My HomeLab Regrets...

If I could start my HomeLab all over, what would I choose? Would I choose the same servers, rack, networking, gateway, switch, firewall, my pc conversion, and even my disk shelf NAS? Did I make a good choice or a bad one? Join me as we give each piece of my HomeLab a Keep or Upgrade rating.

A HUGE thanks to Micro Center for sponsoring this video!

Find all of my server gear here!

(Affiliate links may be included in this description. I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.)

00:00 - Do I Regret My HomeLab Choices?
01:02 - Ad: New Customers Exclusive – Get a Free 256 GB SSD at Micro Center
01:45 - Do I regret my Patch Panel?
02:28 - Do I regret my Firewall choice?
03:19 - Do I regret my PoE switch?
04:51 - Do I regret my Server choices?
06:46 - Do I regret converting my PC to a server?
07:42 - Do I regret my Disk Shelf?
08:29 - Do I regret my Empty Slot?
08:39 - Do I regret my UPS choice?
09:38 - Do I regret my Server Rack?
10:49 - Stream Highlight "100 Days of HomeLab thoughts"

#HomeLab #100DaysOfHomeLab

"Zig the Zag" is from Harris Heller's album "Sunset"

Thank you for watching!

[TechnoTim]

What's one thing you regret buying for your HomeLab??? 😭

[manjanjatx]

The other comment complaining about this video disappeared - but I wanted to tell that person that the occasional hardware video is appreciated as well. Not all of us are pure software fans, so there is an audience for content of this kind.

[mrsuperchris]

Actually with the new firmware Version on the UDM Pro you can assign both SFP+ Ports to be LAN or WAN - I am so happy they finally added that feature !!

[MrPipDarty]

Really nice to see a hardware video once in a while! The more I see your homelab content, the more I wish I bit the bullet and went with unifi gear. Had an old xeon system though so I cobbled together an opnsense box and chucked it on a shelf with a regular pc case. Highly tempted to swap the cooling solution and get a rackmount case after seeing several of your videos showing your rackmount case for your system now.

[siddharthkaza]

As of the newest Unifi Update, you can now reassign that WAN port to be a LAN port!

[CrashLoopBackOff-Ks]

Appreciate you giving your thoughts on the equipment decisions you've made over time. For me, and I know I'm not alone in this, I like to skip straight to the "perfect setup" to avoid some of the regrets and pain points. That said, these kinds of decisions are so subjective because everyone's needs, goals, and resources are different. At the end of the day, the things we look back on as mistakes are often the most valuable aspects of the learning process. Experience is the greatest teacher, so while it is wise to learn from other's mistakes, we shouldn't look to avoid the growth that comes from making our own.

Congrats on the channel growth, and thank you for bringing us along with you on your journey.

[jason-budney]

Fun video Tim, looking forward to seeing the upgrades in the future. I really don’t have any regrets on building my lab, as I’ve learned so much from my mishaps and the money spent it’s a wash for me.

[groto]

Nice video as always! If you do decide to upgrade your rack for a few more slots you have probably seen the StarTech 25U rack is real popular in the homelab community and isn't horribly expensive. I have been using it for over a year and it's been great.

[Carts.]

You know you can change the SFP+ 10gbe WAN point on the UDM Pro to a LAN port? It’s a setting in the GUI

[JorgeMartinez-bvww]

To be honest, I rarely regret anything in life. I think, when you make a choice, you make it based on what you know, the resources you have, and what IS AVAILABLE at the time (any choice in life), so you don't really have much of a choice, because 100 times out 100 times, you would choose 'that option' FOR THE 1st TIME, based on that specific situation.
We learn from our mistakes!

[QSFPTEK_official]

This small touch screen looks very easy to use, your explanation is very attentive, very careful, and very friendly to beginners, MicroTik is my go-to！

[todayonthebench]

And at 5:55 we can see 50% of the available memory bandwidth not being used. Move the two modules in the black slots over to the two blue slots on the other side of the socket. Then you will use all 4 available memory channels instead of just 2.

I myself have recently gotten into setting up my own home network/computing lab for better or worse... Currently though just have one 2U server and no rack for it yet. But one has to start somewhere...

[gardnerjp]

The network setup is nice. MicroTik is my go-to because it packs every enterprise tool you could need for a home or small business into an extremely reliable appliance.

[BobDrenth]

About your NetApp, look up the difference in power supplies on it, the newer PSU's draw much less power.

[zacharysandberg]

I have a homelab that is converged onto one server running dual 16 core Opteron 6380s with 256GB of Ram and 8 SSDs in a Raid-Z2. I get crap all the time for the vintage of the CPUs, but they handle parallel workloads easily and the lack of SAS spinners means that power consumption is pretty decent.

[andymok]

I just installed a pass-thru patch panel like you and it is working just fine. I had Unifi network gear and was great for about 8 months and then nothing but grief and after 2 months of no joy, removed the Unifi and put back my Cisco SG200/300 switches and everything is stable. Two of my friends who also bought Unifi had some similar and other issues that I did not have. We are all quite well versed with networking. Glad that Unifi is working for you, but I could never recommend the Unifi line.

[nohay]

Thanks for the upload! Looking forward to more awesome educational videos. You are great at explaining stuff so it's easy to follow for even noobs like myself. Hoping to see a pfsense as a router and firewall video soon. It would be great to see a video from you that explains how to run all your homelab services but only using a simple PC with enough RAM and storage. Use, opensource software solutions where possible instead of purchasing expensive enterprise level switches or firewalls. Nothing against them but not all homelabbers can afford them.

[joebakb]

I have a patch panel similar to that where I use keystone couplers and I don't regret it one bit. If I was running something more than gig I might care, but it's so convenient. you can even swap out those for other keystones like USB or display if you want.

[computersales]

Worth noting you can also run multiple battery backups. With multiple battery backups you can separate items by importance. My main network runs on my bigger backup and my less important stuff runs on the smaller unit. I do split my redundant power supplies on my servers between both backups though.

[thundergod]

This makes me happy with the rack I bought, a 24U rack. I'm still working on filling it though as I have just started buying equipment for my rack. 24U feels like It'll be plenty for what I want to do, though if certain things take off (game servers)...I may need to add a second one.