Past Entries...

100 posts since April, 2016!
posted this in: Hardware, Software, Technology
320 Words

Previously I ran a server rack on a 1000/1000mbps symmetrical service to my home (Ethernet provisioned from an ISP) to provide a number of personal media services to myself, friends and family.

Having had to relocate across 3 properties in the last 12 months however, drastically changed things – and I’ve since fallen back to a single 4RU server that’s packed to the gills with storage, and uses generic off-the-shelf consumer parts to keep going. There’s been a lot of benefits to this actually.

  • It’s simple to get replacement parts
  • Noise is kept to a minimum
  • Reliability and up-time is a little less than enterprise hardware, but otherwise acceptably usable

With my recent trip to Japan and return – I’ve found the need to actually back up all my photos and media into a singular place that’s much easier to manage. So now I just run a single monolithic server called JT-SERVER which provides all the services I need.

Services I’ve built up to use nowadays are:

That’s it – nowadays there’s very little I do in the way of other things. A game server is still desirable but it’s not the highest priority for now. Maybe in the near future I might run:

  • Minecraft (resuming previous efforts)
  • Satisfactory (occasional)
  • Factorio (occasional)

But otherwise most gaming requirements and needs for my “village” of friends and family aren’t necessary.

I think over the course of 2024, I’ve had to be much leaner, out of necessity. And I’ve come to find that some things just aren’t that necessary for “me and mine”. As I go into 2025, I head in with the goal of not buying any new technology, but rather just maintaining the status quo of what I have, and building a necessary platform of services for myself and my loved ones. It’ll be minimal, and a lot more wallet friendly, I think.

posted this in: General
447 Words

I can’t believe it’s already been a month into 2023! I guess time flies when you’re very busy… And January was definitely a busy month for me! There’s so much to update everyone on, that I think it’ll go across several blog posts! 😂

Work begins!

I’ve been enjoying my time at MindArc – it’s an interesting, and dynamic company to work for so far. The eCommerce/Shopify learnings are very interesting.

I’m managing a few people, and it’s been a big lesson in learning how to capacity manage, plan and be more strategic in my day to day.

There’s a step challenge that the business is doing – and I’ve decided I’m going to participate as it’s a good opportunity to get healthier AND be a part of the team.

Loving it so far, looking forward to the future!

Server Update? NORCO becomes SILVERSTONE

I’ve spent the last half of January working on fixing my Norco fileserver case – which has now officially been decommissioned, and replaced with a Silverstone case! Even better, it’s got shiny rails, and is rack mounted properly!

I lose out on 4 hard drive caddies, but I hadn’t filled up the previous Norco anyway, and I intend to move to much higher density drives shortly. The case is nicer, it’s a 20-bay SILVERSTONE RM43-320-RS 4RU chassis, with railkit.

Yes, I know my JT-LAB room is a mess! But I promise, it’s being worked on. That room has had all manner of clutter and stored stuff from the last 30 years that my family’s lived in this house! It is definitely being worked on, and I’ll post an update regarding that soon!

Anyway, what makes this so special, is it’s a completely brand new chassis for JT-LAB. I’ve never bought a brand new chassis and the Norco 4224 (you can see it in the second picture sitting emptied on the left hand side 🙁 ) had served me fantastically well for years. Easily a decade. But it’s time to retire it. I’m hoping to get at least a decade out of this Silverstone case – it’s not being lugged to LAN parties, so that should help its longevity!

Should I change up the Site Theme?

I think, I’ve been posting using this theme for near on 7 years now. Might be time to change things up a little! The blog timeline list on the left is starting to get comically long 😂

UPDATE: Nevermind! I found the setting to change the Archives list to a Dropdown menu!

posted this in: Hardware, Servers, Technology
58 Words

The JT-LAB rack is finally full; all the machines contained within are the servers I intend to have fully operational and working on the network! Although not all of them are turned on right now. There’s a few machines that need some hardware work done on them; but that’s a weekend project, I think 🙂

Racked and fully loaded…!