Homelab Reitirations Pt. 2

This post will be a detailed description of what is currently in my homelab.

A lot of my research and practice has been around Linux, since most OS using the Linux kernel believe in free and open source software. This cheap method is perfect for a student. Over the years I've had several forgotten computers that I've put Linux on. Forgotten computers including laptops, desktops, and even a Macintosh.

This stage was mostly in middle school and high school. I'm glad I went through this, because I learned a lot in my free time. If I am ever offered a job that involves Linux I won't be overwhelmed by new systems.

Linux is still evident in my homelab and I don't see it changing. Presently I have a desktop and two laptops running Linux. I've done things like home media servers, bitcoin core nodes, file storage, among other things.

My main desktop has 8 GB of RAM (which I'm looking to upgrade), ~1TB of storage, an i5-6600k (3.5GHz) processor with water cooling, which I overclock from time to time, and a GTX 950 (2 GB) graphics card. I use this desktop for virtual machines and documentation/databases, as well as all my gaming and writing. I usually access my Linux boxes from this desktop through SSH, so most of my time is spent on this computer.

As mentioned in the previous blog, I also have a TeraStation Pro NAS (network attached storage). Inside it has four 250GB hard drives in RAID 5. The configuration of RAID 5 allows lots of redundancy. Each file is partially backed up on each hard drive, meaning if one dies unexpectedly then I don't lose the file. This is great for backing up documentation and databases, but not great for streaming media or games.

I also have a tiny switch with like 8 ports, but it hasn't taught me a lot. It is mainly for hooking up all the other boxes. I would love to get a Cisco rackmount switch some day, like shown below.

The next thing I would like to add to my homelab are more clients. I could either do this through virtualizing a server or through physical clients like a NUC or Raspi, from most expensive to least. I don't expect to get a server anytime soon, but a NUC or Raspberry Pi is a more doable option for me.

Thanks for reading! If you want to help me improve my homelab, please remember to upvote and resteem. Keep Steeming! :)