I've got some updates on the old diagram, and two new ones to add in! [image: 1753485834331-reference-diagram.drawio-resized.png] I've migrated over to XCP 8.3 LTS since it's released! Alongside that I've installed a few applications, condensed some others into group names in the chart, and migrated the ZFS pools for OS storage to better NVME hardware, also added L2ARC in front of the HDD storage. Since MxGPU is no longer supported in the way that it was, I instead had to change the number of VDI max from 4 to 2. Instead of MxGPU, each GPU is PCI-passthru directly to the VMs instead. [image: 1753486012677-dev-diagram.drawio.png] I've also expanded upon how the Dev section is setup, as it has it's own write-up This environment is composed of three core network zones, designed to mimic a typical hybrid enterprise setup: Development VLAN Functions as a proxy-to-internet zone used to hijack or intercept DNS and service calls as needed. It enables testing of redirect logic, hostname spoofing, or simulating cloud resources and CDN endpoints. Internal Host Transit Network A dedicated transit layer that links all Opnsense VMs with static routing only, simulating WAN connectivity across isolated customer domains while allowing controlled traffic flows between them. Domain Networks (White, Gray, Black) Each domain resides in its own internal network segment with no direct internet access. These simulate fully isolated customer environments. All connectivity is routed through the Opnsense perimeter via the transit network. Domain, OS Generation, Windows Stack, Linux Stack White, Modern, Server 2022/Windows 11, RHEL 9, Ubuntu 24 Gray, Prior Gen, Server 2019/Windows 10, RHEL 8, Ubuntu 22 Black, Legacy, Server 2012 R2/Windows 7, RHEL 6, Ubuntu 16 [image: 1753486160941-classroom-diagram.drawio.png] And then I've also setup my old classroom, this was as simpler design used when I taught A+ and Net+ certifications. The first years focused on A+ and we had hardware examples, as well as I created VMs that were broken/infected/improperly configured and general virtualization for anything else. We avoided using the actual workstations in examples lol. Second years had their own server rack with it's own network gear and server for use, they primarily focused on Net+ Been fun all the way and XCP-NG has made a lot of it possible. Thanks for all ya do!

Ahh how the homelab changes over time... Hosts are still the same, but storage, network setup, and location have all changed. Will have to post a new updated thread on my current server setup.

Hey! Thanks for the kind words And nice setup. We have some of those Node Dell machines in our lab too!

@Vinylrider Lol i like this getting stuff done customized haha! Great pictures.

@john-c said in Please review - XCP-ng Reference Architecture: @nikade said in Please review - XCP-ng Reference Architecture: @john-c said in Please review - XCP-ng Reference Architecture: TrueSecure Whats that? Never heard of TrueSecure on TrueNAS. It's an application or feature for TrueNAS Scale, TrueNAS Core and/or TrueNAS Enterprise. Which enables the enabling and configuration of security features of TrueNAS instances (software and/or hardware). https://www.truenas.com/blog/truenas-security-in-2024/ Alright - I didnt know that, thanks for the info.

@ChristianL Well, good news. I have my MS-01s. I've been futzing with them now for 36 hours and started off with 8.2.1 XCP-NG on it but was disturbed by the fact I'm not getting full 1 GB in both directions on my NICs. Currently I don't have my SFP ports populated; I'm only using my 2 x 2.5Gbe NICs at the moment. Down seems to pull fine in at 1GBe (my switch is the choke) but going back out of my box suffers at approx 200Mb speeds. I just now upgraded all three MS-01 nodes to 8.3 beta2 and still see the same limitation on sending stuff back out and up the Ethernet NICs. Do you still see your VLAN performance issue? Have you checked to confirm that issue is specific to VLAN and not LAN? Also, have you managed to get the Ethernet NIC feature of the Thunderbolt ports working?

That's a question for @florent Also, we are improving the error handling so it's more clear when you should shutdown the VM for the transfer. Happy to know you made it work in the end!

@bbruun @olivierlambert Thanks for the information on the backups. It all makes sense to me. Was going to say during backing up everything still runs great, just I noticed it took a bit longer, but now I understand why. I also am using a three node cluster using nvme as my drives on each node. I am doing the three replications too instead of the two. I am coming from using ceph storage and had always used a minimal of three replications. But maybe I will try just two to see how it runs! Also this is just running all my stuff inside my house and it is solid. I do wish there was a home license for xostor so that I don't have to use the cli for everything related to it. I do enough CLI stuff in the day job and when at home I must of the time just want a gui to make it super simple. Thanks again for a awesome product with xostor!

Just scrapped the previous XOSTOR install. I'm going to "trial" XOA + XOSTOR 1.0

@austinw Since 80% is SSD, it does not generate that much heat to be honest. All the machines have their original supermicro fans. Tweaked some stuff in the ipmi. Average temperature of the cpu and ram is around 45/48c without the fans making lots of noises.

@joehays These are examples of PCIe add-on cards that could work for software raid of the boot drive. Booting from M.2 SATA is much more likely to work with old hardware than NVMe. XCP-ng installer may automatically make a software RAID out of them. Most of the other dual M.2 cards are funky in that one is M.2 NVMe and the other M.2 SATA. $62.00 dual M.2 SATA only with no need for SATA cables. StarTech.com 2x M.2 SATA SSD Controller Card - PCIe - PCI Express M.2 SATA III Controller - NGFF Card Adapter (PEX2M2), Red $43.00 four port NVMe only PCIe card. GLOTRENDS PA41 Quad M.2 NVMe to PCIe 4.0 X16 Adapter Without PCIe Bifurcation Function, Support 22110/2280/2260/2242/2230 Size (PCIe Bifurcation Motherboard is Required)

So far, I'm still learning the product. I have the lab with Xen Orchestra and XOA appliance, and I am testing configurations and stability before loading up my VMS. I build mini clones of my corporate domain to test AD automation—prototype working demos to automate HRIS and AD for onboarding projects. Firewall SDN testing and staging demo websites to clients as needed. It is better to play in the lab before modifying production Active Directory Load testing XOSTOR at the moment, getting pretty good IOPS so far: [image: 1704573893388-iops.png]

@gskger You're here. You know the answer. Put in some more memory and a 2TB NVMe and run XCP! See what you can do with it. Dedicate an outside and inside interface and have a DMZ for guest net and more. I have a system like this (a little faster i7 CPU, 64G, 2x2TB NVMe, 2T SATA) and I run lots of stuff on it including: BT server, asterisk, DNS server, NTP server, XO, Win10, test VMs, ZM for cameras, and more. I turned off a whole bunch of old hardware.

Could not find out how to edit my post: Additional : The 3 hosts are configured as a pool with one Shared storage SR. Sometimes i bring one of my hosts to a so called LANparty to run some temporary game server VM's So that is the reason i also configured some local SR's to bring the GameServer VM''s without having to bring the storage host.

Nice! Eager to see pictures of your setup

It's 100% fine The community forum is the best place to report about your tinkering with the platform!

Hey! Thanks for the feedback That's a good idea actually (even if I'm trying to reduce the number of sections). Let me think about this!