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Homelab: experimenting without limits
Some companies give their engineers a laptop and a VPN token. We give them a complete homelab. Three mini-PCs in a custom tower, ready for Kubernetes, Talos, Ceph - whatever you want to try out. No permission needed, no change management. Because many of our engineers are experimenting in the evenings and on weekends. Not because they have to, but because they can't resist.
But how do you design a homelab like this? Which hardware do you choose? And why RGB lighting? It all started with an evening on X (formerly known as Twitter) and a lunch conversation about Talos. Staff Engineer Eddie Bijnen took the initiative and documented the process: from Reddit inspiration to final product. Want to join Eddie down the rabbit hole?
"I didn't want any compromise. No noisy server racks, no unaffordable electricity bill, but complete freedom to experiment. That became an obsession of weeks: from Reddit inspiration to 3D-printed prototypes."
Every Genius needs a lab at home!
It all started with an evening of doomscrolling on Twitter. A homelab made from old 1-liter Dell PCs. Down the rabbit hole we go!
And that's how I ended up on Reddit /r/homelab where fellow IT nerds build entire racks with old server hardware & SANs. Awesome, but in reality also extremely noisy. And these people definitely don't live in the Netherlands, because the electricity would cost a fortune.
The next day, I had a discussion over lunch about Talos. That's cool, I thought, we should do more with that! Tinkering with new techniques and hip tech? Yes! Let's see if we can convince one of our super nerds. And it worked!
First iteration of the plan
3 second-hand mini-PCs: scouring Marktplaats (Dutch marketplace), looking for cheap but relatively new mini-PCs. I quickly found a few, but this doesn't scale. We can't give our colleagues a bag of money and say: Here's Marktplaats, find something.
Second iteration
What if we get 3 Raspberry Pi 5s and make a nice case around them? Maybe even something with the TrueFullstaq logo. Hmm, the logo has a lot of colors - how are we ever going to 3D-print that? What we can do is RGB!!!
Pros
- RGB!
- Endless tinkering with Raspberry Pis
Cons
- Pricey, 3 Raspberry 8GB is quite disappointing
- ARM architecture
- Talos didn't work on Raspberry Pi version 5 yet
Option 3: mini-PCs from Alibaba
Pros
- Much more performance for your money
- x86 so everything works on it
- New energy-efficient hardware
Cons
- Not yet a complete unit
To the lab Pinky!
But that can be solved. To the lab Pinky!
After some precise measuring with calipers and an undisclosed number of iterations, here it finally is: the Homelab.
A tower with 3 mini-PCs and a router. To be used for Talos, Proxmox, Ceph - the possibilities are endless. We're looking forward to what everyone builds on it. And who knows, maybe it'll also help with world domination.
Time to scale!
That's one Homelab, but what about the second Homelab? After a working prototype, it's time for mass production. While the pallet of mini-PCs was on its way from China, my 3D printer ran for hours, printing around 60 Homelab cases. To complete the set, we ordered MikroTik HEX routers along with some short cables & USB sticks. We then equipped the USB sticks with Ventoy (USB bootloader) and multiple ISOs from Windows to Talos. So everyone could get started immediately after receiving theirs.
The build & pizza session
With everything delivered, there was only one thing left. Hand out homelabs and eat pizza! Every engineer who indicated interest in a Homelab received a set of components. And over pizza and drinks, many clusters were installed. With discussions left and right: ZFS vs Ceph, Talos vs Rancher. An extremely successful evening!
Interested in your own homelab?
We're looking for engineers who think experimenting is just as important to them as it is to us. Check out our vacancies, and who knows, you might soon have your own tower on your desk.
