Mad9Scientist's HomeLab 🧪

Update: Whole Home Streaming

Tue, 21 May 2024 17:43:14 -0500

I discovered an interesting… problem.

Apparently the speaker group will disconnect from Chrome in two cases:

The audio stream has few minutes of no audio out
between 20-24 hours the connection will drop

So I have to access the console of the Virtual Machine to reconnect Chrome to the Speaker Group.

It’s annoying but not a deal breaker - just annoying.

I thought I would post an update to let anyone else know that Chromecast has a 20-24 hour connection limit.

Easier Options for Music Server

Tue, 07 May 2024 15:50:13 -0500

So…

A day or two ago I wrote about setting up a VM to stream music to my Google Home Speakers. Since then, I realized a better option - just use Google Chrome/Chromium to stream directly - 🤦‍♂️.

I was so focus on the problem, I didn’t realize this option:

Original goal was to not have a desktop environment (CLI Only)
When I did switch to having a DE I used my preferred browser - Firefox

Now I get the same functionality as described in the reference post above, but only using ‘one’ application - Chromium.

Whole Home Music Streaming - Google Home (DIY)

Sun, 05 May 2024 15:11:43 -0500

Idea/Project: Stream audio to multiple Google Home Devices for a whole home audio system. Instead of using a mobile device to stream/control the music, I want to use a container/virtual machine.

Background: I have been streaming background music from a tablet to a single Echo Dot. I have three Google Home devices located around my place, and they can be grouped into a speaker group. Since I don’t want to dedicate a tablet solely to play music, especially considering it occasionally stops due to random reboots.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - First Quick Look

Sun, 05 May 2024 13:29:00 -0500

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Ubuntu 24) was released at the end of April. I have some thoughts about this release. The main reason I’m ‘reviewing’ this release is because I’m going to be using this particular version for the basis of my production servers. I want to gain some hands-on experience before deploying it to production.

I decided to test the desktop versions (Gnome & XFCE) of Ubuntu 24 in Proxmox 7.4 (I know it is out of date), which may be related to some issues, detailed below.

Import OVA/OVF into Proxmox VE

Sat, 04 May 2024 15:09:24 -0500

Download the OVA/OVF to the proxmox host
Unzip/Extract OVA to expose vmdk and OVF
- You many need to apt install unzip
Shell to the Proxmox Host to the directory of the OVF/VMDK
Use the following command

qm importovf {vmid} {OVA/OVF Filename}.ovf {target storage}

To import to VM 101 with the ovf named web101.ovf to the vmdata storage location

qm importovf 101 web101.ovf vmdata

!! Note: VM should not already exist !!

Switch back to PVE Web Interface and add networking and any other VM changes
Done - Start VM and enjoy

Source

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrate_to_Proxmox_VE#Migration (Import OVF)

Tested on: PVE 7.4-17

Welcome to the Homelab

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 18:06:19 -0500

Welcome One and All to my experiments…

I’m using this site to document my adventures with my homelab and other interesting information that I run across in the process.

As of today (March 25, 2024) I don’t have a lot of information posted, but I will update this site with what I’m playing with or testing at the moment.

I have posted a list of the physical hardware and software stack of my homelab also, I will try to keep those up to date as things change.

Services

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 18:02:54 -0500

Here’s a list of services I run in my homelab in ‘production’

Web Services (NGINX+PHP+MariaDB)
- FreshRSS - RSS Reader
- Dokuwiki - Internal Information Management/KB
- ~~Nextcloud~~ Discontinued
Network Services
- Ubiquiti - UniFi Controller
- Ubiquiti - UISP Network Management System
- Pi-Hole (DNSBL + DHCP)
- WireGuard VPN (Not Tailscale)
- PXE Boot - via Netboot.xyz - Testing/Discontinuing?
Gitea - Local Code Repo
- Gitea Runner/Actions
OctoPrint 3D Printer Web Interface (Ender 3 Pro)
Music Streaming (Not a Media Server)
Docker Hosts
- ~~Portainer~~ Dockge
- Uptime Kuma
- Speedtest Tracker
- OpenSpeedTest
- Enclosed
- Calibre-Web - Testing
LXC/LXD Hosts (CTs)
- Ansible Control Host
- Cloudflare Tunnel Host
- Docker Host (This is stupid, don’t do it)
- Email Backup Container (imap-backup)
- HA Proxy (Reverse Proxy)
Testing/Toys
- VoIP PBX (Evaluating)
  - FusionPBX
  - FreePBX
- DNS (Internal Use/Test)
  - BIND9
  - PowerDNS
- Home Assistant - Smart Home Controls

Software

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:47:53 -0500

My homelab runs many different things but I do have few constants:

Operating Systems
- Ubuntu Server (14-24) LTS
- Alpine Linux
- Debian Linux
- Raspberry Pi OS
- Windows 10

Now lets get into the particulars

Virtualization Stack

XCP-ng

Let see, this is easy:

XCP-ng 8.2.x
Xen Orchestra (Open Source)

Proxmox VE

~~I think it was Proxmox VE 7.4-17, but it crashed a while ago.~~

Proxmox v7.4.x & v8.3.x

May 2024: It seems okay now? WTAF! I guess I’ll need to upgrade this.

Hardware

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:47:43 -0500

Here is a quick summary of the hardware that makes up my HomeLab. It’s not much, but it’s my…

Hypervisor Servers (VMs)

XCP-ng

This is my XCP-ng testing pool that is running most of my virtualization services. I use Xen Orchestra, self complied version, to manage the pool and VMs.

Pool Version: XCP-ng v8.2.1

XCP1

Specs:

Dell OptiPlex 3010
- Intel Core i5 3450 @ 3.10 (4 Cores/4 Threads)
- 8GB DDR3?
- 400GB Spinning Rust

XCP2

Specs: