Monitoring ZFS Boot Mirror Health in Proxmox 8 Clusters
Automated SMART monitoring and cost planning for ZFS boot mirrors across a six-node Proxmox homelab cluster with mixed SSD/HDD hardware. Track drive health, plan replacements, and manage homelab storage costs effectively.
Power Supply upgrade for GPUs in the Homelab
Evaluating a 750W Dell OptiPlex PSU upgrade to support a discrete GPU in an aging Proxmox homelab node, with a breakdown of PCIe and connector power limits.
Powerline Networking for the Homelabs
Powerline networking repeatedly tripped the AFCI breakers in a modern house — turns out arc fault interrupters and powerline adapters are fundamentally incompatible.
Proxmox VE 8.1 to 8.2 upgrade issues in the Homelabs
An extended power outage plus a remote kernel upgrade left half the cluster unbootable, video outputs dead, and Ceph unstable — a crash cart recovery story with four overlapping root causes.
Dell Wyse 3040 CMOS CR2032 Battery Replacement
Replacing the proprietary CMOS battery connector on Dell Wyse 3040 thin clients using heat shrink tubing and standard CR2032 cells — $23 for nine units versus $90 for pre-made replacements.
Hard Drives for the Homelabs
Storage has hit a penny per GB. A 20TB renewed drive for $200 and a 20TB USB-C enclosure for $220 make the math work for a Ceph offsite backup strategy.
Thinkpad T480 WWAN SSD
Adding a 1TB NVMe SSD to the ThinkPad T480's WWAN M.2 slot using a 2230-to-2242 B+M key adapter — a cheap way to get a separate data volume for LLM models.
New Laptop update
All T480 upgrades complete: 64GB RAM, 4TB NVMe, WiFi 6E, IR camera, backlit keyboard, and 72Wh extended battery. A used laptop that now outperforms what I could buy new at twice the price.
A new to me but old laptop
Upgrading from a 2016 ThinkPad T460p to a used T480 for $670 all-in: 64GB RAM, 4TB NVMe, WiFi 6E, and a GPU capable of running LLM models.