Lincstation N1

[Sonic]

This week, I reconfigured my Lincstation N1 with Proxmox and HexOS in a VM. This is a temporary test setup, mainly to experiment with NVMe passthrough. Spoiler alert 😊: It works!

For over a year, I had TrueNAS running on it, and that worked perfectly fine as well.

Lincstation N2 – My Future Setup

I backed the Lincstation N2 on Kickstarter. With the 30% early bird discount, it costs $309 / €329.
🔗 Kickstarter Link

Eventually, I’ll use the N2 for my final setup, while the N1 will become my Proxmox Backup Server.

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Lincstation N1 – Specs

• Intel Celeron N5105 (4 cores)
• 16GB RAM
• 128GB ROM (not used)
• 2× 2.5" SATA bays (2× 500GB Samsung 870 EVO SSDs)
• 4× PCIe M.2 2280 slots (4× 2TB Samsung SSDs)
• 2.5GbE NIC

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Installation Steps – Proxmox & HexOS (NVMe Passthrough)

1️⃣ Install Proxmox

1. Download the latest Proxmox ISO and create a bootable USB using Rufus.
2. Boot from USB and install Proxmox.
   • Installed on two 500GB SSDs (btrfs mirror setup).
3. After installation, access Proxmox via the web interface.
4. Run some post-install steps:
   • Post-install helper script:
     🔗 Proxmox Post-Install Script
   • Install the latest Proxmox updates.

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2️⃣ Install HexOS in a VM (NVMe Passthrough Setup)

1. Download HexOS ISO and upload it to Proxmox.
2. Create NVMe passthrough mappings:
   • In Datacenter → Resource Manager, create 4 NVMe mappings (NVME1, NVME2, NVME3, NVME4).
3. Create a new VM:
   • BIOS: SeaBIOS
   • Disk: 50GB HDD
   • RAM: 8GB
   • CPU: 2 cores (host)
   • Network: Virtio
   • CD/DVD: Connect the HexOS ISO
   • (At this stage, do not attach the NVMe SSDs yet.)
4. Boot the VM and complete the HexOS installation.
5. Shutdown the VM.
6. Attach NVMe SSDs:
   • In the hardware tab, add the 4 NVMe SSDs as PCI devices.
7. Boot HexOS again:
   • If everything is correct, HexOS should detect all 4 SSDs, allowing you to create a storage pool.
8. Done! 🎉

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Special thanks to @Dylan and @PsychoWardsfor encouraging me to share more about my homelab! 🚀

Also a picture of my N1. It's fits perfectly in my 10 inch rack. (BTW, the other device is a NUC 11 pro)

 

[PsychoWards]

Sounds like a great build =D are you only running Hexos in Proxmox?

Also how did you setup your Hexos VM? Is it a Default Machine(i440fx) or a Q35 and are you using SeaBIOS or UEFI? 🙂
 

[Sonic]

I use the default settings in Proxmox: SeaBIOS and i440fx.

In my test setup, I also have a PBS VM. Ideally, PBS requires local storage, but it also works with NFS and SMB shares. I'm currently testing with a HexOS SMB share and a Synology NFS share. So far, it works well, but NFS sometimes suddenly becomes very slow.

I'm still undecided about what I'll run on the Lincstation N2. Right now, I have a Shuttle DL30N with an Intel N100 and 32GB RAM as my always-on Proxmox server. I run several Docker containers, including Homepage.

The main question is whether the N2 with 16GB RAM will be enough to run:
✅ A HexOS VM (8GB RAM)
✅ Several Docker containers

I think it will work fine, but I’ll have to test it! 😊

 

[PsychoWards]

Can you not just upgrade the memory of the Lincstation N2? You could try if it works with the module from your DL30N.

With the recent changes and improvements with Docker in Truenas you might not even need Proxmox in the future anymore and you could even run everything docker from Hexos/Truenas. If, however you also need VMs, Proxmox is still the way to go.

