Reducing compute capacity and retiring unnecessary workloads in a home-lab to optimize power consumption and improve overall efficiency.

Coming from a background where I worked heavily with VMware, I was determined to build my own vSANvSANVMware Virtual SANStorageVMware software-defined enterprise storage that aggregates server-attached flash and magnetic storage across cluster nodes into a shared resilient datastore. and converged compute environment. Before long, I had three hefty 4U servers, each loaded with generous amounts of RAMRAMRandom Access MemoryHardwareHigh-speed volatile physical memory providing near-instantaneous read and write access for applications and operating system processes running on the CPU. and powered by 24-core, energy-hungry processors. It was overkill in every sense, but at the time, it felt like the perfect home-lab dream.

The VMUGVMUGVMware User GroupVirtualizationAn independent global organization for virtualization professionals providing VMUG Advantage subscriptions with non-production enterprise VMware licensing. membership was the key enabler, costing roughly $200 annually providing VMware Advantage. This gave me access to a comprehensive suite of VMware licenses specifically intended for non-production environments.

Building and configuring the hardware was genuinely enjoyable. But when COVID arrived, our two-bedroom apartment didn’t exactly pair well with a full home-lab, and the living room effectively became a datacenter. After moving to a new house, I disassembled the cluster and never reassembled it. The fan noise, the SFP+SFP+Enhanced Small Form-Factor PluggableNetworkingA compact, hot-pluggable network interface module supporting 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) over fiber-optic cabling or direct attach copper (DAC). switch whine, the heat and power draw all made me hesitate to bring that entire setup back online.

Scope—something I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post—had slipped my mind over time. I had drifted away from the original goal and allowed the setup to grow far beyond what I actually needed. What I really wanted was a resilient storage platform for pictures and videos, nothing more. I didn’t need an entire cluster, and certainly not the full Gibson-sized infrastructure, to achieve that.

With that realization, the path forward is obvious: scale everything back. I’m consolidating the environment down to a single machine, something far simpler, quieter, and more energy-efficient. And honestly, one well-configured box is more than enough for the workload I have today.

I’ve also decided not to return to VMware. VMUG Advantage no longer aligns with my needs, so I’m shifting back to ProxmoxProxmoxProxmox Virtual EnvironmentVirtualizationAn open-source Debian-based enterprise virtualization platform tightly coupling KVM hypervisors, LXC containers, ZFS storage, and clustered management. and exploring what the platform can offer for a simplified, single node environment.