We’ve been hearing a lot of interest around the HL4 and HL8, especially from folks running rack-based setups, so we wanted to bring the conversation to the community and get your thoughts directly.
What would you think about a rack-mountable HL8?
For those of you with homelabs or production racks:
Would a short-depth rackmount version of the HL8 be something you’d seriously consider?
What depth would you ideally want to see?
And just as important:
If we did build a rackmount HL8, what would you want improved or changed?
Some ideas to get the discussion going:
Hot-swap vs non hot-swap drives
Rail kits / mounting options
Networking (10GbE? 25GbE?)
CPU platform/upgradability
ECC memory?
Front vs rear I/O layout
Aesthetic (clean vs industrial look)
Whether you’re running a small homelab or something more serious, we’d love to hear how a system like this would fit into your setup, and what would make it a “must-have” for you.
A shelf works well, but a rack kit would be very cool! Would the pre-existing models be compatible? The one I purchased is at an office I don’t have access to regularly and I am unsure if there is mounting holes on the sides.
My two cents, back when I was purchasing 8-bay cases for home use, rack mounting was not a consideration. I think a 1U 4 bay or 2U 8 bay would have some interest, especially if it came in Ubiquity silver, but “short depth” to me implies 4U or 5U with the drives beside or below the motherboard.
To me what would be more interesting would be an 8- or 9-drive HL15 that allowed for long GPUs. Or an HL4/HL8 v2 that had capacity for 2-slot GPUs. Even the shorter GPUs now are usually 2 slot.
I think I ended up with more questions then answers to provide on this one. @Vikram-45HomeLab how much of the original HL8 or HL4 design is 45HomeLab looking to reuse? I feel like the community needs a few more parameters here.
Hot-Swap all the way
Please and thank you.
Mostly rear but I wouldn’t mind a USB port or two on the front.
+1000 for a 1U or 2U rack mount option but completely agnostic on the Ubiquity silver.
This is where my head was at. If you could slide the drives to one side then there could be an open section to allow for longer GPU’s or PCIE cards while keeping the depth shorter.
Thank you for taking the time to show interest in this. We have not decided what we would want to do or how much of a change we have in mind, but I wanted to gather community interest and feedback on this idea, and then I can present my case in front of the management to get a new project rolling out in the near future.
Keep these comments and ideas coming in, and we might come up with a newly designed HL4/8. I might not be able to get all the things listed here, but I will try to get the most
I see - not where I thought you were going with that. I also don’t see a target market overlap here. The Unifi NAS is a true network storage appliance. I’m thinking (and expecting) 45HomeLab will continue to offer open enteprise grade hardware platforms to roll your own server.
I used to use my HL15 as my NAS but actually just moved over to the UNAS Pro 8 and use my HL15 for what it’s named after - a Home Lab server. I am very happy with its ability to do this.
It’s sort of a Swiss army knife chassis.
Gotcha. So then, in my opinion, you should also put emphasis on a serviceable design in a small footprint with a rack mount HL8. I think the original HL4/HL8 design was pretty smart with the front door and fold out motherboard with the captive screws. Nearly everything is easily accessible - excluding backplane and rear fans. Not sure about others, but I hate having to take my server off its rails. I would much rather be able to service it on the rails. The HL15 is generally good too with an opportunity for a better top panel design. Perhaps a rack mount HL8 could also have a fold out design while rail mounted?
The short-depth idea especially stands out to me. My assumption is that a lot of people running racks at home do not have the space for a full-size rack, which leads to using wall-mounted racks. Those setups really benefit from shorter-depth equipment. That said, I could be wrong about how common that is across the community.
I have looked at other options like Ubiquiti, and while the price is attractive, they do not really fit what I am looking for. I want something more flexible where I can upgrade components like RAM or CPU, and run my own services.
A rackmount HL8 equivalent with upgradable components would definitely be something I would seriously consider.
My $.02 but mostly just echoing others, a rack mount in its current config is too much wasted rack space for only getting 8 drives. Before my HL15, I had an iXsystems Mini XL+ and it was great system but my biggest complaint was the amount of backspace I lost using it. So 2U 8 drive system would be very cool. Drives need to be hot swappable. D0on’t care much about the length, as even if it was half depth, I’m not going to put something behind it, but probably something that fits nicely in a short rack. Definitely ECC memory, minimum of 10GbE, rear I/o preferably, and must have a rail kit if the top needs to be removed to be able to swap anything hot swappable. If drives are front loaded, then fixed ears would be fine with me.
If something like this was offered, I’d certainly consider adding it to my HL15, otherwise I’d add another HL15 but will wait longer before doing so.
If you made eight Tri-Mode slots, it would be incredible. I work at a startup with an 8-bay NVMe server and we’d love to switch to an HL8, but there’s no way to use our drives in it right now.
And make 100% sure it has ECC, and some server grade CPU, AMD EPYC 4004/5 or we but it has to be server grade.
