Homelab Spotlight - 3D Printed NUC Rack

I recently had the opportunity to conduct a Q&A session with Reddit user u/NeyPalm. After I saw their impressive homelab setup posted on r/homelab, I knew I had to share it with all of you. The level of detail and expertise on display is truly remarkable, and I think many people would benefit from seeing how they've put together this system.

Tell us about the hardware in this homelab setup.

My Homelab is only for my in-house IT and is intended as a playground for further training, testing services and simplifying everyday life.

Specs: 6x NUC7i3BNK each with 16GB RAM, Thinkcentre M720q 32GB, Netgear GS324 Switch 24 Port and a PC Engines APU 2D4 16GB Ram Firewall

The Thinkcentre is my ProxMox on which all services run. I also use the APU2 board as a firewall/router and the NUC Cluster as a Kubernetes playground.

What inspired you to build the 3D rack and for what purpose? It sure looks awesome! But was it just for aesthetics?

I wanted to have (almost) all my IT in one place. However, I had the problem that some things didn't fit into a 10inch rack and I decided to build a custom rack because I don't have the space for a 19inch rack. Besides, building it is certainly as much fun as using it afterwards. Aesthetics of course also play a big role, as it's quite open in my house and everyone can see it.

What 3D printer do you use?

I'm using a Anycubic Vyper. Its a 245x245 and it was pretty challenging to fit some parts on the bed. The panels are 28cm long, it was a tight fit diagonal.

Can you share any files or links for the 3D project?

I have shared some files under the following link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6593228 Please note that these files were created for exactly my setup with custom sizes that are not standard.

What self-hosted applications are you running on this setup?

I used the NUC cluster to learn about Kubernetes, more precisely to build a barebones cluster and to train myself further for work. The Lenovo ThinkCentre runs Proxmox with some services like Docker, Plex with Debrid/Servarr Stack, Pihole, Bookstack and some Unix machines for testing. The PC Engines APU2 board is my router, it ran for Pfsense some time, but I have now switched to OPNsense because I had some problems with PFsense and because i didnt like.

Have you added anything to it since the Reddit post? Any new photos you'd like to share?

The rack is currently being rebuilt. I no longer have any use for the NUC cluster and some of these machines are being replaced with other ThinkCentres to build a ProxMox cluster so that I have more computing power available and build redundancy. As I still have space available, I have other options in the pipeline that I can't say anything more about at the moment.

Final Notes and Thoughts

I'm really impressed by this homelab setup! It's one of the coolest I've seen in a while. If you're not already inspired to build your own, I don't know what would be! And speaking of inspiration, wouldn't this make an amazing first post for someone starting a blog? Hint hint u/NeyPalm. 🙂