House Lab Learners information ({Hardware})

Till just lately, and for nicely over the previous decade, my spouse and I’ve been nomads. Shifting from the Caribbean to Miami, New York, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and now again residence. This has meant that for a lot of of these years, my residence workplace principally comprised of some laptops and screens.

As of late, we’re extra settled; my spouse has accomplished her research, works full-time, and my full-time job stays distant, through a house workplace supporting Linux servers and hosting them.

After a brief journey to Antigua, I had a short assembly with a tech buddy of mine, Yves Ephraim. He was an Engineer with Cable & Wireless for 20 years (till 2003). Yves left C&W shortly earlier than I began there in 2004. He’s a champion of the web and technological developments in Antigua & Barbuda.

We sat in his residence workplace, the place he advised me a bit about his present tasks, in addition to his dabbling with IPv6, internet hosting, mail, BGP4, amongst different issues. Most of which he does through his very succesful residence lab.

What’s a House Lab?

My present House lab in a 12u rack as of Could 2020

Consider a house lab as a spot the place you possibly can fail within the privateness of your personal residence. As Thomas A. Edison mentioned: “I’ve not failed. I’ve simply discovered 10,000 ways in which received’t work.” I contemplate myself an professional at failure. However critically, I wish to fail much more, and a house lab will create infinite alternatives for me to fail. After all, all of the whereas looking for success, however you bought that already.

Normally, a lab is a spot the place you possibly can safely carry out experiments. Most of you studying this text are techies and sysadmins. As you realize, making an attempt out new issues on manufacturing tools by no means ends nicely. Shush… it’s OK, I do know, I do know, you didn’t assume that one command would take all the things offline. This danger is the explanation why we construct ourselves a sandbox setting to dabble, take a look at, and fail in, all from the consolation of our personal properties.

To this point, I host my take a look at labs on servers in North America and Europe. I’m making a custom-made community and server residence lab; to fill these areas the place I wish to turn out to be extra acquainted. I may also be utilizing my residence lab for distant backups, network monitoring and alerting of remote servers, and wired UAP APs, amongst different issues.

Could we encourage one another to nice residence labs

As I advised Yves, our chat had me revisiting the thought. The truth is, I feel my precise phrases had been, “Yves, I see your own home lab, and I’ll elevate you mine.” As at all times, I’m sure there’s much more to study by dialogue. In gentle of this reality, I needed to share this journey with you, beginning with the {hardware} choice course of for my residence lab.

After all, over time, I’ve had tools mendacity round, however that stops as we speak. Effectively, form of. So, if in case you have ever been thinking about constructing a house lab or if you have already got one, then let’s mingle, share and dabble together.

The place do we start? To not sound cliché, however let’s begin from the bottom up, or wall ahead. What I’m making an attempt to say is, we want space for storing, bodily space for storing, for our new residence lab.

House lab location, it’s all about location.

Location, Location, Location. It’s all about location! Please excuse the dearth of originality – I’m a sysadmin, not a author. I’ll strive my finest to get you to the tip of this text.

Location is important for a number of causes. The selection between the house workplace, front room, closet, attic, basement, or storage will depend on a spread of essential variables. These embody room temperature and air flow, workable house round your tools, ease and distance of community cable runs, foot site visitors, 24-hour ease of entry, energy, noise ranges from your own home lab, and extra.

Right here’s a fast checklist of Professionals vs. Cons I’ve compiled to get us serious about all of the doable residence lab places. Select properly:

House workplace

• Professionals: Proximity to work space/desk/units, fewer cable runs, and you’ll watch lights flash all day.
• Cons: no residence workplace otherwise you already spend an excessive amount of time in your house workplace.

Front room

• Professionals: Often cool, a lot of house/setup choices, blinky-blinky sci-fi film nights, and counts as household time.
• Cons: divorce, foot site visitors, might get broken, or broken through the divorce.

Closet

• Professionals: Simply accessible, stealthy, and also you get to say: “Have a look at what I’ve hiding in my closet.”
• Cons: Poor air flow (extra warmth), lack of house, and one much less closet = sad spouse.

Basement

• Professionals: Often cooler temps, and volunteering to do laundry (perhaps con?).
• Cons: don’t have a basement, flooding, spiders, or no entry when injured.

