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