Look Ma, No Cloud

12 Clouds 2025

Slides at ian.im/12c25

Ian Littman / @ian@phpc.social / @ian.im / @iansltx

Alternate title: Geo-redundant backups

using (mostly) old gear I had laying around

I've got nodes in different availability zones

  • Different power company
  • Different ISP
  • Comparable distance to AWS AZ separation
  • No monthly fees beyond what we already pay for internet
  • No, this isn't a proper homelab (but it uses less energy than one)

Location A

  • 2 Gbps / 3 Gbps GFiber
  • Google 6E router (2.5+ Gbps ports)
  • 2.5GbE network
  • N150 Mini PC
  • 8TB USB HDD
  • no-IP dynamic DNS

Location B

  • 300 Mbps / 200 Mbps wireless
  • Calyx WiFi 6 router (gigabit ports)
  • Gigabit network
  • Converted Asus Chromebox
  • 5TB + 3TB USB HDDs
  • afraid.org dynamic DNS

Location A has containerized cats

Mini PC: N150 (6W), 12GB RAM, 2.5GbE, $165

Chromebox: Asus 1.4 GHz 15W Celeron, 10GB RAM

literally the model shown on MrChromebox

Common elements

  • Ubuntu 24.04 Server
  • Port forwarding to expose SSH

One 2.5 Gbps port, one gigabit port

This $40 switch is finicky

This $50 switch is Less finicky

Topology

  • Time Machine -> Location A NAS (SMBv2 SAMBA share)
  • ??? -> Location B NAS (SMBv2 SAMBA share)
  • Location A <-> Location B rsync
  • Pro tip: SAMBA has its own passwords

Future work

  • Retire shared hosting + VPS in favor of local hosting (behind Cloudflare)
  • Bigger drive(s)?
  • Maybe trashing the power budget by getting a Strix Halo box (but probably not)

Thanks!

Slides at ian.im/12c25

Questions? Find me here / @ian@phpc.social / @ian.im / @iansltx