Project #26 - Making a Gateway interface for the Retirement Community WiFi Network

In addition to interfacing the rack equipment to the Retirement Community WiFi Network (GSV-Network), I need to have a couple of interfaces that can be connected to by my personal laptop and iPhone/iPad.  I have those devices connected to the GSV-Network directly and need to determine if I can port redirect from the rack equipment to provide some services to myself.  In addition, I need to have the ability to access any of the vlans that I have defined by using my laptop anywhere in the community for updates and HomeLab things.  This of course will require a number of tests.

UPDATE (2022-06-08):  Project is currently paused in order to fixate on one and only one project at a time.

Project #23 - What Makes Sense to ChangeUp in the Network?

What makes sense in the changeup of my network?

I do have a problem in the way that things are partitioned:

1. vlans are just that, they are setup to not have connection to each other.  This is by design, and I went out of my way when I setup my Edgerouter-12 to force vlan isolation even though by default vlans can talk to each other.

2. I actually setup some vlans so that the elements in those vlans would only be able to talk outside the router to the internet and not to each other.  This was a security design.

3. I made sure that vlans that were isolated to other vlans were not able to modify any of the settings on my Edgerouter-12 except for the admin vlan.  This was a security design.

4. I have a couple of specific computers that are allowed to contact other vlans.  This was by design and allows me to monitor equipment as necessary without having to give all my equipment the same level of access.  This was a security design.

5. The above way of partitioning has resulted in some problems with being able to get to certain servers.  I actually need the following:

• I need to be able to get to port 8123 of my HA-IOT server, on the IOT vlan, from the LAN3 vlan which contains my iPhones, iPads, and laptops.
• My HA-IOT server needs to get to the data servers in the Server vlan
• My Plex server resides in the Server vlan and both the Media and the LAN3 vlan need to get to it
• My Media equipment needs to get to the data servers in the Server vlan
• For testing purposes I need to have some Docker containers in the Development vlan be able to get to the MQTT server on the HA-IOT server in the LAN3 vlan
• My iPhones, iPads, and laptops on the LAN3 vlan need to be able to get to Media equipment on the Media vlan
• Some of these alternate connections are going to require the device to be on the same subnet

So, this means that there needs to be overlap between the different vlans, but at the same time it needs to be controlled.  I do have an additional Edgerouter-X which I can use for that purpose.  This will be an exploration of what I can accomplish.  This Edgerouter-X will not be used as a normal router, but will in fact be the way that I can provide a controlled interface between vlans.  If the router is removed, then everything will go back to the way it was before.  This will also give me a chance to try out zone based routing on the Edgerouter-X.

Project #22 - Heartbeat / Shutdown Container to shutdown computer equipment in a graceful manner

I was also thinking of a third container that might be useful.  A container, that interfaces to MQTT, that issues heartbeats, and can issue a shutdown command on equipment.  The master controller would then have the ability to issue an mqtt shutdown command, listen for heartbeats, then when the heartbeat ceases, could issue a command to the IP Power Strip to turn off the power to that computer and report back status on the computer.  This has the added thought that it would be universal, working on different operating systems.  The code is pretty much the same, but the implementation is different.

Project #16 - Add a DNS-DHCP-Radius Server for use Across the Network

It seems like a good idea to add a single place where I can get DNS, DHCP, and provide a Radius Server for authentication of the Routers and Switches.

Project #11 - Use SDN and OpenVSwitch to connect VMs across the Network No-Mans Land

I have been studying up on software define networks and have been looking at OpenVSwitch as a means to run GRE connections across the No-Mans Land vlan.