Since the pandemic Ive been slowing building up a small homeland with some Cisco switches, a small cluster of dell optiplex 5070 micros for proxmox and a custom built dual socket server for hosting NAS and hosting most of my windows VMs.
I don’t know what to do with it anymore I haven’t turned on my lab on months. I have had 0 motivation to use it or mess with configs on it.
Should I call it and begin wiping drives and selling it?
Just wait … everyone has that episodes where you don’t want to tinker around… mine was off for 6 months and recently I got back at it. So rebuilt everything with automation in focus , spinning / stopping VMs via email , every dhcp lease gets an A record on my DNS server and such jazz … and lastly implemented Authentik so that every service uses oauth where possible.
Just wait a little … because when you want to start over and sell everything , you’ll need to buy stuff again
I had the same phenomenon with a cluster of eight SBCs that I turned into small super-computer. I used it to learn parallel computing and Beowulf clusters.
My advise: listen to your curiosity… what do you need to learn next? Where is your curiosity taking you? Maybe ask a mentor for advice on what skills are important to learn next? You might find the next set of skills are complex, human systems skills not computing skills. Some things might be: communicating complex problems and solutions such that they are sponsored for investment, or teaching others a skill you have mastered.
The Catalyst by Jonah Berger is a good read for change management examples of how to frame your argument.
How’s your terraform? Do what you used to do, but automated and start to finish without touching anything configuration wise.
Hobbies can ebb and flow, but the tone of this post has me slightly concerned for your mental health.
I just recently learned I am bipolar - when I’m manic I can do anything and I start new hobbies. Then in a low I can barely be convinced to do self care and exercise, much less hobbies. Maybe I’m just seeing it more because it’s fresh on my mind.
Good luck on whatever you decide to do.
Walk away from it , seriously - step away from the rack.
I too had a homelab , it was used to learn , once I had learnt what I needed it got switched off and decommissioned , sold , given away .
Don’t feel you need to keep it running just because
OP, just give me the gear and move on with your life.
Do you find that you have zero use for it period or do you find that you just need to downsize?
Don’t be afraid to put down a hobby and pick up something else. There are a lot of great things to do and every hobby has a welcoming community.
You can always come back to something. And better yet, you’ll have new motivation based on new experience.