Been building out my homelab over time and thought I'd share it here.

I'm running multihomed leased line connections with BGP and announcing my own public IPv4 /24 prefix to the internet through the leased-line connectivity. Having my own address space and managing the routing has been one of the more interesting parts of this setup.

The internal network runs over 10Gbps multimode OM5 fiber. I'm also running iBGP all the way to the cluster nodes, so routing isn't limited to the edge router.

On the compute side, there's a high availability cloud cluster with Ceph for distributed storage.

I also run quite a few services at home, including Home Assistant, a PBX, media servers, and other self-hosted services.

Basically, a small piece of internet infrastructure running from home.

It's a work in progress, as always. There's always something to tweak or break :)

Would be interested to hear from others running similar setups.

Part 2 of my Talos homelab (3 OptiPlex Micros, all control planes). Part 1 got the cluster up, this one is networking.

I moved the running cluster from Flannel + kube-proxy to Cilium without rebuilding it. The default-deny policy that Flannel quietly ignored is now actually enforced, and Hubble shows the drops.

Then I gave it two front doors:

- an internal Gateway on a LAN IP (Cilium LB IPAM, no MetalLB) with a Let's Encrypt wildcard cert, so lab apps get real HTTPS at home

- a public Gateway behind a single Cloudflare Tunnel, so nothing is port-forwarded on the router

An app picks its door with the route's parentRef, which keeps lab stuff from going public by accident.

Write-up with all the manifests and commands: https://blog.prateekjain.dev/networking-a-kubernetes-homelab-cilium-gateway-api-and-cloudflare-tunnel-on-talos-362f548a2f3d?sk=d454cd4eaff4ce8a8fd0cd8e6b3d82f6

Curious if anyone else is using Cilium's Gateway API instead of a separate ingress controller.

Sharing my low-power homelab. No PC, no Pi, just an old Pixel 6a.

Hardware

- Pixel 6a (rooted), always on

- 1TB HDD in a powered USB enclosure (powers the HDD directly)

- USB-C hub dongle with pass-through charging, so the phone stays plugged in 24/7

- HDD mounted on Android using an ext4 FUSE layer

Software and network

- Tailscale: Pixel is always on my tailnet. No port forwarding, no public IP

- Syncthing: Photos and videos from my Vivo sync to the Pixel. On the iPhone I use the Synctrain (a Syncthing client)

- Google Photos: Pixel backs up to Google Photos

- SMB: Whole HDD accessible from any device, on local Wi-Fi or anywhere over Tailscale

- DroidVNC + SSH: Since the Pixel is rooted, I can control the whole device with DroidVNC and SSH into it, from home or away

- code-server

- Custom app: Self-hosted app I use daily

Photo flow

1. Vivo + iPhone → Syncthing → Pixel (HDD)

2. Pixel → Google Photos

3. Result: one copy on the HDD, one copy in the cloud

Why this setup?

- Low power draw (not measured yet, will update)

- Built-in "UPS" (the phone battery)

- Silent and tiny

- Cost almost nothing, since I already had the phone

Downsides

- FUSE ext4 is slower than native

- Android can kill background apps, so battery optimization must be disabled for everything

Happy to answer questions or share setup steps.

I’m not planning to build a homelab — I just want reliable Wi-Fi coverage throughout the house, on both floors.
The main router will be in the ground-floor living room, and I’m planning to run Cat6 Ethernet to the first floor for a second router in AP mode.

I’ll also have Ethernet points in the home office.
Where would be the ideal location for the upstairs AP based on the attached floor plan?

Any suggestions for the simplest, cost-effective setup?
Thanks!

A few months ago, I posted my bare-metal HP EliteDesk 800 G5 OPNsense build here. The feedback, discussions, and advice from this community were incredible and taught me a ton.

Since then, the lab has evolved beyond desktop shelves. I wanted to build a proper, structured environment to practice enterprise networking, virtualization, and systems administration. The entire process from unboxing and torquing together the flat-pack steel rack to terminating cables and tuning clusters was an absolute blast.

1. The Physical Rack & Power Infrastructure
Chassis/Frame: 22U enclosed steel server rack (600x1000mm) with perforated front/rear doors for passive airflow.
Power Delivery: Dual PDUs (PDU 01 top, PDU 02 bottom). Everything critical is systematically labeled to keep track of load distribution and ensure maintenance doesn't involve blindly pulling cords.
Cabling & Patching: Keystone patch panel directly above the switch using slim patch leads to keep runs short, clean, and serviceable without massive cable bundles blocking exhaust.

2. Edge Routing & Switching (10GbE Backbone)
Building on my previous post, the network core is structured around multi-gig redundancy and 10GbE uplinks:
Firewall (HP EliteDesk 800 G5 SFF):
Intel Core i5-9500 | 16GB RAM | 2x 256GB NVMe (ZFS Mirror).
NICs: Intel i226-T2 (Dual 2.5GbE) handling dual WAN connections (two separate ISPs configured for automated multi-WAN failover) + Intel x520-DA2 (Dual 10GbE SFP+).
Core Switch: TP-Link TL-SG3428XMP (24x Gigabit PoE+ with 4x 10G SFP+ uplink ports).
Linked to the OPNsense box via a 1m 10G SFP+ Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cable.
Access Point: TP-Link Omada EAP650 PoE+ ceiling-mount AP.

