Unlocking Raspberry Pi Potential: Navigating Network Booting Challenges for Enhanced Performance and Reliability

I've set up several Raspberry Pis around our house for various projects, but one recurring challenge is the potential for SD card failure due to heavy file system writes. To mitigate this, I've transitioned some of my Raspberry Pi 4s to boot from USB drives, but this limits compatible cases.

Backing up these SD cards or USB drives can be cumbersome, yet essential in case of failure. Recognizing that Raspberry Pis since the 3 B model can boot from the network, I decided to utilize my Proxmox server to host the boot server.

Initially, I explored Piserver, the official solution from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Setting it up involved creating a VM and booting from the Raspbian distribution iso. While it provided a straightforward interface for booting devices from the network and selecting distributions, it fell short of my needs.

Empowering Your Home's Power Protection: A Deep Dive into UPS Monitoring and Integration

Our household relies on several Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) to safeguard our network equipment and computers. A crucial aspect of maintaining these UPSs is monitoring their batteries to determine if they need replacement.

For UPSs located near desktop PCs, monitoring battery status is straightforward. These UPSs can typically be connected via USB, allowing us to use monitoring software to check battery health.

However, monitoring UPSs situated in network racks is more complex. Some UPSs only offer serial or USB ports, requiring a computer to directly connect and retrieve battery status. Alternatively, certain UPSs feature a network port and cloud connectivity, enabling them to upload status data to the cloud for remote viewing.

We have an APC UPS with cloud connectivity, which facilitates notifications for significant status changes through their Smart Connect service. Despite its benefits, this solution has drawbacks for our specific needs. Firstly, there's no integration with Home Assistant, preventing us from automating devices based on UPS status, such as shutting down devices during power outages when battery levels drop below a certain threshold. Secondly, reliance on a cloud connection means that if our internet goes down, the automations wouldn't function.