Category: Homelab

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How To Try Out ClassicPress- A Throwback WordPress Alternative

I choose to self-host my site on a VPS. But I know that isn’t for everyone. If you can install WordPress on a shared host, ClassicPress installs the same way. For that reason, many people shared hosting services have a one-click ClassicPress install alongside their WordPress one-click install.

ClassicPress has less of an admin tax than WordPress…the way WordPress used to be. An administration tax is the time you spend administering a site over actually creating content for it. WordPress and ClassicPress both have some of this…but as WordPress moves farther and farther away from its roots, you end up having to update things to work well with the latest. This means that while right now, most WordPress plugins work with ClassicPress…that might increasingly not be the case….at least not without a small amount of work.

For my own plugins, I intend to test them against both systems for the foreseeable future. But as WordPress drifts further away from its roots, and therefore from ClassicPress, people writing plugins that can work without the block editor dependencies becomes increasingly important.

If you already have a WordPress Site, you can install the ClassicPress migration plugin. You can install ClassicPress by following the other options here.

Published on December 24, 2024

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As WordPress Leader Rants, Time To Reach For a Classic With ClassicPress

On my personal website, I do occasionally talk about the future of WordPress and my issues in developing plugins for my own use. But I also maintain the Gadget Wisdom infrastructure. So, recently, I wrote about switching my personal site to ClassicPress. I’m going to continue to write about that there, but wanted to cover a little of this here, in a different context.

Recent drama at WordPress finds a lot of people exploring exits from the community. WordPress drama is not a new thing. There were many times during the transition from WordPress 4.9 to 5.0 I considered leaving. But having built many things on top of a platform, I opted to remain.

More recently, I switched this site over to ClassicPress as well, a fork of WordPress. ClassicPress has a simple plugin to migrate WordPress instances…it will even let you revert back if need be. So, while the drama over on the WordPress side may continue, I get to keep the platform without the elements that frustrate me. There are concerns about ClassicPress as well. WordPress powers a significant percentage of identifiable websites. Forks of projects do not always survive, but there are many examples where they do.

ClassicPress is a fork of WordPress that removes the block editor…WordPress’s big change in Version 5. It retains a traditional editor, which many people prefer, and continues to iterate in that direction. As a result, it is leaner and somewhat more performative. It is WordPress as it used to be…but also with improvements…but in a completely different direction than WordPress while maintaining compatibility. The only problem is that the project doesn’t get the attention it could, especially now that people are questioning the governance of WordPress. But it is WordPress…like it used to be…before it went hard in another direction.

Published on December 24, 2024

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There Is No Place Like Homelab- Why You Need One In Your Life

When I started writing about technology, I don’t think the term homelab existed. I only started hearing it more recently. But like many things, I apparently had one before the term existed. Homelab usually refers to a computer or computers used within your home to experiment. People self-host applications in their homelabs, they build network attached storage, they host and serve their media files. Some people use it to experiment with technologies they might need to or wish to use professionally.

The communities of hobbyists and tech enthusiasts have changed a lot over those years. I still remember when buying a single megabyte of RAM was a big deal, or having a whole 40MB of hard drive space. There is so much out there to experiment with and I’ve been running a homelab without even realizing that’s what I could call it.

A homelab can be as simple as an old retired computer you run a server on. Or it could be a custom built system for purpose. I’ve had both. And I’ve repurposed numerous times before the end of computer hardware’s life cycle.

I’ve written a lot about topics that fall under that previously…self-hosting, storage, media, etc. So, thinking about this under the banner of homelab gives me the chance to talk about this idea of running your own applications on either your home server, or server space you rent outside your house, and the infrastructure I’ve created to do just that. And there is always a new application or new need to experiment with.

A quick warning though. If you experiment in your own home, you do have to be aware that…should you share that home with someone else, that your experiments may affect their quality of life. For example, if you are playing with home automation, they might not appreciate if you cover up the light switches so you can use smart bulbs they can’t control.

That said, let’s get started.

Published on December 4, 2024

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Sitting At The Docker By The Drive Bay: TrueNAS Scale Switches to Docker – But Why Docker?

