zlacker

I agree with you. My use case doesn't call for perfect uptime. Sounds like yours doesn't either (though you've got a pretty deep pit yourself, if 240v and generator weren't part of the sump plans and the rack just got to ride along (that's how it worked for me)).

But that doesn't mean its for us to say that someone else's use case is wrong. Some people self host a nextcloud instance and offer access to it to friends and family. What if someone else is hosting something important on there and my power is out? My concerns are elsewhere, but there's might not be.

My point was simply that different people have different use cases and different needs, and it definitely can become a bottomless pit if you let it.

For me, IPMI, PiKVM, TinyPilot, any sort of remote management interface that can power on/off a device and be auto powered on when power is available, so you can reasonably always access it, and having THAT on the UPS means that you can power down the compute remotely, and also power back up remotely. Means you never have to send someone to reboot your rack while youre out of town, you dont shred your UPS battery in minutes by having the server auto boot when power is available. Eliminates reliance on other people while youre not home :tada:

But again, not quite a bottomless pit, but there are constant layers of complexity if you want to get it right.

>>bisby+(OP)
> though you've got a pretty deep pit yourself, if 240v and generator weren't part of the sump plans and the rack just got to ride along (that's how it worked for me)

Generator was a requirement for the sump pump. My house was basically built on a swamp, so an hour in spring without it means water in the basement. Now admittedly, I spent an extra couple hundred bucks to get a 240V generator with higher capacity than strictly necessary, but it was also roughly the minimum amount of money to spend to get one that can run on gasoline or propane, which was a requirement for me. 240V to the rack cost me $45, most of that cost being the breaker (rack is right next to the panel).

> What if someone else is hosting something important on there and my power is out? My concerns are elsewhere, but there's might not be.

I host roughly a dozen services that have around 25 users at the moment, but I charge $0 for them. I make it very clear: I have a petabyte of storage and oodles of compute, feel free to use your slice, and I’ll do my best to keep everything up and available - for my own sake (and I’ve maintained over 3 nines for 8 years!). But you as a user get no guarantee of uptime or availability, ever, and while I try very hard to backup important data (onsite, offsite split to multiple locations, and AWS S3 glacier), if I lose your data, sucks to suck. So far most people are pretty happy with this arrangement.

I couldn’t possibly fathom worrying about other people’s access to my homelab during a power outage. If I wanted to care, I’d charge for access, and I’d have a standby generator, multiple WANs, a more resilient remote KVM setup, etc. But then I’d be running a business - just a really shitty one that takes tons of my time and makes me little money. And is very illegal (for some of the services I make available, at least), instead of only slightly illegal.