⛓️💥 My DIY Mini Rack
🔗 https://github.com/ianleckie/homelab
👀 Overview
As a web developer, I have always overlapped with the devops world a bit. As I have been digging into that side more, I have found a need for infrastructure of my own to experiment with and setup how I really want to. I have also been becoming less and less comfortable recently with relying on cloud providers to store my personal data.
When I discovered @geerlingguy and the mini rack project, my homelab vision started to take shape.
I knew I didn't want to buy something off-the-shelf so while I researched and tracked down hardware, I started designing a rack that I could build myself. My design is based on inexpensive 6U rack rails found online. I designed and 3d printed templates to help make the rack sides themselves out of 1/2" birch plywood. The templates locate the bolt holes, and allowed me to shape the sides with a trim router.
💾 The template can be shortened to 4U by removing the spacers, or expanded to 8U+ by adding more spacers.
I then found and designed mounts for the hardware I wanted to house. I am working with a Bambu A1 Mini 3D printer, so everything had to be designed in multiple pieces that could be joined together after printing.
Printing it harlequin-style was just more fun.
📋 Rack Details
🖱️ Hardware
- Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway
- HDMI KVM
- Ubiquiti Flex Mini 2.5Gb switch
- GeeekPi/52Pi EP-0249 5v USB power supply module
- Dev Server: Dell OptiPlex 3070 w/2.5Gb (Ubuntu)
- Media Server: Intel Mac Mini (Ubuntu)
- Reserved for RaspberryPi
- NAS: Zima Blade w/2.5Gb (Debian/OpenMediaVault)
- 2x10TB drives (mirrored)
🔩 Other Parts
🤖 Primary Tech Stack
Everything in the rack is on a private VLAN managed via the gateway, and uses Restic and Backblaze B2 to implement a nightly 3-2-1 backup approach.
🔮 Future Plans
- UPS
- RaspberryPi/PiHole
- Remote KVM
- Move remaining network/cameras to Ubiquiti
- More GPU/compute for local AI
🗃️ Project Files
📓 Setup Handbook
Reference on setting up and securing core services and applications.
⚙️ Config Files
Semi-templated files referenced by setup steps in handbook.
🗄️ 3D Files
STLs for parts I designed.
💾 Badge
💾 Dell Mount
💾 Mac Mini Mount
💾 Pi/Zima Blade Mount
💾 Top 2U Front Panel
💾 Misc. Back Parts
💾 Rack Sides Template Parts
💾 Rack Side Inserts
📷 Images
✌️
⛓️💥 My DIY Mini Rack
🔗 https://github.com/ianleckie/homelab
👀 Overview
As a web developer, I have always overlapped with the devops world a bit. As I have been digging into that side more, I have found a need for infrastructure of my own to experiment with and setup how I really want to. I have also been becoming less and less comfortable recently with relying on cloud providers to store my personal data.
When I discovered @geerlingguy and the mini rack project, my homelab vision started to take shape.
I knew I didn't want to buy something off-the-shelf so while I researched and tracked down hardware, I started designing a rack that I could build myself. My design is based on inexpensive 6U rack rails found online. I designed and 3d printed templates to help make the rack sides themselves out of 1/2" birch plywood. The templates locate the bolt holes, and allowed me to shape the sides with a trim router.
💾 The template can be shortened to 4U by removing the spacers, or expanded to 8U+ by adding more spacers.
I then found and designed mounts for the hardware I wanted to house. I am working with a Bambu A1 Mini 3D printer, so everything had to be designed in multiple pieces that could be joined together after printing.
Printing it harlequin-style was just more fun.
📋 Rack Details
🖱️ Hardware
🔩 Other Parts
🤖 Primary Tech Stack
Everything in the rack is on a private VLAN managed via the gateway, and uses Restic and Backblaze B2 to implement a nightly 3-2-1 backup approach.
🔮 Future Plans
🗃️ Project Files
📓 Setup Handbook
Reference on setting up and securing core services and applications.
⚙️ Config Files
Semi-templated files referenced by setup steps in handbook.
🗄️ 3D Files
STLs for parts I designed.
💾 Badge
💾 Dell Mount
💾 Mac Mini Mount
💾 Pi/Zima Blade Mount
💾 Top 2U Front Panel
💾 Misc. Back Parts
💾 Rack Sides Template Parts
💾 Rack Side Inserts
📷 Images
✌️