As part of my continuing, Building My NAS series, I wrote about choosing TrueNAS as the software powering my homebuilt network attached storage device. One of the features of TrueNAS Scale has been the ability to run various self-hosted cloud applications. In the latest version of TrueNAS, the backend for those applications switches to Docker. Docker is arguably the most popular way to deploy pre-built complete applications. It not only isolates each application into its own container, but it simplifies the process of deploying and configuring them.

While the number of applications offered directly in TrueNAS, the switch to Docker allows for tens of thousands of public docker files to set up many more applications than are officially supported.

After years of installing applications on the servers that host them, I’ve reluctantly embraced Docker as a solution for when specific combinations are needed, such as specific versions of software. Looking at why other people use it, it is the…”it just works” philosophy. You can install an application, reinstall it cleanly, isolate it from other things…simplicity has its advantages.

It makes Docker a great way to quickly switch from third party services to your own. And combined with a system like TrueNAS providing storage solutions, it can create the basis for a complete solution for yourself and your home.

Published on December 1, 2024

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Old Storage, New To You: It’s Time To Consider Buying Refurbished Hard Drives

For the entirety of my time buying drives, going back many years, I’ve bought only new hard drives. For my servers, I’ve tried to buy NAS grade drives. NAS drives, compared to a desktop drive, are rated for more continuous operation and load.

But, my redundant backup strategy can be expensive, so while my NAS is using NAS drives I bought new, I decided for one of my two redundant backup locations, I’d try a pair of refurbished drives. I went with an outlet called Goharddrive. They sell through Amazon, eBay, Newegg, etc. Another called Serverpartdeals seems to have good reviews overall, through multiple sources.

From what my research seems to indicate, these two at least have good reputations for offering items that are not likely to fail quickly, and if they do, they quickly honor their five year warranty. Seagate and Western Digital have cut back the warranty period on some drives to 3 years, but still offer some drives at the 5 year mark. So, these refurbished drives, even if they fail, will be replaced during that period. They are designed for high data use as they were likely pulled out of data centers and other enterprise uses.

There are definitely advantages to these refurbished drives even for a primary function. But the lesson is, you shouldn’t use a refurbished drive without redundancy. But the same applies to new drives. New drives may last less time than a refurbished one, or more. So, the lesson in the end is to make sure that you never rely on a single drive regardless.

Here’s a link to a 10TB hard drive sold by Goharddrive via Amazon. A similar new NAS drive is running over double that. Assuming you get 3-5 years out of it, which is guaranteed, you may be taking a risk, but its an acceptable one. So, it’s perfect for sending my files to from my primary NAS, and will sit at a family member’s home as a backup server. Definitely cheaper than the cloud.

Published on July 21, 2024

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A New 4 Bay Network Attached Storage(NAS) Option: The Aoostar Mini PCs

In a previous post, I had mentioned how tempting the Aoostar Mini PC was if I’d needed a 2 bay NAS. I’d wanted a 4 bay NAS. Of course, the 2 bay would be perfect for a remote backup receiving location, over my primary location, where I would want more redundancy. I’ve already ended up with 2 4 bay NAS options, but I’d looked at Aoostar, and they’d promised a 4 bay version at the time. But now, apparently they have it.

It hasn’t made its way to Amazon, where I often link because I don’t like having to wait for things to be drop shipped from the factory, but it is on the manufacturer’s website. If this had been available a few months ago, this would have probably been my purchase. It has the N100 processor I like as a budget low power processor, a good SATA chipset, decent looking ventilation…supports an NVME slot for the drive, 2.5 gigabit LAN…

It is just a lesson, there is always something new around the corner. You can either wait, or get the best available and not sweat the small stuff.

Published on July 5, 2024

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This May Be the ODroid You Are Looking For: ODroid H4 Series

In a previous post, I was excited about the arrival of the ODroid H4+. Then I got a bit nervous because of broken SATA connector on the board. For one, the longevity of the product, having never bought anything like this in the ODroid line, and that Ameridroid would make the return difficult. As mentioned, I had no evidence of that, but dealing with returns is stressful at times, and I think I may have imagined the worst based on some of my less pleasant dealings with other companies.

