Homelab projects to try this weekend (February 20
Are you looking for a fun homelab project to try this weekend? I have three for you to spin! From network notifications to server performance and backup, here are the homelab projects you should start before Monday.
Get notified when a new device joins your Wi-Fi network with NetAlertX
Is your neighbor stealing your Wi-Fi?
Have you ever wanted to know when new devices join your Wi-Fi network? Well, NetAlertX is the perfect tool for the job. NetAlertX runs comprehensive ad hoc network scans and gives you a complete visualization of your network. It also provides cross-network synchronization and visibility if you have multiple VLANs or networks to monitor.
NetAlertX integrates with over 80 notification services, including email and various messaging platforms. This allows you to be notified every time a device joins your network. Having this type of visibility into your network infrastructure can be helpful in many ways. For example, if devices are constantly joining and leaving your network that you don’t recognize, there may be people on your network that shouldn’t be there.
Whether or not you fear the presence of intruders on your network, monitoring network activity is crucial for a secure homelab. So if you don’t already have something like NetAlertX in place on your network, take some time this weekend to set it up.
View real-time performance data for every server in your homelab with NetData
Are any of your servers running at full capacity?
If you’ve always been looking for a simple solution to monitor multiple servers at the same time, NetData is a great choice. Although aimed at professional users, NetData introduced a homelab plan aimed at non-commercial home users a few years ago.
With NetData, you will be able to see the real-time performance of each server in your homelab. From total disk read and write performance on your nodes to average CPU usage per node, average RAM usage per node, and more, NetData helps you monitor every aspect of your homelab.
Even if you don’t think you need to deploy something like NetData in your homelab, you probably do. Having a monitoring service like this deployed is a great way to keep an eye on your servers.
If one server is using almost 80% CPU and 90% RAM all day, while another is at 10% CPU and 20% RAM, it may be time to distribute some services differently in your homelab. Or, if all of your servers are constantly using high RAM or CPU, it might be time to upgrade your hardware (or add a new server to the mix).
In fact, the information you get from running NetData in your homelab is invaluable when it comes time to upgrade. I learned the hard way that upgrading a homelab before it’s necessary just introduces a lot of pain and unnecessary expense. But waiting too long is just as painful: deploying a tool like NetData can really help determine exactly when an upgrade is (or isn’t) necessary.
Make sure your sensitive data is backed up with Kopia and BackBlaze B2
Are you prepared for a hardware failure?
If you have data stored in your homelab that you would be devastated to lose, you really need a solid backup plan. This is where Kopia and BackBlaze B2 come in.
Kopia is a newcomer when it comes to backup solutions, so if you prefer an older program, you can use Duplicati. Both work very similarly and can connect to a wide range of online storage providers.
The way Kopia works is to encrypt, compress and deduplicate your backup before sending it to the selected cloud provider. I would recommend using Backblaze B2, which is only $6/TB/month for the price.
Because Kopia encrypts your data before sending it to the cloud, even sensitive information can be stored securely offsite. Just check the encryption feature if you are really concerned about data security.
You can configure Kopia to back up only specific folders or your entire NAS, depending on how much storage you need. If you haven’t yet configured your NAS to back up offsite, you should really take the time to do so this weekend. It’s like insurance: something you hope you never need, but still want to have just in case.
If you’re just getting started with homelabbing and trying to figure out what hardware to use, I’d focus on mini PCs rather than full-fledged servers. I recently migrated all my Docker containers (over 50!) from my large i9-13900K server with 96 GB of RAM to my NAS and two mini PCs each with only 16 GB of RAM.
Having tons of resources at your disposal sounds nice, but it can become a bit of an electricity bill if you don’t actually need all that energy at your fingertips. So, just avoid big company servers and get a mini PC instead.
- Brand
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KAMURI
- Processor
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i5-14450HX
The KAMRUI Hyper H2 Mini PC features a 10-core, 16-thread Intel Core i5-14450HX processor and 16GB DDR4 RAM. The included 512GB NVMe SSD comes with Windows 11 preinstalled so the system is ready to go out of the box.
