It is now almost a year ago that I started my Proxmox journey. Almost exactly a year ago Microsoft decided to push the infamous Windows 11 update and subsequently wrecking my homeserver in the process.
And right now, I have a few more interesting things to talk about.
Hardware
“Node 3” is almost finished. I picked up another i9-9900T via eBay and installed it this morning. After a quick test and a clean boot, it was genuinely satisfying to see 16 logical CPUs show up again.
I also just got back from a road trip to pick up memory. RAM prices are skyrocketing at the moment, and finding a matching 4×32 GB kit for Node 3 has become nearly impossible. For now, I settled for a mixed configuration: 2×16 GB and 2×32 GB, giving me a total of 96 GB.
Ceph Storage
Originally wanted to go with enterprise-grade SSDs, but realistically they are out of my price range. And unfortunately, I still have not managed to find a suitable sponsor. For now, I am settling on Samsung 870 EVO 2 TB SSDs. Each server will be populated with two drives, resulting in six drives total and 12 TB of raw storage.
From a Ceph perspective, that translates to roughly 3.6 TB of usable OSD space.
Not massive, but sufficient for what this cluster is meant to do.
I will also re-use the existing 2 TB and 8 TB SSDs from Node 1 for dedicated storage. These will be assigned to a non-HA virtual machine that, for now, will run exclusively on Node 1.
Networking
I bought a second-hand Ubiquiti 10 GbE switch a while ago, but ultimately decided not to use it. The fans, and the noise that came with them, made it a poor fit for a home setup.
Instead, I switched that switch, no pun intended, for a MikroTik CRS309-1G-8S+IN. It is an eight-port SFP+ switch with an additional 1 GbE port, and more importantly, it is passively cooled. Which means it is completely silent.
Eight ports should be sufficient. Three are allocated for Ceph traffic, three for node management, one for the NAS, and one for the uplink to the rest of the network, leaving a single SFP+ port unused.
For once, silence won over brand loyalty.
Consider this a subtle wink to Ubiquiti: if you happen to be looking for a home lab to sponsor, a silent 10 GbE switch with at least eight ports would certainly get my attention. hehe
Naming
At first, I considered renaming all nodes to the rather uninspired proxmox1.home.lan, proxmox2.home.lan, and proxmox3.home.lan.
That would have meant either renaming my current production machine or reinstalling it from scratch.
Neither option was particularly appealing.
Then it dawned on me.
I am a big fan of The Matrix franchise, and Node 1 was already named after one of the hovercrafts: Hammer.
So I leaned into that theme and settled on the following names:
- Node 1:
hammer.home.lan - Node 2:
logos.home.lan - Node 3:
gnosis.home.lan
Nebuchadnezzar briefly crossed my mind as well, but realistically, what are the odds of typing that correctly every single time? Ehh.. Zero!? 😛
And the rest
The remaining two nodes will be built, or rebuilt, into Nox Lite 010 cases ( https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1471798/nox-lite-010.html ). Simple, no-nonsense, compact, and designed to do exactly what they are supposed to do. Nothing more.
All three nodes will use the same power supply. I settled on the be quiet! Pure Power 13 M | 550W (https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/2223110/be-quiet-pure-power-13-m-550w.html ). It is fully modular, Platinum-rated, quiet, and has a solid reputation for reliability. No exotic choices here, just predictable hardware that should stay out of the way and do its job.
Which, at this point, is very much the theme of this cluster.
I will still need some assorted extras, mostly cables and small parts, nothing particularly interesting or worth listing here.
The next update will hopefully involve software again. Migrating VMs to Ceph, benchmarking the 10 GbE links, and seeing what breaks first.
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to spend Christmas.
Brain out!