I was reading a homelab discussion about NUTs (Network UPS Tools) that left me scratching my head and wondering "…why? Is complexity for complexities sake part of homelabs? Isn’t this a huge overkill for one machine? Just…use a UPS? "

Then I got to thinking more broadly about homelabbing and I started to wonder if there weren’t maybe (at least) two different schools of thought.

Using home media as example -

  • Store the original.
  • Detect the client.
  • Transcode when required.
  • Monitor the GPU.
  • Add reverse proxy et al
  • Track bandwidth.
  • Add user accounts
  • Add failover.
  • Graph the result.
  • Dashboard.

Vs

  • Store a common compatible file for your devices.
  • Play it directly.

Which school of thought are you and why?

PS: not throwing shade. I get it; for some people, complexity, learning infrastructure, practicing skills for work etc is part of the why. For me, complexity as recreation is suspiciously like work after work.

Perhaps there’s an odd Venn diagram between homelabbing, interest in ownership / useful capability and infrastructure that could make for a fun discussion. For you, is homelabbing a means to an end or is it an end in itself?

EDIT: Feel free to consider “home-lab” and “self hosted” as synonyms for the purpose of this discussion (although I am aware they are somewhat different in scope).

  • unitedwithme@lemmy.todayEnglish
    6·
    15 hours ago

    I love homelabbing as much as the next guy… But at my current job, i get enough fix to not do so much at home. And work sort of acts like my Dev environment and home is my production anymore.

    I want to run something? I stand up a test at work and often implement it. Once familiar, now it’s faster to setup something similar at home instead of eating precious family or me time.

    Having said that. I have NUT servers on every UPS/IDF (about 14) and it’s helped numerous times when power is lost. I get a alerts through NTFY and can fix before my UPS goes offline. My batteries are overkill so it buys me about 45-60 minutes too. I’m also now protective and not reactive, so i get to avoid a bunch of complaints.

    The other bonus: I spend company money and not my own 😅😅. But most stuff is useful and worth it. I learned to also inform upper management and/or owners each time something I good saves my ass so they know its working and not a waste of money. At least it helps avoid the appearance I’m (always) sitting on my ass all day.