At the last in person meeting at Carindale library we spoke briefly about what we should be doing for future Homelab meetings.
As we have noted here previously there is a marked diversity in the skill set of members. Some are advanced professional users and others, like me, just bumbling along trying to make it all work. We also noted that we should consider presenting subjects that are useful for those just starting out on their homelab journey while letting others highlight their latest bright, shiny homelab toy.
A marketer might suggest we survey our members and see what they want. I like that in principle but in practice I think its best that we just talk about the options here. The discussion may trigger ideas from those subscribed. If the thread proves useful it might be worth trying to get input from Meetup / Humbug members.
Part of our task will be to identify what things members would like covered but the other half of the task will be on what members can contribute. Marrying demand and supply is the essence of any enterprise.
Brandon Lee has a checklist for things to get going when getting serious about a homelab environment. @Belfry has talked recently about DNS options and I have found that very helpful. However after watching the video and last week’s discussions I realised I needed to get serious about Layer 2 and a monitored hub.
I also realised at the last meeting that I should look at alternative firewall solutions. I am pretty happy with my Draytek but it still does not offer all the services that OPNsense does. Having HFC makes using something like that practical but I have always been a little reticent to head down that track since you have to get your firewall “right” at the start.
My recent DNS adventures have got me interested in ipv6 once again. I have had it working in the past but it is not a core component of a homelab setup and it is easy for it to fall off the radar. We should continue to talk about docker, podman, containerd, kubernetes, etc which will be of interest to homelabbers at various level of expertise. Lastly, those starting out in containerisation can see value in setting up a servarr suite and that is something we should revisit from time to time for new members.
We have the next meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, although I note that it is the first not second Tuesday of the month. We have had an offer from @Belfry to do a DNS part two but another topic perhaps taken from one of the areas mentioned above would be great.
I would like to hear from other HLBers about their thoughts on these matters.
