Me, I’m currently hosting pi-hole on a RPi 3B+ and the beginnings of a kubernetes cluster on 4 RPi 4B’s. I have a total of 6 RPi 4B’s. One is going to server NAS or NFS for the kubernetes cluster and the other is for, when I can find the time to work it, a kodi box that I want to test as a Roku replacement.
Roku is moving to voice search and all of the new models have microphones in the remotes. This is a deal-breaker for me. While I know that you can buy a non-voice model, I’d prefer to move to something open-source. Roku collects personal data and some of the Roku apps now code DNS lookups internally, which bypasses my DNS servers and we just can’t allow that.
With that being said, let’s get this party started.
On the RPi 4b, I have run:
Nagios (EMS)
Grafana/InfluxDB/Telegraf
Zabbix
All of these are monitoring apps. I’ve also run a couple of the Linux desktop distro’s, just as a test. My personal opinion about using RPi as a desktop computer is that it is definitely doing for most tasks, like email, surfing the web, youtube, etc. I would probably opt for a SSD to help speed things up a little, but you can’t the price.
I have an 8GB RPi 4B that I use as my alt-desktop. It’s in an Argon One M.2 case with a Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA (250GB). For the screen I have an XtendTouch TX1310F and for a tiny keyboard that’s still nice I have a Perrix PERIBOARD 326. I’m running Manjaro-i3 and it works really nicely. I can also SSH into my main PC if I want to run anything on there.
There’s a project for a nice fan controller for the Argon One M.2 case that works with lots of distros, including Manjaro, on GitLab: DarkElvenAngel / Argon One Daemon · GitLab
Right now, our PiHole is running in a Debian VM on one of our Synology DS1618+ NAS, but we have a 2GB RPi 4B and another Argon One M.2 case coming so we can move it to there and maybe also some network monitoring stuff like what Jeff Geerling showed on this video: Your ISP is lying! Monitor your Internet with a Pi - YouTube
And we got 6 ea RPi 4B 4GB and parts to build a cluster, but haven’t had time to put it together yet. Hopefully soon!
In that case is a 4-node kubernetes cluster and one storage server connected to a 500GB SSD. All of the RPi-4 B’s are wearing PoE hats and the Netgear is an L2 managed PoE switch. The SSD is connected to a powered USB hub. There are only three cables coming out of the rear. One powers the switch, one powers the USB hub and the last cable connects to a trunk on my main switch (see below).
This is part of my home lab, or at least the new network that is about to be installed in my home lab:
Pictured is a Unif FlexHD AP connected to a Ubiquiti/EdgeMAX 25-port L3 managed switch (non-PoE), which is connected to a Ubiquiti/EdgeRouter-4.
Not pictured is an Intel NUC with four Intel 10/100/1000 NICs running OPNsense, which is currently connected to my cable modem (yeah, my cable modem, not my ISP’s).
I need to configure the VLAN’s on the router and then the DHCP scopes for each VLAN/subnet, then install the Unifi network controller on a VM (eventually, it will be moved into a container in the kubernetes cluster) so that I can configure the AP, then configure the ports on the switch for the appropriate VLANs.
Also, not pictured is a RPi 3B+ running pi-hole, and finally my Hypervisor, running Debian 10 and KVM.
I have a Pi Zero running pi-hole via Ethernet and it does fine. I have a second Pi Zero I would like to set up as a backup for pi-hole, but have not gotten around to it yet. I have a Pi 3B+ unused at present. Once I get my Proxmox server up and pfSense running on it I plan on finding a use case for the Pi 3.
I’ve got two RPi B+ units running pihole+unbound for the home LAN, and a 3B+ running PiVPN & Unifi controller. Those are the ones that are actually ‘mission critical’ ie I really should make backup copies of the micro SD cards, just in case.
I’ve got a few newer RPi 4B+ units - two 4 gig and one 8 gig. Plan is/was to have one setup with Kodi for in the RV, one to take over most of the duties of the old B+'S, using containers, and one for ‘play’.
