How to – Systems Lab

December 4, 2023November 5, 2023

Docker Compose on Unraid

Recently I restarted my journey towards a self hosted photos system again. This time I was planning on trying it immich. Immich provides a docker compose file to startup their entire stack of 6+ containers, which I wanted to run on unraid that lacks compose in the default configuration. Queue journey to get docker compose capabilities on unraid.

November 27, 2023November 5, 2023

Docker Hub Login on Unraid

I’ve had a few times now where I can’t grab a new container image to startup due to their rates limits on docker hub. This has been quite annoying, and there is a free plan for double the image pulls. Here is how you can login on unraid and setup the go file so it persists between reboots.

November 20, 2023November 5, 2023

XKCD in Home Assistant

I like to do some funny things from time to time, and I learned that adding XKCD to my home assistant dashboard is pretty simple. So what am I going to do, of course I’m going to add the current days XKCD to my home assistant dashboard!

November 13, 2023November 5, 2023

Making LED Acrylic Signs

Now that I have a CO2 laser available, it opens up some new things that I can do, like cutting and engraving clear acrylic. Adding some side lighting to that and we can make a pretty sweet sign. I also plan on making a few more of these for gifts, so this first one is my experiment piece to try out all the techniques needed.

November 6, 2023November 6, 2023

NFC Tag Readers in Home Assistant

This is the first step in my home audio setup. I need an easy way to select music to play from my collection, and having EspDeck buttons for each choice would end up being a bit too clumsy. I plan on making some tag readers and a small collection of NFC tags for the various bands, playlist, etc available.

October 30, 2023August 14, 2023

Enabling Unifi QOS

With the limited bandwidth of my Comcast network and the various services I run all competing for it, it’s time to turn on some QOS services and rules on my Unifi network. We’ve been seeing problems with voice and video meetings that some standard QOS will hopefully remedy.

October 23, 2023August 14, 2023

Backups and Data Synchronization

Backups are important, we all know that, but often times we don’t do what we say. This goes over all my various methods for backing up my data and attempting to follow the 3-2-1 policy.

October 16, 2023August 18, 2023

Using ntfy.sh to send unRAID notifications

unRAID supports multiple notification platforms for keeping you informed about what the server is doing, the only problem is, I don’t use any of those notification platforms. I have however started using ntfy.sh, which has been working well for my home assistant notifications, and is a very simple platform. What I’d like to do is integrate it into unRAID so that I can make use of it there as well.

October 9, 2023August 10, 2023

Building a Custom Keyboard

I saw a cute keyboard online at one point, an absurdly small keyboard, 35%. I decided to build one myself, there’s a kit available with the circuit board and diodes, just add switches, micro controller, and case. I did end up complicating things a bit though, adding hot swap sockets and I plan on eventually adding a plate as well.

October 2, 2023August 10, 2023

UnRAID XFS MetaData Corruption

One thing you never want to see when you look at the screen for your file server is an error about corrupted data. Let alone after seeing read errors from one of your disks during a parity check. I recently had that sort of fun with my NAS.