Why

It happened sooner than I thought it would. My “production” mini-pc croaked within 6 months of “production” use. RIP.

I thought I had documented the steps but apparently not.

So reinstalling my “production” homelab server from scratch. This document is to help me recreate it in the event of the inevitable end of my current server. The eventual goal is to have the ability to recreate it completely with code. For now, documenting the manual steps.

Hardware

BOSGAME Linux Mini PC Dual LAN Intel Alder Lake N100 16 GB RAM 500 GB SSD - I was impressed by the price/performance of Intel N100 and hence went with the same model. Did not use more than 2 ports so picked a model with 2 LAN ports. Picked one with a fan since I assumed that the G48S mini-pc went kaput because there was only static cooling.

Cluster Hardware

This are the nodes on the cluster:

Node

IPs

Model

CPU

Mem

GPU

rapid-civet

192.168.4.11

HP 260 G1 DM

i3-4030U@1.9

3.75

Haswell IG (0b)

still-fawn

192.168.4.17,192.168.4.195

ASUS B85M-G R2.0

i5-4460@3.2

15.53

NVIDIA RTX3070 (a1)

chief-horse

192.168.4.19,192.168.4.197

Intel NUC D34010WYK

i3-4010U@1.7

7.66

Haswell IG (09)

pve

192.168.86.194,192.168.1.122,192.168.4.122,10.10.10.1

BOSGAME DNB10M

N100@2.8

15.37

Alder UHD

 
        graph TD
    subgraph homeCluster [Home lab Proxmox Cluster]
      pve["pve<br>IPs: 192.168.86.194, 192.168.1.122, 192.168.4.122, 10.10.10.1<br>Board: BOSGAME DNB10M<br>CPU: N100 @2.8<br>Mem: 15.37GB<br>GPU: Alder UHD"]
      rapid["rapid-civet<br>IPs: 192.168.4.11<br>Board: HP 8000<br>CPU: i3-4030U @1.9<br>Mem: 3.75GB<br>GPU: Haswell IG (0b)"]
      still["still-fawn<br>IPs: 192.168.4.17, 192.168.4.195<br>Board: ASUS B85M R2.0<br>CPU: i5-4460 @3.2<br>Mem: 15.53GB<br>GPU: NVIDIA RTX3070 (a1)"]
      chief["chief-horse<br>IPs: 192.168.4.19, 192.168.4.197<br>Board: Intel D34010WYK<br>CPU: i3-4010U @1.7<br>Mem: 7.66GB<br>GPU: Haswell IG (09)"]
    end
<!-- markdownlint-enable MD013 -->

    subgraph pve_VMs [pve Key VMs]
      opnsense["OPNsense VM"]
      maas["Ubuntu MAAS VM"]
    end

    pve --> opnsense
    pve --> maas

Install Proxmox server

  1. Download proxmox iso from https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads

  2. Write to USB (I used Balena Etcher)

  3. Install Proxmox on the mini-pc

    1. I plugged in my “WAN” port connected to my home router only. This way I can access Proxmox via my laptop. Also there would be no confusion on proxmox which is the management interface.

  4. Use ProxmoxVE Helper-Scripts to run Proxmox VE Post Install

    1. RIP Tteck you were gone too soon. Your work lives on.

Setup Opnsense VM

Following combined instructions from:

  1. https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/virtualize-opnsense-on-proxmox-as-your-primary-router/

  2. https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/virtualize-opnsense-on-proxmox-as-your-primary-router/

  3. https://kb.protectli.com/kb/opnsense-on-proxmox-ve/

Download and pre-setup

Mainly from https://kb.protectli.com/kb/opnsense-on-proxmox-ve/ as it is simpler so far:

  1. Download Opnsense installer - I chose the DVD option.

  2. Add comment ‘WAN’ for existing Linux bridge vmbr0 with the network device (enp1s0)

Note: Any changes that you do are not applied till you hit Apply configuration. Learnt it the hard way.

  1. Add LAN Linux Bridge vmbr1 with the network device (enp2s0)

  2. Add WIFI Linux Bridge vmbr2 with the network device (wlp0s20f3).

Note that this highly discouraged by almost all folks due to unreliability of WIFI compared to LAN. I want to connect my home network devices (cameras, plugs) to machines in Proxmox cluster so doing it anyway.

Setup OPNsense

  1. Expand the OPNsense-25.1-dvd-amd64.iso.bz2 file to get the ISO file. On my mac, the default archive expander didn’t work. Stuffit Expander worked for the *.bz2 file.

  2. Upload the ISO file by clicking on the local(pve)-> ISO Images.

  3. Then click on Create VM on top.

    1. Type OPNsense for VM name

    2. Choose Start at boot

    3. In OS:

      1. For ISO image choose the ISO image you uploaded.

      2. In Guest OS switch to Other from Linux. OPNsense is BSD based OS not Linux

    4. Leave the defaults for System

    5. In Disks choose VirtIO Block (apparently for better performance). I left the 32 GB as is.

    6. In CPU left the defaults as is

    7. In Memory choose 4096 [4GB RAM]

    8. In Network choose the default bridge vmbr0 and change Model to VirtIO

    9. Click on Finish

  4. Add the LAN device in Hardware->Add->Network Device. Choose vmbr1 and VirtIO

Start and Configure OPNSense

  1. Start the VM

  2. Remember to plug the LAN network cable into the server

  3. Change the LAN network interface to 192.168.4.1/24 via command line

  4. Connect your laptop to the LAN network switch via Ethernet and use static IP in 192.168.4.23

  5. Opnsense webgui should be available at 192.168.4.1

  6. Go through the wizard and set the time zone

Setup Canonical/Ubuntu MAAS VM

Canonical or Ubuntu MAAS is great way to manage your home lab server installs.

