Patrick Arminio (Nov 18 2024 at 08:57): Patrick Arminio (Nov 18 2024 at 08:57):Hi there, I have a few raspberry PIs (a couple of 5 and a couple of 4), could I use them to host apps like pihole, home assistant and random web services?
Raúl (Nov 18 2024 at 15:26):Yes, they're perfect for that. I've had pihole running on RPi 2 for around two years now, and it's been working great. I think I even heard of people hosting Jellyfin on a RPi. And if you have multiple Pis and are feeling brave or want the learning experience, you could even set up a kubernetes cluster to run your stuff.
Patrick Arminio (Nov 18 2024 at 15:37):@Raúl thanks! yeah I was thinking of using something like k8s, mostly because I'd love to use all these raspberry pis as if they were one machine
Raúl (Nov 18 2024 at 15:39):Just keep in mind that K8s adds a lot of complexity, so if you're not used to it, it may be a little overwhelming.
Patrick Arminio (Nov 18 2024 at 16:00):good to know!
Adam Bedenbaugh (Nov 18 2024 at 18:30):I've used pihole and jellyfin on a raspberry pi 4 and both worked well. I prefer to use docker compose for because I find it easiest. If you are interested in Kubernetes on a Pi, then check out k3s. Its a lightweight version of Kubernetes.
Raúl (Nov 18 2024 at 18:33):I also use compose but I have a single Intel NUC. Compose doesn't do clustering. Good tip about k3s! And there's also docker swarm, which is probably a much saner option for a homelab setup.
Justin Garrison (Nov 20 2024 at 20:40):I’ll throw out the suggestion of using Talos for Kubernetes (only pi 4 support) or k2d for a Kubernetes interface on top of docker
Ron Waldon-Howe (Nov 20 2024 at 22:14):I used Talos for a long time on my Pi cluster, but could only get drivers for HAT accessories from the official Raspberry Pi kernel
It was painful getting those modules into a system extension for Talos
Without obscure hardware, however, Talos is amazing
Patrick Arminio (Nov 21 2024 at 08:01):@Justin Garrison thanks! I have two PI5 so Talos is a no go :( I might try nixos though :blush:
FlakM (Nov 26 2024 at 17:23):@Patrick Arminio Nixos has a very nice k3s module :ok:
Patrick Arminio (Nov 26 2024 at 17:27):@FlakM do you have a link? :D
FlakM (Nov 26 2024 at 17:28):You can search for the options using search on website: https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=24.05&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=k3s
FlakM (Nov 26 2024 at 17:32):I run it on my dev machine to test helm charts, it's a single line away https://github.com/FlakM/nix_dots/blob/0e09dc06885409a6207a89f549db64b137a1745a/shared/k3s/default.nix#L4 happy to help if you need it :ok:
Patrick Arminio (Nov 26 2024 at 17:35):oh I see, cool! I'll check once I finally make time to install everything on the first PI :D
Erik Svensson (Dec 29 2024 at 21:32):I have a pi4 that's running k3s too but It's been shut off for a while (probably a couple of years at this point). I haven't upgraded from 1.21 so I feel like a fresh install might be in order :sweat_smile: I just wanted the challenge to setup kubernetes on a small device rather than actually running a bunch of workload on it. I got it running on top of hypriotOS, but after reading a bit about Talos, I feel like I should give it a fresh start with that. Not much of an idea really, to run a single node kubernetes cluster except for the tinkering challenge, but hey, what are homelabs for if not for tinkering and having fun?
Colin Dean (Dec 30 2024 at 21:52):If you've got them laying around, RPs are great for Homelabbery. Anymore, though, if you're going to consider buying RPi5 _new_ for it… hold fast: you can _probably_ find cheaper used SBCs that are often more powerful, higher RAM, x86_64, and _probably_ similar perf:watts ratio if not better.
Case in point: I've got a Raspberry Pi 3 running my PiHole setup and a RPi CM4 running Home Assistant inside of an HA Yellow. For the cost of a Raspberry Pi 5, I picked up an Acemagic box used for $50 _shipped_. 12 GB RAM, 4-core N95… an older version of this. It'll soon be replacing that RPi3 with the Acemagic box running Proxmox with a DietPi VM running PiHole and might put something else mission-critical on that Acemagic box, too. Things related to DNS or "this box cannot go down unless everything else is down and it should be the first thing back online when the power comes back". I'll put a RPi CM5 in the HA Yellow.
Siddhartha Golu (Dec 31 2024 at 05:24):Thanks for the pointer to Acemagic boxes. That 16 + 512 combo at $130 looks affordable. Curious to know what mini PCs are other folks using.
I've been looking for HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini, but unfortunately Ebay is not available in India and I can't find any decent second hand suppliers selling these.
FlakM (Dec 31 2024 at 05:39):Did you take a look at Dell wyse thin clients? They are dirt cheap here in Europe and pretty capable little machines.
Siddhartha Golu (Dec 31 2024 at 05:45):I haven't! Thank you, will take a look.
Last updated: Apr 04 2025 at 01:15 UTC