A few years ago I had a couple old and slow Optiplex’s running Hyper-V, with Windows/Linux VM’s, doing things like NPS, AD, etc.

Had some old equipment collecting dust, so I’ve built out a decent homelab and am curious if anyone else has done the same, and if so what are they running on them for fun?

In my new “rack”:

  • PowerEdge R430
    • Running ProxMox, with a Windows VM (DC), and a Linux VM with Docker for Plex
  • EqualLogic PS4100
    • VM storage for both PowerEdge servers (10TB)
  • Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 24 250w
  • PowerEdge R720
    • Running ProxMox, with some Linux VM’s, most utilizing Docker for Plex “assistance/automations” (ahem), NextCloud for phone photo backup and wife’s photography, and another DC as a failover of R430’s DC.
    • @L3sOPM
      5•2 years ago

      Yeah, my main thought was this is free(minus power costs of course), which is why I went with it.

      I looked into different Synology solutions with some kind of host such as your setup, how are you liking Synology as a NAS and does the Optiplex as a host give you any draw backs(NIC/CPU/Memory maxing out, etc)?

    • @pdavis
      5•2 years ago

      Similar situation. I realized my desktop that I constantly upgrade every few years was always going to be faster and more powerful than older or salvaged hardware. I now just keep it on all the time and run VMs on it as needed. Just one physical machine to maintain now! I run Aster on it so it acts as three physical machines. It is my gaming machine, my parteners gaming machine, file server, development server, database server, emulator pedestal, Emby server, Blue Iris server, and my work computer.

    • @LanyrdSkynrd
      3•2 years ago

      Same. It was a shame to let a working server go to waste, but the fan droning was making me crazy.