Attic

• Professionals: Much less noise, simpler cable runs.
• Cons: can get scorching relying on the place you reside, roof leaks, humidity/condensation, and creepy at evening.

Storage

• Professionals: Much less noise in the home, fully out of sight, spouse received’t even discover.
• Cons: A Bug’s Life in your lab, extra warmth (if no AC), mud, might require longer cables, or will get wrecked when parking the automobile.

For my lab, I’m going to construct it out in my residence workplace. I’ve laptops, a desktop, a server, and different units in my workplace, in order that this location would require shorter cable runs. When choosing your location, contemplate the best space of the room/house, keep away from direct daylight and contemplate reserving house for future growth.

It’s clever in case you draw/sketch out a house community diagram or use network design software. Remember your ground plan and the way you’ll accomplish the cable runs. For instance, many of the properties on this island have 8″ concrete inside partitions. Take into consideration these items earlier than, not after. In different phrases, map all the things out, make notes and create lists.

Community vs. Server Racks vs. Cupboards?

Subsequent, we have to resolve how we’ll retailer the tools (modems, routers, switches, servers, patch panels, UPS techniques, energy strips, cooling followers, and many others.).

Community cupboards and racks are sometimes confused with Server cupboards and racks. Routers, switches, patch panels, and the like are normally a lot shallower than servers. As such, Community Cupboards and Racks are normally not as deep as Server Cupboards and Racks. Additionally, networking units usually produce much less warmth than servers. You can see some community cupboards may have glass doorways that will not depart sufficient air flow for servers.

After deciding the depth and air flow necessities on your residence lab, there are a few different issues to contemplate. A cupboard is an enclosed house with door(s) and/or detachable sides, whereas a rack is a semi or absolutely open (4 sides open) body. That can assist you resolve whether or not to make use of a cupboard or rack, contemplate the next:

• In case you are putting in giant, heavy servers, then the additional stability of cupboards or four-sided racks ought to be thought of.
• For those who want frequent entry to the perimeters or rear of apparatus, then an open rack or cupboard with detachable sides would work nicely.
• In case your tools requires further cooling, an enclosed cupboard will want extra consideration to cooling and air flow.
• If the room is liable to mud, the additional safety of a cupboard will go a great distance in conserving it out of your tools.
• In case you are putting in in a normal residing space frequented by home friends, contemplate an enclosed cupboard that may usually look neater in look when locked. Nevertheless, a well-maintained open rack with tidy energy and community cable runs can look simply as neat!
• If restricted entry/safety is required, many enclosed cupboards usually provide lock and key entry management for higher safety.

Beneficial House Lab {Hardware}

UPDATE: I’ve up to date the article. A number of the units talked about have been discontinued or will not be readily accessible anymore. I’ve up to date with upgrades I’ve made and different advisable {hardware} and equipment. It’s been practically 4 years since my authentic homelab construct.

Now that you’ve already measured your tools’s most depth and regarded all of the above recommendation, it’s time to purchase your first piece of {hardware}. Or not. You could possibly have in all probability skipped to this part in case you favor extra em’, artistic strategies for internet hosting your own home lab. Nevertheless, many of the above recommendation applies even in case you plan to arrange your own home lab in your present front room cupboard, on a bookshelf, beneath your desk, or in a cardboard field. No, critically…

Image: Fancy cardboard field cupboard.

NOTE: You will get many of the tools listed under through Craigslist, Universities, and different native second-hand choices in some nations. Costs on this web page mirror Amazon’s present pricing, which is topic to vary. As an Amazon Affiliate member, I’ve included paid hyperlinks to objects, for which I’m compensated. For all different objects not listed on Amazon, if the hyperlinks turn out to be damaged over time, please let me know, because it at all times appears to occur usually, which is one other advantage of utilizing Amazon’s hyperlinks. Let’s transfer on to the advisable residence lab {hardware}.

To interchange or to not change: ISP Cable Modem

Earlier than we delve a bit deeper into my residence lab suggestions, in case you are a newbie to switching and routing, then a variety of the {hardware} under could appear to be a little bit of an overkill. You will get your ft moist by merely changing your ISP’s cable modem (ISP or Web Service Supplier), you realize, that factor with all of the flashing lights that you simply steadily need to unplug to reset to regain web entry. Yup, that one, the mini heater in your front room.

