My ISP finally allowed a second IP

So Contabo finally caved and let me grab a second IPv4 for "business use" — their words, my air quotes. Plan is proper load balancing, maybe finally run that HAProxy setup I've been diagramming on napkins for six months.

Current rig: two Dell R230s, both running Debian, both sweating in my garage. One handles Plex + the usual arr stack, other does Nextcloud + a handful of game servers for friends. Right now it's all manual DNS failover via a $3/yr failover monitor that texts me when things break. Real high availability, that.

With two IPs I can do active-active, split services properly, maybe even announce a tiny /29 if I get ambitious. Anyone actually done this on residential fiber? What's the realistic uptime vs. Just colocating a single box at OVHcloud for €35?

Dreaming big, wallet small.

Here we go again—two IPs on residential—never ends well—my last ISP promised static blocks—then the billing department—somehow—never got the memo—ended up with a $400 surprise—because they—counted each IP as a separate business line—

But honestly—if you're already running dual R230s—the power draw alone—probably eating—what—60W idle each—so that's—what—$8-10/month just in electricity—before we even—

Lol fiber tbh Debian on r230s is solid but have you considered just proxmox clustering the whole thing Two ips is nice but like. Single point of failure is still Contabo's line into your garage I did this with arch once. Never again.

To be fair, I run Windows Server with NLB in my lab and the failover timing alone makes me wince for anything "production."

Have you priced what Contabo actually charges for the IP versus just moving one role to a small VPS? In my experience, most home hosting economics fall apart once you factor in power, cooling, and the inevitable 3 AM drive home because your ISP "upgraded" something.

Wesh doug

Le server حلو but incha'allah for uptime with Contabo, I know these guys... my friend he try the same, two IP, one morning—pouf !—both dead because "network maintenance" at 4h du matin

The load balancing it works until it doesn't, you know ?

Me I say: colo at InterServer or keep dreaming in garage. The humidity alone... !

Right then, let's do proper maths before we all cheer too hard.

Contabo's second IP: €20/month last I checked, might be €25 your side. That's $300/year for one extra address. Hostinger's smallest VPS—cheeky plug, I work there, docs are here https://www.hostinger.com —is £2.50/month, so $38/year, and you get a whole machine with its own IP, backup power, and someone else's 3 AM problem.

Your R230s: lovely boxes, proper servers, but they're drawing what, 80W under load? At 15p/kWh that's... *counts on fingers*... about £10/month just to keep them breathing. Plus the garage heat, plus the noise the missus complains about.

Not saying don't do it—home lab's home lab—but the economics are brutal if you're pretending it's "saving money." Cheers lads

R230 is 1U, E3 v5/v6, about 45W idle measured at wall with single PSU. Dual PSU add 8-10W. So call it 55W per box, 110W total. At $0.14/kWh US average, that's €11.20/month power.

OVHcloud colo: €35/month gets you 1U, 1A @ 120V, 5TB bandwidth. Your R230 fits exactly. They'll do IPMI passthrough, BGP if you ask nice.

So home setup: $25 (IP) + $11 (power) + $0 (your time valued at zero, apparently) = $36/month. Colo: $35/month. You gain: redundant power, redundant cooling, redundant network, someone else replacing failed DIMMs at 2 AM.

The /29 dream? Contabo won't route it. They don't even route /30s to residential. Stop.