Some Thoughts on Altering My Focus

Boy, I really sound disjointed don’t I? I have been so focused on Genealogy that I have almost forgotten how much I enjoy the HomeLab experience. But now it is time to get serious with myself and admit that I need to focus on one project to conclusion. There are two items I need to finish before I can get back into it: finish the rack change and setup the CA that I have been meaning to do since I retired.

Inventory Time

 Why is taking inventory at times in your homelab frought with difficulty? I periodically take inventory to remind myself of all the things I have bought over time and have not used yet.  I was amazed at the number of Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, and ESP32s I have in my tubs.  It does however give me a chance to figure out what new and different projects that I want to get into.  It also forces to the front all of the projects that got waylaid because I found something newer and shinnier out there.  Case in point: I discovered an UNO R3 board that was based on an ESP32 chip and I discovered an ESP32-P4 board which was size wise identical to a Raspberry Pi.  Who knew? 

I discovered a bankers box at the top of my double shelf system that had all kinds of electronic breadboards in the process of being activated into a project and had been stored away for later use.  I am in the process of re-arranging my rack to add an additional panel of RPis, mostly 3s and 2s.  Once I have that accomplished, I will be choosing what things I want the older RPis to do. I would like to concentrate on internal rack and HomeLab monitoring functions.  Not easy but possible to do in a short sequence of actions.  My other hobbies have gotten out of hand.

I have been contemplating what changes need to be made to the rack and other components

 Right now I need to get the RPi Cluster Box onto the shelf.  I need to remove the WAP that I have hooked to my patch panel on my shelf.  By doing this I will free up some space on the shelf so that the equipment can fit.  

I also need to determine whether I should add the Edgerouter 12p to the mix.  I found out that I should be able to setup some of the ports on the 12p to act like a generic unmanaged switch with no router functions.  I will believe it when I see it however.  I am also not sure of how hot the 12p will get sitting on the shelf. It would make things a lot easier though.

So my immediate concern is to keep the SW116 on the shelf, preferably under the RPi Cluster and work on configuring the 12p later.  This should be a workable solution.  I have already started to determine which RPis will fit into the rack unit that I moved EXP0 through EXP3 from and become my new xPod elements.