2mo ago

first attempt at a homelab, please any advice

System76 Meerkat is my workstation with pop-os, I have 2. a Beelink s13 that I have installed and configured fedora server headless with podman for a development lab, and for 3. My vision was a NAS Samba plus Jellyfin and Homeassistant device. NAS supports 2 ssd plugged directly into usb which host backup for Meerkat and s13.

For 3., I have tried unsuccessfully with a raspberry pi 5, not saying I have any skill whatsoever but I spent a significant amount of time and got so fucking close but it was not a sustainable system that I created in the end I moved on next to a GMK G3 plus which, out of the box, and immediately could not sustain connection to the ssd via usb, I methodically tested all the usb ports with both ssd devices and concluded that there was no fucking way this unit will sustain a connection to these usb ssd for any amount of time. So I am not using that device.

I have ordered and waiting to receive Beelink s12 and going to try that next for my 3. vision.

All that said, I am in the struggle and if anyone had kind words or advice, yes please.

Also, please shoot me straight: am I removed? Is this a recipe for failure? Is it unreasonable to run those services on s12? Is it foolish to think I can sustain two ssd via usb and backup via Samba with s12?

S13 and s12 are ethernet connected to router, Meerkat is wireless connected.

I genuinely appreciate any attention here, thank you for your time.

*Also wanted to add, earlier I got one of the refurbished servers, Lenovo I believe, off Amazon. It was advertised with 1 TB ssd. When it arrived, there was no ssd and the ribbon cable appeared damaged. Just adding that for the record here as well.

16 comments

What you have, @basketugly, is a keenness to learn. Hold onto that, it'll pay you dividends throughout your life.
I'm guessing here because you didn't give the exact error message you're seeing - but two external SSD's - should be fine for almost anything - PROVIDED they have sufficient power. Check the power needs of the enclosure and drive, and then what your S12/13 is supplying to the USB ports. You might need an additional power supply or powered hub that gives them enough beef.
Or the USB lead itself is pants - that's definitely a possibility.
- Thank you kindly, there is no error message per se that is the smoking gun, I use dmesg -w, lsblk, and cockpit storage logs to troubleshoot and it comes down to the power draw in my estimate. The ssd simply unmount themselves, nothing dramatic. It is entirely possible that a powered hub would work with this g3 that I consider a lemon. Truthfully, the g3 "looks less nice" versus beelink and if they have 5W max per usb, I could see how they might disconnect with voltage spikes, but this thing never mounted one of the usb ssd on 3 of 4 ports. Right from the start, I am thinking the usb bus power connection is where the issue lies. It a lemon of a cheap unit.
  I cannot find the info on s12 yet and somesaid in a different comment they had to email customer service to find out g3 had 5W max. Hoping s12 will reliable hold mount, but I can see where I still may need to invest in a powered hub. Thank you.
  
  If there's no errors on the host, that points more strongly at a problem with the drives, their power, or the usb cable, imo.
Have you been able to verify your SSDs are good? I got two back to back that were bad from Amazon not too long ago.
- In that regard I will say that I ran the ssd successfully on raspberry pi with no issue whatsoever so i never considered it. The issue with GMK was immediate and affected both ssd the same way, I methodically tested all the ports one by one with both ssd and concluded the issue was with gmk and not the ssd. I tested ssd on separate device Meerkat to verify the drive and hub and cable, no issues found with the ssd, hub, or cable on separate device and with smartmon i even wiped the drives and partitions just to be sure, testing was thorough enough for me to conclude that I received a lemon.
  But hey, maybe I am wrong and if I see the same thing on s12 I will need another option, but I would be more inclined to believe it is a USB power issue and not an issue with the ssd because that is what all the testing points to so I am wondering: am I wrong to think I can sustain two ssd via USB with s12?
  Please any advice. Thank you.
  
  USB ssds seem to have a lot of weird issues being used for a nas drive. Sometimes its a power management thing on the SSD itself, sometimes its something odd with the USB controller on the host. Occasionally the power supply of the sff pc doesnt have enough amps for all of the peripherals. Using an intermediary like a usb hub makes all of these issues worse since you add another device with its own potential conflicts.
  Not to say its not possible to do, but USB drives and NAS's rarely play nice together.
  
  Personally, I'd use the Pi 5 for your Plexbox and HA server. I have had success running both those on the PI 4 with boot from an SSD stick. If you're unsure what OS, just use the Raspberry official Debian server image. Whatever you do, don't use an SD card for your hard drive. It's funny when people complain that the Pi sucks and they only use the SD card.
Hi. I am not sure I understand the issue correctly but I will try to help. I have two NucBox G3 and I never had issues with them, however I did had to understand something about USB ports. What is the maximum power in watts the g3 can provide to each USB 3 is 5W (source: their support after I emailed them). I was noticing that a nvme I had attached via usb to my g3/truenas was faiing constantly (https://sh.itjust.works/post/20409332) and in the end I realised this was due to power draw. I moved the "heavy consumption" nvme to the internal port and used the "low consumption" outside and I had no issue at all. I would also like to say that I had similar issues also on the PI4Bs (due to power consumption) and they too were hell to debug. I hope it helps and good luck.
- Thank you, yes as this relates to my issues I have the concern about mini pcs being able to keep ssd mounted indefinitely via dedicated usb ports. The 5W figure is less than I hoped, I was hoping for 10. Will state again, the issue with the g3 was immediate and after testing I do believe it was a lemon. That said my experience here has opened my eyes to the limitations of these devices. Admitted that I am shooting for absolute minimum power consumption and using the cheapest shit I can find. Thank you for the data point on pi4bs, will be interesting to see what I get with s12. I can report back if it is of interest.
I've been running my homelab on GMKTec _something for around one and a half year now, with a bunch of HDD's and an SSD connected via USB. The HDD enclosure is some cheap thing from Amazon, but I've never had a problem with it. Does the enclosure you're trying to use have dedicated power? Or are you powering the SSD's via the USB ports? That's the only thing I can think of that would potentially be a problem.
- Thanks yes trying to power ssd direct from the usb port. This is likely a bad unit but there are broader implications here for using direct usb ssd on these devices due to power draw. I had no idea it would be a factor but it definitely warrants consideration in designing a setup. Thank you.
UPDATE 2: Beelink s12 still holding strong.
Got the following from Beelink customer service:
"Regarding the question you asked about the output power of the machine's USB interface, the answer is 7.5W.
If you want to use external hard drives on the USB interface, it is suggested that do the following solution：
please uncheck the save energy in the device manager-- universal serial bus controller--USB hub-- properties--power management---uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power"
As for the g3 usb/ssd issue, it's case closed for now with root cause 5 W max per usb port.
As for this useage case: s12 > pi 5 >>> g3plus.
My opinion is that the Beelink gear is better than GMK based on my experience with s12 and s13 versus g3plus. The Beelink stuff has way better aesthetics and build quality in my opinion.
Hope this was enlightening, I learned a lot. Thank you. Peace.
UPDATE: s12 handles both ssd out of the box and reboot and continue to hold. Devices are superspeed 20 gb and ~900 ma. Setup is headless, there are no other peripherals. Will see if this holds.

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