Also Q35 instead of i440fx in combination with CPU type Host is supposed to give you the best performance 🙂 

 

[Sonic]

The Lincstation N2 has 16GB LPDDR5 (Non-upgradeable), so 16GB it is. I already use CPU type host, and the i440fx is a click, click, next mistake, ha ha 🙂 . But for my test setup it's good enough and i didn't feel the need to change it, because it works. But I will use Q35 in my final setup.

Truenas is also improving the VM engine and will become more and more a virtualisation platform. But for now the sweetspot of HexOs / Truenas is still good and reliable network storage. Proxmox gives me a lot of flexibility and is my virtualisation platform of choice. In the past I used ESXi, but since the Broadcom takeover I moved to Proxmox. vCenter was a nice tool and Proxmox is developing something like that:

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Datacenter_Manager_Roadmap

Are you still using Proxmox? Or did you fully move to HexOs/Truenas? I am also curious about what you are using as server hardware.

[PsychoWards]

Oh true, I just saw replaceable DDR5 memory, but I didn't notice this was only for the S1 :s 

Ah yes, the famous, next, next, next, wait was there something important there? Nah probably not 😂 

I'm also following the VM development in Truenas and if it turns out to be comparable to proxmox, I might run Hexos on bare metal, but so far, Proxmox is there to stay in my setup🙂

This datacenter manager is looking like an awesome tool, are you already using the alpha version of it?

I went full consumer grad HW in my setup, you can find the details here, although I have installed some more apps in the meantime. 🙂

https://hub.hexos.com/topic/1850-psychos-little-homelab/

[Sonic]

I like your setup! Certainly future proof. Do you also have a 19 inch rack or only a 19 inch case. I don't have space for a 19 inch rack, so I have my focus on 10 inch rack devices.

Is there a specific reason you use portainer? I am more in favour of Dockge.

Datacenter manager is only a first alpha release. Perhaps I will give it a try when it's in beta. Now it's to early.

 

 

[PsychoWards]

Thank you 🙂 You also have a nice couple of possibilities and future proofing options with your setup =D

My Proxmox and Unraid Server are both in a 19''inch case. I plan to get a startech.com rack, but I still don't know what I need exactly, I want to have rails, but the rails I found are ludicrously expensive etc. So it's foreseen to get a rack but so far it's still in the planning stage.

Why portainer? Because it was the only thing I knew back when I switched to it. But only half my stacks are managed by portainer, the other half are good old docker compose up -d containers.

Portainer is so infuriating to use if you want to mount files and folders and you cannot use extension of compose files (immich HW acceleration and ML for example). So yes, I had a pretty bad time with portainer =D. I'll have a look at Dockge, definitely! Thanks for the tip 🙂 

[Sonic]

One of the things I am struggling with is my docker strategy. It's about the question: All Docker containers in 1 VM or 1 VM per container? See also this link:

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/all-docker-containers-in-1-vm-or-1-vm-per-container.141367/

At the moment install 1 docker in 1 LXC container. I did this without any strategy upfront. First I had to face the learningcurve of installing docker. But now I have a few dockers which I use daily, it's good to think about it. In this setup I can backup and restore individual dockers without influencing other dockers. This is for me a pro. But it's creating extra overhead. That's a con. Do you have any thoughts about the best docker strategy?

 

[Sonic]

BTW, a first view of Datacenter Manager

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxRWijchp3M

[Backpedal6365]

Hey, I'm also using proxmox and did install hexos through it. did you also have this error message for health and capabilities?

[Sonic]

My health dashboards are OK. Did you get this message during the setup?

 

[Sonic]

When I install HexOs in a Proxmox VM I'm running into this issue. I have two Proxmox machines: one using SATA passthrough and the other using NVMe passthrough. When I attach the disks to the VMs and start the installation, the HexOS installation freezes during pool creation. However, if I install HexOS without the disks already attached, the installation completes successfully. After restarting HexOS, I can add the disks and create the pool without any issues.

Perhaps this is also related too your error message.