Homelab Server

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Mon, 23 Jul 2018

Unsplash I want to be able to learn more about a bunch of tools and practices but with my current hardware - a MacBook - I’m at a disadvantage. Doing some research into what my options might be I discovered the Homelab DIY community. They basically find older hardware and reconfigure it into useful systems for doing things like hosting VMs or learning new networking techniques, or anything else you can think of.

With this idea in mind I’ve decided to build myself a server with some older hardware that I’ll source from eBay and a little help from Amazon. Here’s what I’ve decided on:

  • CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz Eight Core - I’m getting two of these which will give me 16 cores which based on my needs means I could run 32 VMs with them
  • CPU Fans: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - I’m getting two of these ones as well, one for each CPU and they should keep everything running at the right temperature
  • RAM: 64gb Samsung 4x 16GB 2RX4 PC3L-12800R DDR3 Reg ECC Server Memory - This should give me plenty of breathing room for running what I need
  • Motherboard: ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 Server Motherboard - this board supports the older CPUs and the RAM that I’m getting, there’s also space for more RAM if I need to expand down the road
  • Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro PH-ES614P - This is pretty much the only case that I could find at a reasonable price that will fit my motherboard
  • Storage: WD Blue 3D NAND SSD one 500gb and one 256gb - The 256 will be used for the host OS and the 500 will be used for all the VMs
  • Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 - This should give me all the power I need and it’s designed to support 2 CPUs

This Homelab server will allow me do to some of the following:

  • Spin up an environment where I can do blue green deployments and learn the process
  • Run Jenkins, Jira, Confluence, and BitBucket so I can learn how these tools work, how to administer them, and use them to future projects
  • Learn more about CentOS Linux and force myself to get more comfortable with the command line
  • Explore using Docker, Kubernetes, and all the related technologies

I’m pretty excited as these are all things I’d really like to know more about!

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André Wanlin

André Wanlin is a Full Stack Developer and Team Leader at Petline Insurance Company, where André leads application development, including system administration and support. André has worked in .NET since 2008 and is passionate about DevOps and development methodologies like Lean, Agile, Scrum and Kanban. He loves to talk about Azure DevOps (formerly Team Foundation Server). André is a dog owner, an avid concert goer, and traveler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. You can reach him at andre@wanlin.ca or go to andre.wanlin.ca or you can catch him walking his dog at one of the many dog parks in the city.