Hello.  My name is Conner.  I have OSD – Obsessive Server Disorder.  They say the first step is to admit you have a problem.  Here is my story.

 

It all started innocent enough.  Last year, anticipating a $600 stimulus check, I decided I would build an Unraid server.  I had a handful of unused components from a decommissioned PC – a 1st gen Ryzen, 8GB of DRAM, a motherboard, a small NVMe drive.  I had packed too many 3GB drives in my small daily driver PC, and it would always be powered on, running my Plex server.  Relocating those drives and off-loading that task to a small server seemed to be a reasonable idea at the time.

 

The build went mostly smooth.  I only overshot my budget by a small amount.  An extra fan here, an internal USB header cable there.  The extra money spent to make it clean was worth it to me.

 

I loaded up the media server on the machine.  Then I started thinking, “What else can it do?”  This is where I went down a rabbit hole of trouble.

 

Found a good deal on some 6TB drives.  I bought 3 of them.  Future proofing is good, I felt.  It was nice to see that extra storage space.  The 8GB of DRAM seemed inadequate, as I started installing more Dockers, so added 8GB more.  I’m up to 28 Dockers installed, with 22 running all the time.  At least another half dozen pinned in CA, to try out in the future.

 

I started with an old GT760 to do some hardware transcoding.  But felt it worth upgrading so I could handle NVENC H.265.  A Quadro P400 only costs around $100.  The power supply I had was very old and less than trustworthy, so a new one was ordered.  I found a great deal on a UPS, to prevent those annoying unclean shutdowns from summer thunderstorms. 

 

Looking for an offsite backup solution, I again repurposed those 3TB drives I moved, I took those out of the server, and put them in external USB enclosures, to swap and safely keep at work.  I ended up buying 4 more drives (two 6TB and two 8TB).  The Intel NVMe is small and slow, so now have a 500GB to install as cache in the upcoming weeks.

 

I worry how I’m affecting my family.  I have already corrupted my son.  He really enjoys being able to request and add media through one of the Dockers, and stream to his (or his girlfriend’s) apartment.  The domain name I purchased makes it easier for him, as well as allows me to get around the DNS firewall at work, to access the server.

 

My wife rolls her eyes when another package arrives, with more of my “toys”.  But I feel she may be enabling me.  I may need to add the Amazon driver to this year’s Christmas list.

 

I was thinking that Limetech may consider creating a sub-forum, where folks like us can help each other through our OSD issues.  But I decided that may not be the best idea – it would be like holding an AA meeting down at the local pub.

 

Thank you for letting me share my story.

 

 

Edited November 8, 20214 yr by ConnerVT

Hi, I'm Tim and I also have OSD.  I managed to convince some family members to host a couple of my servers.  The unRAID01 and unRAID02 are off-site.  The 01, 02, and 03 servers all synchronize between each other so each are duplicates (triplicates) of one another.  Everything works pretty good but I constantly have to tweak things and I can't leave things alone.

Fun post! I also suffer from OSD. I currently have 4 unraid servers deployed.

 

1. Personal/Test server. This is where I test new containers before deploying them to other servers. It also has my plex/*ARR containers, my personal nextcloud server, syncthing, urlshortener, and a few others. 

Specs: SuperMicro X9DRE-TF+ mobo, dual intel E5 2670 CPUs 8c,16t each (probably upgrading them soon, though), 96GB DDR3 RAM, 40TB array storage (plus dual parity disks) 2 cache pools, both in raid 1. First being 2x1TB NVMe drives, the second 2x500 SATA SSDs, and a P600 Quadro for plex transcoding.

 

2. Work server. I use this for my business, it runs a second Nextcloud instance for contacts, calendar, and data storage, , bitwarden password manager, MeshCentral for remote access to client PCs, Snipe-IT for assent tracking/management, and syncthing (as an off-site encrypted backup for a client, as well as backing up my company docs to my own backup server)

Specs: Tyan S7012 mobo, dual X5687 CPUs 4c8t each, 24GB RAM, 2x4TB array storage plus 1 parity, and also 2 cache pools, also both in raid 1. First is 2x256GB SSD, the second is 2x500GB SSD.

 

3. Network services server. This only runs NPM (nginx proxy manager) Unifi Controller (running my home network + off-site networks for clients, all unifi traffic is through VPN so no direct public access to the controller for security), and CloudflaredTunnel 

Specs: ASRock J3455-ITX mobo/integrated CPU, 4GB RAM. The array storage is actually just 1 16GB flash drive, with a second for parity (but they dont actually store anything, only there in case I need to drop something on them real quick) The cache is 2x500GB SSDs in raid 1, they only store app data for the few dockers.

 

4. Backup Server. Exactly what it says, its a backup location for my other 3 servers. Appdata Backup on all 3 servers points to this server as a save location. Same thing with Syncthing, my main and work servers backup critical data to this server, as well as databases running on both servers for nextcloud, bitwarden, etc.