Most US ISPs cost month-to-month rental for that factor. Shopping for your personal might make some monetary sense. In addition to giving higher efficiency, reliability, and safety. Wager you had been already offered with the monetary bit eh? But it surely will get higher; most of those modems supplied by ISPs are normally of poor high quality, used, and lack options. Lastly, your ISP’s Modem/Router combos usually can not independently replace firmware variations as new exploits emerge. This implies you’re on the mercy of your ISP to push new patched firmware.

When you’ve got a fantastic ISP and this doesn’t apply to you, stick together with your modem. The one purpose to switch it in such circumstances will probably be to have entry to extra community options and create a house lab the place you possibly can take a look at away! I changed the modem/router combo from my ISP. I went with the Motorola MB7420 16×4 Cable Modem. Replace: 3 years later, there are a lot sooner fashions, for instance, the Motorola MB7621 32×8.

If you want to maintain issues easy, then go together with a Modem + Wi-Fi router combo. In any other case, proceed if you want to construct out a house lab to handle Firewall, NAS storage, VPN, VLANs, PoE (Energy over Ethernet), Virtualization, distant community infrastructure monitoring/alerting, wired APs, net servers, backup servers, the checklist goes on.

Replace: This modem, just like most I’ve used, provides off fairly a bit of warmth. When deciding placement, I might counsel towards the highest or depart house under and above. That mentioned, I really like this modem! Not like the ISP’s modem, it exhibits the standard of your connection, together with Freq. (MHz), Pwr (dBmV), SNR (dB), corrected and uncorrected, and even permits guide downstream frequency setting if wanted by your ISP.  

Choosing Your House Lab Rack

A rack unit (abbreviated U or RU) is a unit of measure outlined as 1 3⁄4 inches (or 44.45 mm). It’s the unit of measurement for the peak of 19-inch and 23-inch rack frames and the tools’s peak. The peak of the body/tools is expressed as multiples of rack models. A typical full-size rack is 42U excessive. Racks and cupboards are then listed as 1U, 2U, 3U, 4U, and so forth.

Right here’s an instance under of a 6U rack (labeled):

• StarTech 12U Wall Mount Rack – 13.5″ Deep / 19″ wide / 125lbs Capacity – $158 (specs) – Throughout my seek for a wall-mounted rack, I virtually bought the 6U model of this rack, then on the final minute, I switched to the 12U model for doable future growth.
• Samson SRK-12 Universal Equipment Rack Stand – $230 (specs) – This was my first alternative; that is an audio tools rack that’s absolutely appropriate with shallow-mount tools. One benefit is that it’s supported on wheels, so that you don’t have to repair it to a wall or ground. Nevertheless, I’m 6′ 2″, and I need to mount my rack about 4′ off the bottom, in order you will note, I’ve additionally bought a 2U cooling fan (consumption), which I’ll place at or to the underside of my setup. In case your room is air-conditioned 24/7 and also you don’t thoughts the low-to-floor setup, this can be the rack for you. Right here’s a great example of how clean this Rack can look when set up.
• NavePoint 9U Basic IT Wall Mount Network Rack Locking Glass Door – $235 (specs) – This can be a very beautiful-looking Community Cupboard. The problem for me is that I solely use the AC in my workplace in the summertime, and I don’t need the warmth ever to be a difficulty; thus, for my residence setup, an enclosed cupboard wasn’t proper for me.

Replace: This can be a very stable wall-mount rack. I can verify that what you see is what you get. No points to report. It does precisely what it’s presupposed to.

House Lab UPS (Uninterruptible Energy Provide)

At residence, we’ve a backup generator that runs on propane. It will probably run for as much as per week, which is beneficial within the tropics. Apart from hurricane season, energy cuts are extraordinarily uncommon right here. To date, for 2020, we’ve had one outage because of a lightning strike on a close-by electrical publish.

