wire goes into the light-fixture. Then, you run a seperate 12/2 or 14/2 from the light-fixture, down to the switch, and this switches the “hot” leg.

There are a few ways to address this.

1. You can pull new 12/3 or 14/3 from your light fixture, down to the switch. I did this in a few key locations, when I put in z-wave switches. Generally doesn’t take that long.

2. You can use a shelly hidden inside of the electrical box, above the light fixture. You would connect hot/neutral to it, and then, connect the 12/2 heading to the switch to the shelly as well. After this- you have an automated switch, which you can remotely control, as well as, you still have a physical wall switch. I did this in a few areas as well.

random note, its not “Ubuntu” permissions, but, rather, “Linux” permissions.

Same permission system that your phone uses too. Even iPhone, has the same underlying permission system.

Once, it “clicks” though, they are extremely simple.

https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2021/fireplace-automation-part-3/

I do this. I control my fireplace based on another temp sensor.