A few conclusions about the ODroid H4+…The Type 4 NAS case and the positioning of the SATA ports puts too much stress on the SATA cables. You need to buy the ODroid cables because I can’t find anyone else who sells the exact same power cables, as power for the drives comes off the board. I opted to switch to this thinner set of bundled cables. There is a right angle version, but I’m not sure, due the positioning of the ports, if you could place this without straining the ports, which after what happened, I’m a bit worried up. But the thinner cabling does seem to strain less.

Thinking about this for the future, I also had gotten a Jonsbo N2 and put a mini ITX board in it. That feels a lot more robust than the ODroid’s metal sheet case, but it also takes up a lot more room.

As I write this, I’m running tests on some drives I bought to place in it, and then I will work on deployment. You can see below how tiny this thing is, but the fact that the hard drives are providing the structural support makes me wonder about its longevity. I would have felt better it there had been some corner brackets. Also, there are no dust shields around the ports, and the bottom is open. So it could accumulate a lot of dust.

The ODroid line is popular, and if you look, all of these cases for the H4 line and its predecessor, the H3 line have this scratchbuilt in a garage feel to them. But, just because something has that look and feel doesn’t mean it is bad. I would recommend this as a server.

Published on June 18, 2024

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Building My NAS: Choosing The Software To Manage My Network Attached Storage

I have gone through a lot of evolution of computer technology over the years, not only the technology, but my thinking. I remember my first server, which doubled as a NAS. It was a yellow full tower server system and had wheels . Why yellow? It was really inexpensive. But it was also really overbuilt for what I needed. I never filled all the bays and I never used it to its full capacity. And technology changed. I started building smaller, rather than overbuilding. I’ve gone from desktop, to laptop, to small PC, to mini PC, which is an evolution conversation in itself.

When my home built NAS died in the middle of the night some years ago, I ran to the store and bought a commercial NAS, because I was at the point in my life where I didn’t want to deal with another home build. So I went with a NAS and then a dedicated home server next to the NAS. And that was partly because the commercial NAS software was limiting and the manufacturer has stopped updating my model, but also because the hardware in NASes is always behind what you can get if you build it yourself. So, by investing in a NAS case, a motherboard, and using open-source, I can in future swap out the motherboard, upgrade the RAM, etc and continue…provided I keep to the same software platform.The lifespan is much longer.

I could run all my applications on the NAS, especially with the new hardware, but I want something that acts like an appliance…something that only is storage and storage related functions. I don’t want to clutter it with other things, even though it means another system to run server functions. Last time, I installed Linux and configured it. But there is software to make a computer a dedicated appliance, so it eliminated all the work I had to do to get everything working.

There are three popular options for NAS software…TrueNAS, Unraid, and OpenMediaVault.

TrueNAS has a commercial and a community version. It comes in the classic Core version, based on FreeBSD and the newer Linux based Scale. I get the impression impression Scale is the future for the project. Scale allows for containers and virtual machines if you want to run your applications on top of it. For the drives, it offers ZFS and the ability to deploy object storage similar to Amazon’s S3. ZFS is an incredibly robust filesystem.

Unraid, by comparison, is also commercially supported, with a license cost of $49 to $249, which includes the software. The most expensive membership at $249 is lifetime, which means updates for life, and the others offer updates for a year with a fee to upgrade after that. Even with no updates, some security patches are still offered for the older versions. The advantage of Unraid is it can manage drives that vary in size, speed, brand, and filesystem…so no RAID technology. Instead, it uses a dedicated parity drive, and offers a cache drive for speed.

Openmediavault is somewhere closer to Unraid in its simplicity, but has no commercial cost. It seems to be in the middle of the option here and can veer toward the Unraid feature set or the TrueNAS ones.

I ended up with TrueNAS, because I wanted the features it offered for data storage. I’ll be talking more about that, but setting it up took more time to restore my data than it did to set it up. It is now handling 100% of the file serving the previous server did. I still have backup and other redundancy functions to configure, but I’m 100% back online.