Self-service, remote installation of Windows, CentOS, ESXi and Ubuntu on real servers turns your data centre into a bare metal cloud.

Install Ubuntu MAAS as a VM and make it the DHCP and TFTP server. Initial attempt to set OPNSense as the external DHCP server, didn’t work.

Install Ubuntu server

  1. Download Ubuntu server ISO - https://ubuntu.com/download/server

  2. Create VM with Linux OS. The requirements are small. I used the following settings:

    1. Memory: 4096

    2. Storage: 100GB

  3. Go through the install:

    1. Since the underlying storage is ZFS no need to set it up with ZFS as the boot fs.

    2. Enable openssh-server

    3. Choose lxd as a package to be installed.

Install MAAS

  1. Follow instructions for installing MAAS

  2. Remember to use static IPs for MAAS and OPNSense

Build the custom proxmox boot image

Need to build a custom image so that proxmox cluster is installed.

Install the dependencies on the MAAS machine

  1. git clone https://github.com/canonical/packer-maas.git

  2. packer from https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/tutorials/docker-get-started/get-started-install-cli

    1. curl -fsSL https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | apt-key add -

    2. apt install -y lsb-release software-properties-common

    3. apt-add-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main"

    4. apt-get update && apt-get install packer

  3. Other dependencies:

    1. apt install -y qemu-utils libnbd-bin nbdkit fuse2fs qemu-system ovmf cloud-image-utils

    2. It got upset with one or some of the above packages.

    3. Run apt install -y libnbd-bin nbdkit fuse2fs  ovmf cloud-image-utils

  4. Since KVM is not installed on the Ubuntu MAAS, switching to building the image on the proxmox host itself

  5. Build the image

    1. Create the my-changes.sh file in the debian directory

    2. it seemed that it ran out of disk space. Increased in deb*.pkr.hcl from 4gb to 16GB

    3. You have to reboot (technically only restart maas service) in order for the new image to be picked up

  6. Ran into “No MBR magic issue. “ https://discourse.maas.io/t/no-mbr-magic-treating-disk-as-raw/7675/5

  7. Ran into the no ga22*/debian image also. Had to reboot MAAS to get it working. https://bugs.launchpad.net/maas/+bug/2046557

Adguard plugin setup within OPNSense along with Upbound DNS

  1. Follow instructions in this guide

Adding the wifi interface

Follow instructions and enable the WiFi interface

Network diagram to enable WiFi device access on all Proxmox VMs and LXC

This network diagram shows how other Proxmox cluster hosts can access the Wifi network.

        graph TD
    %% WiFi Network Block
    subgraph WiFi_Network [WiFi Network 192.168.86.X]
      WR[WiFi Router: 192.168.86.1]
      WD[WiFi Device: 192.168.86.100]
    end

    %% Host1 Proxmox Block
    subgraph Host1_Proxmox [Host1 Proxmox - Intel N100 with 2 NICS and 1 Wireless NIC]
      B1[vmbr1 LAN Bridge: 192.168.4.X]
      B2[vmbr2 NAT Bridge: 10.10.10.1/24]
      DNSM[DNSMasquerade Rule: iptables NAT from 10.10.10.0/24 via physical interface]
    end

    %% OPNsense VM Block on Host1
    subgraph OPNsense_VM [OPNsense VM running on Host 1]
      LAN[LAN Interface: 192.168.4.1]
      NAT[OPT1 NAT Interface: 10.10.10.254]
      STATIC[Static Route: Dest 192.168.86.0/24 via Gateway 10.10.10.1]
    end

    %% Host2 Proxmox Block
    subgraph Host2_Proxmox [Host2 Proxmox]
      H2B[vmbr0 LAN Bridge: 192.168.4.X]
      CT[Container: IP 192.168.4.10, GW 192.168.4.1]
    end

    %% Connections
    B1 --- LAN
    B2 --- DNSM
    H2B --- CT

    %% Outbound Traffic Flow
    CT -- "Traffic from 192.168.4.10" --> LAN
    LAN -- "Uses Static Route" --> STATIC
    STATIC -- "Routes traffic via NAT Bridge" --> B2
    B2 -- "DNSMasquerade translates traffic" --> DNSM
    DNSM -- "Forwards traffic to WiFi Router" --> WR

    %% Return Traffic Flow (Simplified)
    WR -- "Return traffic" --> DNSM
    DNSM -- "Forwards to NAT Bridge" --> B2
    B2 -- "Delivers traffic to OPNsense NAT Interface" --> NAT
    NAT -- "Delivers traffic to LAN Interface" --> LAN
    LAN -- "Routes traffic to Container" --> CT

Guides

  • Frigate VA-API Acceleration

  • MA90 packer-MAAS build

  • K3s NVIDIA GPU Passthrough Guide — Proxmox VE + K3s

  • Ollama GPU Server Guide