State of the Network - April 2024

Lately I have been working some electronics projects, genealogy, and really haven’t had time to really work on my HomeLab.  Sensing that I haven’t posted for some time I thought I might post about the HomeLabs current condition.  While I am working on the electronics projects most of the equipment is turned off.  In fact, I normally have only the Edgerouter-12 and the Netgear M4100-26g turned on since my laptop is pretty much permanently connected to the Server Admin vlan. So here are some bullit points  to explain where the HomeLab sits:

• I now have a managed switch at the top of the rack to connect to the outside (powered on with the rack)
• I have pushed the two Edgerouter-X routers and one managed switch into the back of the rack with their ports coming out to the front
• I now have a 24 port patch panel that connects to some ports on the top 24 port patch panel, the two ER-Xs, the managed switch, and to the 5 input ports on the Proxmox server
• I can now power the xPod, Monitor Network, Proxmox server, some specific rack RPis, and the ER-12/M4100-26g separately
• The external managed switch behind the rack has been wired differently to accomodate the changes and additional experiments on the HomeLab table
• I now have two LED strips on the front of the rack to illuminate the patch wiring
• I also have two LED strips under my laptop holder on the HomeLab table to illuminate electronic circuits on the table
• I have incorporated an UAP-AC-AD to output four specific vlan connections; one of which goes to my development vlan

These are items that I have changed but I still have items that I haven’t implemented yet. My thoughts about what I want keep changing as I come up with other ideas.  So here are some future items that I want to implement:

• I recently obtained an Edgerouter-12P which will provide POE capability in the rack and beyond; I need to determine how I will use it
• I also obtained a couple of UAP-AP-LR WAPs which I hope to use to form a wi-fi link to the back bedroom (I am unable to get an Ethernet cable pulled from the living room to my back bedroom) because the Power adapters only give me 130 Mbps throughput.
• I hope to spin up two RPi Zero Ws at opposite ends of the Ethernet over power link to monitor failures
• I hope to spin up a RPi 4B in the living room as a PiHole to be the definition of connections within my network
• I hope to be able to use my SLATE router, connected to a 2.4 GHz wi-fi connection as a fall over from the FLINT router
• I also hope to figure out how to integrate Midi into my HomeLab including a new Zynthian Synthisizer on an RPi 3B+

Alteration to the Network Input to/from the Rack

 I have been contemplating how to provide an interface into the rack that would allow me to provide an interface to the RPis and the Proxmox server on the rack.  So far I have had an interface to the Edgerouter-12 (ER-12) through a SLATE router.  However, I found out that the rule set that is being used here in the retirement community doesn’t allow me to access ports on the SLATE unless I am connected to their portal vlan.  I decided to start some experiments to find out what I can actually do with the network.  Be aware that all IP addresses within the retirement community are RFC1918 private addresses.

I had previously connected the SLATE router to the ER-12 through two AV2000 Ethernet over power interfaces, each with two Ethernet ports apiece.  So it was SLATE LAN -> AV2000 -> AV2000 -> ER-12 WAN.  The SLATE was connected into the resident vlan which does not allow conversation between hosts on the resident vlan.  However, I have been able to connect between a host on the resident vlan and a host on the portal vlan.  I decided to put an RPi connected to the portal vlan, but also connected to a vlan within the rack.  That way, I can connect my laptop, or iPhone/iPad to any port on the RPi.  To do this, I decided to implement a trunk line between the two AV2000s.

I resurrected one of the managed switches from the tubs that I brought to the community and configured a trunk port and an untagged port to a vlan (vlan32) specifically for traffic between the SLATE and the ER-12.  I configured the same vlan (vlan32) on my M4100-26G switch along with a trunk port that had the same setup as the trunk port on the managed switch from my tub stores.  By connecting these up I now have the following:  SLATE LAN (vlan32) -> managed switch -[T]-> AV2000 -> AV2000 -[T]-> M4100-26G -[vlan32]-> ER-12 WAN (vlan32).

Since I can get to the managed switch within the rack from the Admin vlan, I was able to set other vlans so that I can add an RPi Gateway (ServerNet vlan/portal vlan).  This allows me to setup a firewall with open ports to the ServerNet vlan from the portal vlan which is wifi facing.  Next up is the configuration of the RPi Gateway.

HomeLabUpdate #01 - Initial Rack Setup

 As I came into the Apartment, I had setup the rack to have (from top to bottom):

• 24 port patch panel
• Ubiquiti Edgerouter-12 Router
• Short shelf for KVM and regular switch/ER-X
  
• Netgear M4100-26g Switch
  
• Panel with 4 Raspberry Pi 4s (RPiInject, RPiCICD, RPiLDAP, RPiPlex)
  
• Panel with 4 Raspberry Pi 3Bs (RPiSecure, RPiPower3, RPiPower2, RPiPower1)
• Shelf for containing WDMyCloud drives
• Open area (2U) TBD on contents
  
• Proxmox Server (2U case)
• APC UPS (1U)

I had left 6 Ethernet cables connected, numbered #8-1 through #8-6.  When I got to the apartment, I added the GL-iNet SLATE router (in Repeater mode, without second SSID) as the input to the apartment's wifi system.  My printer is connected to the wifi system and I have connected the HA-IOT server to the back of my Acer Monitor with connections through the 4-way KVM switch.

New Direction - Moving into a Retirement Home

 The more things stay the same, the more they change.  We have recently decided to move into a retirement community near us and have placed a hold on one of the apartments there.  This means a drastic reduction in my home network and what I am able to take with me to the new home.  At this point we are still in the planning stages, but I will be downsizing considerably.  I am not sure what this will mean to all of the activities that I have been involved with over the past several years.

I do know that there is a dramatic difference in networking capabilities where I am moving to versus what I enjoy doing at the moment.  Rest assured, I will be taking my HomeLab with me to the new digs along with a bunch of the electronic gear that I have accumulated over the past several years.  It doesn't make sense to take all of it however.  I have resigned myself to only taking one rack worth of equipment plus four large plastic tubs full of other material.  I have talked myself into this spartan arrangement for any future endeavors.  Where I am going has a lot of activities that will take up my time, and I hope to be able to continue blogging with a purpose.

Planning for a big change in the network

 There have been some happenings going on at the house that might involve some additions.  To that extent, the location of most of my networking equipment is probably going to change so that other work can be done to the older parts of the house.  I am thinking of moving my main router and switch to the new addition and along with it, most of the Ethernet connections for the old portions of the house and the new portions of the house.  I also have to bear in mind that I cannot use the main channel through the old part of the house anymore, I have to deal with other ways of getting the information through.

So, in retrospect, I am happy that I have learned some things about vlans, because they are going to become very handy in the near future unless I can find a different route for cabling.  That being said, I am also going to have to pull Ethernet cables from locations where they are no longer esthetically appealing, meaning I can't just have cables dangling from the ceiling in my computer room because that room will probably go away.  The rooms will change in what they are going to be used for.  I am planning on moving my Tool Room elsewhere in the house to accommodate more space to do what I wish to do.  Overall, I may end up with a box of Ethernet cables that I no longer need and go back to some shared trunk lines that make more sense.

I intend to have fun with these changes (should they happen) but at the same time I have to be conscious that the changes may have an affect on systems that I already have up and running.

Project #19 - Get the Network back to Normal after the Power Outage

After the power outage that took out the main part of my Network this project is to get the Network back to normal.