It takes a minute or so to failover to the backup generator. So the rack mount UPS resolution I’m in search of is one thing that can assist between 100W and 200W for a few minutes. Lengthy sufficient to fail over to the backup gen or to close down all of the tools cleanly. Sooner or later, I’ll broaden this with bigger batteries, however with no method of returning something I buy, I’m a bit cautious of investing in a bigger backup battery solely to search out out it’s a dud. I’ll take a look at for a 12 months first, and so right here’s what I made a decision on:

Finally, you’ll have to resolve whether or not you even require an uninterruptible energy provide at residence. From expertise, UPS batteries are virtually at all times a disappointment, and that is largely due to the associated fee vs. return. If you really want to have a UPS, you may spend hundreds simply to have an extended sufficient runtime. For those who do business from home or host important providers hosted from residence – you in all probability shouldn’t – then it might be worthwhile. My recommendation, get a UPS that gives simply sufficient runtime for all the things to close down cleanly and solely use the UPS for essentially the most important and environment friendly units in your house lab. With all issues thought of, I’ll have to return again to this part earlier than recommending another UPS fashions.

Replace: Surprisingly, the battery efficiency of this UPS to this point is above my expectations. I ran it right down to round 50%, which gave me simply over 30 minutes of run time, together with powering 2 PoE APs and a 27″ monitor. As talked about later on this article, take note of your energy consumption. This was one thing I thought of, and it’s paid off to this point. The APs for instance, max energy consumption is simply 6.5W per AP. The max load is about 20% to 30% of UPS capability. 

Common House Lab Rack Shelf

Did you discover that the CyberPower 1U UPS doesn’t have rack mounts? After all, you may relaxation it on high of different tools; nonetheless, I wouldn’t advocate that as a result of we should always preserve the batteries as cool as doable and depart house between tools to scale back the quantity of trapped warmth. Lastly, for this setup, it’ll look extra skilled if positioned on a ventilated 1U rack shelf:

Replace: Very sturdy, nice for conserving tools cool and cable administration because of the vents and slots. 

Rack Mount House Lab Energy provide

The aforementioned CyberPower UPS comes with six shops – 4 backup /w surge + two surges solely. Presently, beneath my desk, I’m utilizing seven shops, and that is earlier than ordering a substitute ISP modem, router, swap, servers and doesn’t contemplate any future growth. Proper above the UPS, I will probably be mounting the next:

Replace: This can be a very handy piece of {hardware}. It plugs immediately into the UPS and permits simple on/off switching of different tools and units. 

Rack Mount House Lab Cooling Followers

Sustaining an optimum temperature for rack-mounted tools prevents overheating, ensures constant efficiency, and extends their lifespan. The plan is to mount an consumption fan on the backside rack unit place (keep in mind scorching air rises). After testing, I’ll resolve whether or not I’ll want an exhaust fan on the very high of the rack.

Replace: On the lowest fan velocity, this cools rack temps by about 2 to three levels Fahrenheit. I’ll replace my ideas once more in the summertime.

Replace 2: As of September 2022, two of the 4 followers have failed. I’ve eliminated it from the rack and can attempt to clear it with compressed air. Over the previous 2 years of use, they’re full of mud! I nonetheless advocate shopping for these models, however I additionally advocate cleansing them out extra usually than I’ve!

Replace 3: As of September 2023 – 3 of the 4 followers have failed once more. 

House Lab Routers and switches

After many weeks of analysis, on-line comparisons, studying opinions, watching YouTube movies, and numerous hours spent on /r/homelab, I can safely say that the next three firms’ units will absolutely cowl your entire routing and switching wants: Cisco > Ubiquiti > TP-Link. Sorry TP, nothing private you’re simply third, however not final; is that higher?

For my setup, I’m going extra small-business than a house workplace so far as tools goes. I would like to have the ability to have future entry to extra options. The next had been my choices, adopted by the runner-ups.

Routers

• Multi-WAN Load balancing: Peplink Balance 20X [CAT 7] | Futureproof Gigabit Dual WAN Router – $500 – Simultaneous Twin-Band (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Wi-Fi 5 1x WAN Port, 4 x LAN Port, 1x Embedded Mobile Modem with Redundant SIM Slots, 1x USB Interface 1 Gbps Router Throughput.
• Small Biz options: Ubiquiti EdgeRouter ER-10X, 10 Port Gigabit Router with PoE Flexibility – $220 (specs) – (10) Gigabit RJ45 Ports, PoE Passthrough on Port 10, Twin-Core, 880 MHz, MIPS1004Kc Processor, 512 MB DDR3 RAM, 512 MB NAND Flash Storage, Inside Change, Serial Console Port.
• House lab Worth: TP-Link ER7206 Multi-WAN VPN Router – $150 (specs) – 1 Gigabit SFP WAN Port + 1 Gigabit WAN Port + 2 Gigabit WAN/LAN Ports plus1 Gigabit LAN Port. Helps as much as 100× LAN-to-LAN IPsec, 50× OpenVPN, 50× L2TP, and 50× PPTP VPN connections.

