LinuxNiche

Downsizing My Homelab (Again!)

Downsizing My Homelab (Again!) – Introducing the Cubi-Rack System

A while back , I wrote about downsizing my homelab from a full 24U 19” rack to a more compact 10” DeskPi setup. That shift was great, but a few of my complaints was the use of 10/32" threaded holes instead of the more standard Square Hole, and the more I’ve used it the fixed side panels were a pain when needing to maintenance mounted hardware. After looking into Project Mini Rack , I realized there weren’t many options of Open-Rack, or modular, designs that featured the Square Hole pattern that you’ll typically find in Datacenters. For the Home enthusiast, it may not be that important, but I much prefer the versatility this mounting option provides.

Anycubic Kobra S1: A Strong Contender in High-Speed 3D Printing

Anycubic Kobra S1

The Anycubic Kobra S1 is one of the newest entrants in the high-speed CoreXY 3D printer market, offering fast printing speeds, automatic bed leveling, and an integrated AI-powered camera. While much of the attention has been on the Kobra S1 Combo, which includes the ACE Pro multi-material system, I purchased the standalone Kobra S1—without the ACE Pro—and will be providing insight into its real-world performance, build quality, and software ecosystem.

Daisy-Chaining ezcoo HDMI Switches with BliKVM and PiKVM

Setting up the BliKVM V3 Hat with Daisy-chained ezcoo switches

This past Christmas, I received a BliKVM V3 HAT from a family member, and it has quickly become a pivotal tool in managing my homelab. My homelab, neatly tucked away in the basement inside a 10" Mini Rack , houses 10 servers: 5 Raspberry Pi’s and 5 1L TinyMiniMicro PCs. I wanted an efficient way to remotely install OSes and manage these devices without constantly heading downstairs.

Is Kubernetes Good for a Homelab?

The question of whether Kubernetes is suitable for a homelab setup has been circulating for a while, and it’s one that recently caught my attention after watching Raid Owl’s video on Docker Swarm. In the video, he highlights Kubernetes’ complexity and suggests it might be overkill for most homelab enthusiasts. As someone who’s been working with Kubernetes clusters for over a decade, I found this perspective interesting—and it prompted me to reflect on whether Kubernetes really is too complex for home use.

About Me

With over 20 years of experience in IT, I have built a career spanning Windows and Linux Administration, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Cloud Infrastructure Engineering. My expertise has taken me through both the public and private sectors, including service in the U.S. Navy, work as a Federal Contractor, and roles in e-commerce and global enterprises.

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Shrinking My Homelab: Migrating to the DeskPi RackMate

Why Downsize?

If you run a homelab, you know the struggle—space, heat, noise, electrical and just the sheer sprawl of hardware. I’ve transitioned my Homelab from multiple old laptops, various cloud platforms, full rack servers, to raspberry pi farms. I have been running an enclosed 19" 24U rack for a couple years now, and the current hardware is detailed below. After seeing Project Mini Rack by Jeff Geerling, I started reconsidering the setup. My original plan was an 8U and a 4U DeskPi RackMate (T0/T1) for a combined 12U, but the 8U sold out as I was ordering so I pivoted and picked up three 4U units instead.

Welcome to the New LinuxNiche Blog

After almost a decade, LinuxNiche is back! Originally launched in 2009, this blog was a place where I shared insights, reviews, and technical write-ups on firewalls, networking, and Linux-based projects. Over the years, technology evolved, my homelab expanded, and my focus shifted—so it was time for a reboot.

The last post was in 2016, and rather than carrying forward outdated content, I’ve decided to start fresh. The deprecated articles have been removed, and moving forward, this blog will serve as an informational outlet for the projects I work on in my homelab. Whether it’s about self-hosting, automation, Kubernetes, networking, or hardware reviews, this will be the place to document it.