Westerhof

Wanted to share a quick update on the upgrades for my homelab that I’ve done over the course of 2025. Because I am still a firm believer in that post’s philosphy of ‘host it yourself’, so I am eager to share by example - even if flawed. This post was also inpsired by me realizing how much of my data is centralized on a single storage disk, specially when I migrated to Arch Linux and back.

Storage

To combat the storage problem I got a Network Access Storage machine, a NAS. While I sadly found out that my server rack is too small for a ‘propper’ rackmounted unit, I instead purchased a UNAS 2 from Ubiquiti.

There were many reasons to go for this model, first being that I wanted something cheap to introduce me to the world of NAS. Second, because I’m already running a lot of Ubiquiti hardware, I hoped it would integrate nicely with the rest of my network.

However, I do kind of regret the purchase. Don’t get me wrong - It does it’s job very well for a consumer level NAS. But the product offering feels somewhat immature and limited in freedom. I might write a more detailed reviewed later, but my take away points are:

• Sleek design, a cute black box;
• PoE++ powered via the 2.5GbE port;
• Fully SMB / NFS mountable;
• 2 disk bays, RAID 0;
• Ubiquiti supplied drives (bought seperate) have annoying ‘wear-protection’ feature, causing ticking noise;
• No API access to console features;
• Dependent on UniFi’s NAS dev team to add features;
• Most backup features require you to expose your NAS to UniFi cloud (wtf);
• Backup features that can be used are not as configurable as you’d expect;
• Not managable from the gateway - only integrated with the cloud management platform.

My current vibe: don’t buy it. Instead I would’ve created my own… but the prices!

The Fast Lane

Because the NAS requires PoE++, and because my homelab used a Netgear GS108 switch with old Ubiquity EdgeRouter X, I decided to kill 3 birds with 1 stone and switch over to Ubiquiti’s Pro XG 10 PoE switch. It is able to provide up to 400W power and has 10 ports with 10 Gbps throughput each.

Compared to the NAS, I am very, very happy with this upgrade. It integrates flawlessly with my gateway, making managing the network as easy as pie. The only downside remaining is that my ISP is starting to become my network speed bottleneck. Good thing that hosting things locally will make this a non issue at some point. First world problems!

Home Assistant

Another upgrade I’ve done is moving my Home Assistance instance from my Raspberry Pi 4, over to dedicated hardware. My other Pi’s, as if they were in sync, started having SD Card issues. This made me decide to migrate my home over to a Beelink MINI-S12 Pro Mini PC, running Proxmox.

Setting up a virtual machine was very easy and thanks to having backups from Nabu Casa I was quickly up and running again. Even the Zigbee integration, which a friend of mine warned me of being a hassle, was quick to set up and hassle free.

I went for the Beelink machine because of it’s small form factor and Intel N-150 CPU. Just like a Raspberry Pi, this CPU is power efficient with a TDP of 6 W. Compared to a Pi’s Broadcom 7.5, this is not a lot of difference. This was important to me, as it is always nice knowing that an ‘always-on’ computer isn’t slurping power when it’s not needed.

Proxmox, a hypervisor, was installed so I could easily run Home Assistant next to other software I have planned to in the future. I am eager to try out LXC containers, which are new to me.

Host it yourself

For closing words, I would like to re-iterate what I said in my last post. This point in time is a very geopolitically unstable one, with big players asserting their dominance over smaller ones by use of their monopolies. Tech and Digital Relliance is one of these. Many places, at least in Europe, are stressing citizens to be able to rely on themselves by advising an emergency kit with rations. The idea can be seen as a ‘bug out bag’, common in prepper terminology.

In my opinion, these emergency lists leave out your reliance on the internet.

Tech is integrated as ever. Your mobile phone is an extensions of yourself. People’s usage of US tech is as common as drinking water. What if, in a month, Google is forced to block your country from it’s services? Or if CloudFlare decides to no longer provide ‘pro-bono’ protection to your Italian blog?

Remove this single point of failure, and know you can still feed your digital needs by having an alternative available. That way, you can still enjoy your family photos and listen to the music you love when Google denies you access.

Till next time.

Changelog

• 2026/01/26 - Published
• 2026/01/25 - Reviewed and edited
• 2026/01/10 - Draft