Switches

There’s additionally Netgear, pfSense, and lots of, many different choices, however you need me to finish this text, don’t you? After all, because of this you’ll nonetheless need to analysis the suggestions by yourself, as not all of my picks could suit your necessities.

Replace: Simply what I wanted. The router runs modified Debian. How cool! It’s full of enterprise options. I’m excited to study full command line administration. 

House Lab Patch Panels and Community Cables

In hindsight, I ought to have gone with the 24 port patch panel. As an alternative, I went with this 16 port patch panel as a result of, nicely, I favored how centered and fewer busy it seemed. I do know. I don’t need to hear it. However take a look at that factor! If it isn’t already apparent by the 16 ports, it’s the picture simply above.

The quickest web plan out there from my ISP is 160Mbps down / 30Mbps up. For my residence lab, I received’t be needing CAT8 or CAT7 anytime quickly, and I don’t want excessive LAN site visitors. So I bought 250′ of regular CAT6 reel and some different lengths Cat6 as I’m pleased with the 1000Mbps restrict. Yeah, I additionally like my espresso black. In order for you smoother community site visitors, then, by all means, go for at the very least CAT6a. Nevertheless, be sure to go together with a shielded patch panel. Going CAT7 cable or Cat6a is a waste of cash in case your RJ45 connectors and patch panels don’t assist it. “Hold it easy silly!” No, I’m not speaking to you; that was me talking to myself whereas choosing the patch panel and cables.

Replace: Top quality! Simple to punch down. All my patch connections labored on the primary strive.

House Lab Servers

For this text’s objective, I received’t advocate any particular servers as a result of it will fluctuate a ton relying on what you may be internet hosting. NAS storage, VMs, net servers, backup servers, mail servers, advert blockers, and all the remaining. For my necessities, I bought a ThinkCentre M73 and ThinkCentre M715q; each used off eBay. So far as full-fledged servers go, some good choices are Dell, HP, Cisco, and Lenovo. For residence labs, these are sometimes finest bought used from Craigslist or eBay. You need to use Wikipedia to look the specs of older generations, for instance, Dell PowerEdge model history.

Replace: AMD has raised the bar. I’m most impressed with the CPU efficiency of the M715q. They each run quiet and funky, with Ubuntu Server and Home windows 10. 

Abstract and Conclusion

Image: your setup, ought to be your setup. As conventional or as customized as you’d like!

When scripting this information, I attempted my finest to convey my ardour, ideas, and concerns all through the choice course of. It’s essential that you simply discover your ardour relating to constructing your own home lab. What is going to you utilize it for? How will it profit you and others?

When you’ve got a plan, and in case your lab will probably be one thing you get pleasure from studying, failing, and succeeding with, it’ll pay for itself in a method or one other. That mentioned, watch out with the ability consumption! You don’t need to find yourself with… mortgage of $1,100, an influence invoice of $1,200, the sensation when strolling into your own home lab… NOT priceless.

Plan with room to broaden, and be happy to begin small. You don’t have to begin with a rack, cupboard, patch panels, and all the opposite gear. Get your ft moist, change your ISP modem, then construct from there. Keep away from making rash selections on {hardware}; as a substitute, sleep on it. Then, publish a query or two within the new community forums, to get precious suggestions from different techies and sysadmins. You can see that the extra you analysis, it’ll open up extra methods to get issues good or very mistaken. Extra importantly, have enjoyable! Share your own home lab objectives together with your partner, colleagues, children, and that neighbor throughout the road who nonetheless solely waves after 5 years.

I hope this text was helpful and galvanizing and opens a dialogue between us. Be at liberty to contact me. I really like listening to, supporting, and studying from you guys!

Replace 1 – March tenth, 2020:

As of as we speak, I’ve virtually accomplished the setup of my new House lab, and it’s now absolutely useful. I’m happy with the entire objects bought. For this replace, I’ve added to the article some highlights, ideas, and findings under every {hardware} merchandise in italics.