Specs: MSI MS-7865 mobo, AMD Athlon 5350 CPU, 8GB RAM, 4TB Array storage with 1 parity drive, no cache pools here. 

 

I currently have no off-site backup, but I will be deploying one soon. Dont have the specs for it, but it wont be anything special, just 1x12TB drive with a second for parity. Basically a duplicate of my backup server, just off-site, which will live at my parents house. All data will be synced via Synching Encrypted. 

 

I also have a "game" server which is a 4790k and 16GB RAM (my old gaming rig). It just runs windows right now, used to host a Rust server, but havent played much lately. Once Satisfactory 1.0 releases on Sept 10 ill be hosting a server for me and a few friends. 

 

Also just to touch on the rest of my network/infrastructure.. I have a SuperMicro SC505 server running pfsense as my firewall. It has to OpenVPN servers running, one for my personal connection, and another client unifi devices to connect back to the controller I run. I think I have 6 VLANs currently, personal, work, guest, CCTV, management LAN, and an "untrusted" network for client devices that I have to work on in my home office. Things are secured very well. I also deploy PfSense firewalls at client sites whos networks I manage. Each running a VPN server to give me remote access, as well as the VPN client which connects to the VPN server at my home office for the unifi controller. All running DDNS though cloudflare since none of them want to pay for static IPs lol.

 

I think that pretty much covers it.. Future plans include actually building out my CCTV (have all the cameras its just too god damn hot to run cables through the attic, waiting til fall to do that) I will be adding another VLAN for the computers around the house that run plex on common area TVs (living room, dining room). Not sure if im gonna run linux or windows on those long term... project for another day I suppose. SOMEDAY I might add some home automation, but Im in no hurry and its a lot of work to save myself hitting a light switch or something. Honestly more of a time killer than something I think is necessary. I dont really have too much I care to automate. outside of putting actuators on all my windows and opening/closing them and turning off the AC when the outside temp is cool enough. But tbh I cant be arsed to do that much work right now... Maybe someday lol

 

The OSD is real

Edited August 14, 20241 yr by 2Piececombo
forgot CPU spec of work server

On 12/12/2022 at 10:45 PM, TimTheSettler said:

Hi, I'm Tim and I also have OSD.  I managed to convince some family members to host a couple of my servers.  The unRAID01 and unRAID02 are off-site.  The 01, 02, and 03 servers all synchronize between each other so each are duplicates (triplicates) of one another.  Everything works pretty good but I constantly have to tweak things and I can't leave things alone.

When you say duplicate, do you mean just the data? Or services as well? If also services, how do you manage that?

Thanks for the post.  I haven't gotten any better.  I've meant to update this thread a few times - As you can see from my siggy, the number of servers I have has doubled, and most of what is inside them has changed over time.  There is little that is left from my original server build.  Just like the ship of Theseus, if all of the parts are replaced, is it still the same server?

 

This week I got a call and a voicemail from ServerPartDeals.  They must of been worried about me, as I hadn't ordered any drives in several months.  I've had a number of cold calls from businesses over the years, but this was the first time I've had a computer parts store call...

On 8/14/2024 at 7:42 PM, 2Piececombo said:

When you say duplicate, do you mean just the data? Or services as well? If also services, how do you manage that?

 

The core configuration (shares, users, etc.) are all the same.  All three servers run syncthing with almost identical folder setups.  All three servers are physically identical with similar components.  However, each server has their own dockers, some are similar for regular server maintenance (like syncthing) while others (like Plex or Minecraft) are run on some but not all of them.

 

So the configurations are all the same, most of the data are the same, most of the plugins/dockers are the same, but there are some differences.

On 8/14/2024 at 6:21 PM, 2Piececombo said:

I think I have 6 VLANs currently, personal, work, guest, CCTV, management LAN, and an "untrusted" network for client devices that I have to work on in my home office.

 

I love the network setup.  Mine is pretty simple because I'm not a network guy.  Very nice!

17 hours ago, TimTheSettler said:

 

The core configuration (shares, users, etc.) are all the same.  All three servers run syncthing with almost identical folder setups.  All three servers are physically identical with similar components.  However, each server has their own dockers, some are similar for regular server maintenance (like syncthing) while others (like Plex or Minecraft) are run on some but not all of them.

 

So the configurations are all the same, most of the data are the same, most of the plugins/dockers are the same, but there are some differences.

At one point I was looking into a HA (high availability) setup for unraid, but my initial research seemed to conclude that it wasn't really practical. Better to just have a good backup/recovery process. 

17 hours ago, TimTheSettler said:

 

I love the network setup.  Mine is pretty simple because I'm not a network guy.  Very nice!

I still have more work to do on my network, like all things homelab it's always evolving, but It's sure come a long way from where I started!! I'm by no means that wealth of all network knowledge, but if you need any help or advice with your network/configuration or if there's anything you want to do but aren't sure how I'm happy to help! Shoot me a PM!