I’m currently running homebridge and pihole from an older Lenovo (i5, 256 SSD, 8GB ram) laptop (tweaked power settings to allow idle when closed) hardwired into a switch. I am currently running Ubuntu Server LTS, and have uptime ~2 weeks. I’m a little worried about reliability, I was originally using Ubuntu Desktop LTS, and I had an issue with the OS crashing after a 4 days of basically idle…
So my question is, is this a feasible solution? Should I pursue something like a SBC or migrate the machine to an old desktop instead? I don’t mind working on the machine occasionally, performing maintenance etc but I don’t want to have to troubleshoot the machine on a weekly basis.
I also would like to get into more self hosting, I find it to be super interesting and fun, does anyone have any projects they wouldn’t mind recommending or sharing?
Thanks guys!
Sure. It’s plenty feasible. I’ve used old laptops, desktops, a server board running naked under my desk with parts strewn about… anything can run your homelab.
The only thing you may have issues with long term in a laptop like that is the battery turning into a spicy balloon. Regardless of whether its healthy, or totally “dead” and wont charge, it can and will still start to offgas and can catch on fire. If it has a removable battery, take it out and run the laptop on a normal UPS that is designed to sit fully charged and plugged in 24/7.
Oof the spicy pillow…didn’t think about that one. I will def take a look into running it independent from the battery thank you
Lenovo laptops often have a setting to limit battery charge to 80% which would solve that issue, but I think usually you have to do it from their windows utility software.
There’s a way to do it on Linux. It requires the acpi_call kernel module and a couple of shell commands. Here’s a write up: https://tildehacker.com/lenovo-ideapad-battery-conservation-mode-gnu-linux
Most BIOS allow you to set a charge cap to the battery. 60% is a good number for something that will always be plugged in.
But if you can just take it out that’s fine too, but not having to buy a UPS is a nice bonus to laptop servers
thank you I’ll take a look into that
I ran my homelab on a very similar setup for years, with storage provided by USB enclosures. It works great. I eventually moved to a cheap-as-hell used optiplex desktop because my old laptop was maxed out on ram and I wanted to run some additional heavy containers and a used office desktop is about as cheap as anything in terms of cost per GB of ram.
I started with an old office PC as my first server. Later I switched to a laptop which consumed way less energy and performed well. That worked for years until I got into Raspberry Pis and clusters and lately replaced 2 Pis with SFF PCs because of higher demand on CPU and RAM.
Use whatever works for your needs and expand when it doesn’t fit anymore. But the most important thing: Have fun!
Yes I was just looking around work to see if there were any older Dell Micros in the recycles pile that I could use…I feel this would be the optimal setup for sure.
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Thanks for the advice on the containers!
It really kind of depends on your luck with the hardware. I’ve used laptops as servers for durations of several months at various points in the past and had no particular problems, just make sure cooling is adequate.
You might consider setting up a Proxmox node if you’re interested in virtualization at the machine level (i.e. having several virtual machines running on one physical machine, which can reduce maintenance headaches and make experimentation easier as VMs can be snapshotted, cloned, and easily replaced)
Oh wow Proxmox looks interesting, I like that it has a web interface. I am a little interested, mostly because pfsense needs to run within a VM, but I’ve never really done any virtualization on Ubuntu.
Is Proxmox similar to like an open-source version of Hyper-V?
More or less. I don’t think many people use Hyper-V as a type 1 hyper visor in their home labs (unless that’s what they’re using at work and trying to learn for there), but I could be wrong. I think the more common comparison would be ESXi.
Laptop probably has some downsides but on the upside, it’s low power and you have a built in UPS.
If the OS begins to crash, that will need diagnosis, but other than that, no more than any other linux maintenance…
…hmm.
If you have stability issues, check the RAM. Sometimes they are slightly faulty but you never notice when rebooting regularly.
But yes hosting stuff on an old laptop is perfectly feasible and IMHO recommended for beginners.
The main problem is usually that you outgrow the limited number of SATA and/or NVMe ports for adding additional storage and USB3 to SATA adapters can be a bit too flaky for building a raid or similar.
Well, there’s no limit to perfection. As long as the upgrade fits your budget - then go for it. And if you just starting out/ trying out selfhosting as a new hobby, then the old laptop is perfectly fine (I sure as hell started from an old laptop, and much more crappy than that). Switching to an old desktop - depends on the desktop and how much you depend on the computer having a screen when you do maintenance.
I pretty much just use SSH so screen is just an accessory. I was thinking about pulling an old Dell Micro out of the recycles pile from work, and working on upgrading parts as needed from trashed computers.
Sounds good! :)
I have an ancient Dell desktop (Intel Core 2, 1TB HDD, 2.5GB RAM, one partially corrupted RAM stick) running as server, current uptime is 318 days. I reckon you should be fine, as long as the cooling keeps up.