3. Compute Cluster: 3x HP Z2 G4 Workstations
Directly beneath the switch and firewall sit three identical HP Z2 G4 SFF workstation nodes forming the hypervisor tier.
Per-Node Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 (6C/12T)
RAM: 64GB DDR4
Storage: 1x 256GB NVMe (Boot/OS) + 1x 1TB NVMe (VM datastores)
Networking: Intel x520-DA2 (Dual 10G SFP+) connected back to the switch via 3m DACs, alongside the onboard 1GbE NICs.

4. Storage Architecture & Hypervisor Lessons: Ceph vs. Local ZFS
The Ceph Experiment: As you can see in the rear wiring shots, I originally set up full cluster storage using Ceph, isolating dedicated Ceph storage traffic onto the 10GbE SFP+ links while relegating corosync/general cluster management to the onboard 1G NICs. It was a fantastic learning experience in distributed storage dynamics, quorum, and network latency.
Current Running State: For my current 3-node scale, I transitioned to Proxmox VE with local ZFS storage pools, scheduled ZFS replication jobs, and Proxmox High Availability (HA). This significantly reduced storage write amplification and overhead while keeping failover rock-solid for lightweight workloads.

5. Network Segmentation & Environment Overview
Network isolation is handled at Layer 2/Layer 3 with dedicated VLANs:
VLAN Architecture:
Core Management: Hypervisors, out-of-band interfaces, and managed network hardware.
IoT / Smart Home: Local-control devices strictly isolated from reaching the wider LAN or internet.
Guest Network: Segmented visitor access.
Storage: Dedicated subnet carved out for high-bandwidth node replication.
Tenant / Isolated Dev: A dedicated VLAN routed through an encrypted site-to-site tunnel for a friend who needed an isolated sandbox to develop and test applications safely away from my internal systems.

Operations & Monitoring Stack:
Running a central Docker VM managing operations tooling: network operations control (NOC), centralized telemetry and infrastructure mapping, security auditing/SOC logging, and automated container lifecycle maintenance.

6. What’s Next for the Lab?
Because a homelab is never truly "done," the next phases involve:

1. Bulk Storage Expansion: Adding high-capacity spinning disks to stand up a dedicated centralized storage pool and continuous security video ingestion.
2. Document Management: Setting up automated OCR indexing and digital archiving pipelines.
3. Enterprise Directory & Cloud Testing: Standing up directory domain services, enterprise identity management, and multi-node lightweight cloud testing.
4. Security Lab: An isolated virtual cyber range for defensive auditing and offensive security experiments.
5. Edge AI & Computer Vision: Slotting in dedicated hardware acceleration (GPU or edge TPU) to test small, local language models and agricultural-tech computer vision pipelines.

Massive thanks to everyone here who shares build logs, answers obscure driver questions, and troubleshoots networking issues. Happy to answer any questions about thermals, DAC compatibility, or SFF workstation rack-mounting!

P.S. If you’re wondering about the "high-density 1U server shelf" supporting the nodes at the bottom: yes, that is indeed a retired Quanta QSSC-2ML chassis acting as the most over-engineered, heavy-duty shelf in homelab history. It may no longer be crunching enterprise workloads, but its structural integrity is doing a 10/10 job keeping gravity from ruining my cluster.

Hey r/homelabindia,

Finally got my 24/7 self-hosted setup to a place I’m really happy with and wanted to share the architecture. I’ve been focusing heavily on eliminating local network bottlenecks and properly tiering my storage, compute, and AI to 10GbE.

I’ve attached the topology diagram. Let me know what you think, what you would change, and rate it out of 10!

Here are the specs:

🌐 Networking (The 10GbE Backbone)

• Switch: TP-Link TL-SX1008 (8-Port 10G)
• Router: TP-Link Archer BE900 (Wi-Fi 7 - BE24000)
• Note: All critical nodes and my main client PCs/laptops are hooked up via 10GbE adapters.

💻 Compute & Servers

• The Workhorse: Lenovo Legion Tower 5 (AMD Ryzen 7 5700G). Handles all my 24/7 web services and doubles as a gaming server. Hooked up with a TP-Link TX401 10G card.
• The AI Brain: NVIDIA DGX Spark with 128GB RAM. This is my dedicated node for local AI inference and running Ollama models.

💾 Tiered Storage

• Hot Storage (10GbE): Asustor Flashstor 6. Packed with NVMe drives for blistering fast VM storage and quick file transfers across devices.
• Cold Storage (1GbE): WD My Cloud EX4100. High-capacity HDD storage used strictly for automated daily/weekly backups.

⚡ Power & Survival

• UPS: A Good UPS powering all 24/7 devices.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

so I have this router with me , but I am not able to use it as another access point for my existing current isp (Excitel)

this doesn't have wan Ethernet port which would have allowed me to connect it to my other router (which has an internet connection)

it uses this yellow wire to get internet connection (also my Excitel router uses yellow wire to have an internet connection) but I don't think I can hook this up to my Excitel router.

what should I do here?

so airtel router is just a e waste?

context - https://www.reddit.com/r/homelabindia/s/Rwu04UmV2X

Hey there, I have finally started a home lab.
I had some questions,

1. How do I monitor its power consumption effectively?
2. How can I run Opnsense on this machine properly in an proxmox vm?

Also suggestions from experienced people is welcomed.

This is a Optiplex 3060 sff
Processor= i5 8500
OS= Proxmox VE
Ram= 8 gb
Storage = 256 gb

And the optiplex in between the wall and the sofa.