One factor I missed within the authentic article and House lab setup was the coaxial cable. The present cable turned out to be about three ft shorter than required. Tomorrow, I’ll change it with an extended cable. As you possibly can see, I’ve additionally changed the ISP modem with the Motorola mannequin listed under.

Sadly, the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter and EdgeSwitch turned out to be about an inch too extensive. I failed to contemplate this as a result of I measured their mixed width after which in contrast that measurement to the rack’s inside width as a substitute of the width of the rack shelf. Oops! Now, in order that the swap doesn’t stay sitting on the router, I’ve simply ordered two Ubiquiti rack mounts. Higher cooling and aesthetics, but additionally the rack mounts will enable positioning the router and swap immediately under the 16 port patch panel pictured under.  Test again in per week or two for an additional replace.

My House lab  – a piece in progress (all the things pictured is listed under)

Replace 2 – March twenty fifth, 2020: I Will observe up with particulars and suggestions shortly. Right here’s an up to date standing photograph:

Replace 3 – April nineteenth, 2020.

Over the previous few weeks, I’ve added a number of issues.

• A Netgear 4G LTE modem (and antenna) for web auto fail-over from ISP1 (cable web) to ISP2 (4G web).
• 1U Blanking Panels to enhance the effectivity of the cooling followers.
• The earlier two vented 1U blanks are actually on the high of the rack. It is going to be used to mount a monitor. (see to-do’s under)
• Fast entry 1u mess cover to stop unintentional energy swap toggling.
• Rackmount kits for the EdgeRouter ER-10X and EdgeSwitch ES-10XP.
• Cleaned up all wires and cables. Labeled community cables however didn’t label the patch panel, after all!
• Added VLANs, restricted bandwidth of visitor units in addition to another residence units, hardened firewall.
• Put in Zabbix server for extra monitoring of 150+ distant servers.
• Added a website to static IP, which has a few public-facing subdomains.
• Eliminated or smoked out a number of the logos and textual content for a cleaner look. (aka. OCD)
• Added x2 UAPs and x2 beacons.
• Outlet savers so I might make use of all out there energy shops.
• Added push notification for when ISP1 goes down since switching to backup ISP2 is totally seamless.

To-do’s:

• Add a separate 21″ monitor to show Zabbix hosts/dashboard.
• Dabble with pfSense. Reset all the things to defaults and reconfigure with classes realized.
• Add indoor PoE surveillance cameras (at present solely out of doors cams).
• Arrange KVM desktop swap to have the ability to swap simpler between the 2 servers and desktop.
• Test rack temperatures from June to August to find out if the setup is as cooling effectively as deliberate.

Newest residence lab photograph:

Replace 4 – Could 1st, 2020:

• Added a separate 21″ monitor to show distant hosts/dashboard utilizing Raspberry Pi and Zabbix.

Replace 5 – June seventh, 2020:

• Added keyboard and mouse for walk-by entry to Zabbix UI.
• Swapped out mesh safety cowl with tinted plexiglass.
• At this level, my residence lab is full. Is it ever? 🙂

Replace – August nineteenth, 2021:

A month in the past a buddy requested if I might arrange one thing comparable for his or her residence. They needed a easy whole-home VPN setup. Pictured under is the outcome. All collectively makes use of lower than 40 watts through a 700VA UPS.

Replace – October seventh, 2022: Added replace on the AC Infinity CLOUDPLATE T7-N, Rack Mount Fan Panel 2U (Consumption). Ensure that to scrub the mud from these models each couple of months. It took 2 years with none upkeep for two of the 4 followers to turn out to be disabled. I’ll replace in the event that they work once more as soon as cleaned. 

Replace – December thirteenth, 2022:
We moved to a brand new residence in February. So I eliminated the house lab – cables and all. Lastly had the time to arrange. I’ve made very small modifications as a result of I actually prefer it as is.

Adjustments:

Replace: Could third, 2023:

• Bought a 1500VA Cyberpower UPS and offloaded 3 PC displays and a gaming PC. In order that the in-rack 1u UPS solely linked to the servers and community units. This enables for as much as 3 hours of runtime on battery if wanted. 

Replace: Sept twenty fourth, 2023:

 

Revealed: Feb twenty fifth, 2020 | Final up to date: March eighth, 2024

 

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