Published on May 31, 2024

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Building My New Network Attached Storage(NAS): A Change of Plans, Keeping Up With The Jonsbo

Despite the fact that my ODroid H4+ had an issue, I still remained committed to the course of action of building a NAS to replace my commercial one. So, even as I pursue the Odroid H4+, I decided to explore the other option I’d explored. My original plan was build a mini-ITX NAS. And so, feeling nervous about the ODroid future, I decided to revisit that plan.

I really wanted a low power, small NAS, but while I liked the simplicity of the Odroid 4 drive case, the experience of assembling the case made me a bit concerned about how running a case that is supported entirely by the drives might work out. I decided, since I need to have a secondary location to store the backup for the NAS, I would use this for that, and I’d go more conventional for the primary location. That is a bit more than I’d budgeted for, so this is going to have to last me a while.

On reading a lot of commentary on Mini-ITX NAS cases, I had decided on the Jonsbo line of NAS cases. There’s the Jonsbo N2, which supports five hard drives, or the slightly larger Jonsbo N3, which supports eight hard drives. While I opted for the N2, I can understand some wanting the extra space for future expansion.

The budget board I opted to try is also a N100, the same line I’d been advocating for. There are a variety of variations of this board sold. For example, by CWWK. Or HKUXZR. Or Dytebeply. With minor variations, these boards contain 6 SATA ports…5 of which are via an expansion chip, which may cause throughput issues. They also have 4 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports and 2 M.2 ports on the board. Reading a lot of reviews of these boards, it takes a long time to post, may have limited RAM options, but a lot of people are using these boards, it seems. I’ll be talking a bit more about how I might set up the options I’ve chosen.

If I only wanted a 2 drive NAS, the Aoostar mini PC would be tempting.

The next challenge is how I am going to configure this. There are a lot of decisions, even once I have the hardware.

Published on May 27, 2024

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Odroid H4 Update: Things Take a NASty Turn- My SATA Dream Deferred

When things go wrong, I admit to a certain amount of anxiety about whether or not things will turn out well. I was so excited about settling on the ODroid H4 as my NAS system. It was small, flexible, had the processor type I wanted…When it showed up last week, I was disappointed that a work trip meant I couldn’t assemble it immediately.

Tonight, I got out the YouTube video from Hardkernel, and started constructing. I took my 4 hard drives and used them to assemble the frame of the case, then put the plastic spacers on the board as shown in the video, then attached the SATA cables and power cable, as shown, which I bought with it. I have SATA cables, but I didn’t have anything like the power cables, and they came as a set. According to the video, it should be 2 200mm cables, and 2 250mm cables for the drives further apart.

I put the top on, and put it in the slot, and tried to attach the cables, but quickly realized that the first one was too short to go to the bottom. I realized I’d gotten 4 identical cables. So I unhooked the top and went to take off the cables. I thought I would try a longer one I already had, although I was worried that would still create a problem with the power cable. I’ve built many computers over the years. To remove a SATA cable,, there is a locking connector you gently push in on, then release. 3 came out, the 4th, when I pushed the release and gently removed the cable, and the connector came up with it. I didn’t pull or yank on it. I tried to reseat it, but I didn’t think that would work. My assumption is, as to other ones seemed secure, that it was not secure initially. I wasn’t optimistic about getting the connector to work again, and I need 4 drives, so this rendered the item useless to me.

So, now comes the anxiety. Will Ameridroid claim human error? I don’t think it was, but the fact that they write in their return policy that if an item is deemed to not be defective by them, they will charge a 25% restocking fee makes me nervous. This is not because I had any bad experiences with Ameridroid, but because I now have to wait nervously to know if I’m going to be out the money.

It also makes me a bit nervous about ODroid and their manufacturer, Hardkernel. Maybe I shouldn’t have bought a product that was just released? Maybe I should have gone for something from a more established provider? Does the manufacturer stand behind their product? I have limited experience with them, but people seem to generally like them.

They say don’t sweat the small stuff, but I hate sometimes how one bump in the wrong can make me question a less conventional route. It’s hard to pick your hardware and assemble it. I’m already regretting my last upgrade for not leaving enough room for future proofing. Is this going to go the same way? What advice do you have for me?

Published on May 15, 2024

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