Cluster #3 - Rearranged the Cluster for Experimentation

One of the issues that I have fixed is how to take each one of the RPis in the Cluster and be able to independently move them from one location to another.  I was able to achieve this by the use of a Netgear 116E 16-port managed switch.  Since I have 4 RPis in the cluster, I took up 8 ports on the switch and managed to be able to move things around at my convenience.  This was evident when I decided to take .101 and tie it to the same vlan as .100.  However, in this case I started up an openVPN setup following the instructions at https://github.com/StarshipEngineer/OpenVPN-Setup.  By having .101 on the switch, I was able to easily move the head from the LAN1 vlan to the CEH input vlan.  Now I can setup the openVPN independently from what I was intending on doing with .100.

Another interesting tidbit was that I was able to hook up the PowerLine adapter to the No-MansLand vlan in another area in my house and connect to it via the other PowerLine adapter on my front porch.  So I was able to do some updates to the RPi while sitting on my porch - and No-MansLand vlan was separated from the outside world.  Now what I want to be able to do is access specific vlans from outside using a double IPSec encryption setup.  More later.

Cluster#2 - Setting up an IPSec VPN into the Cluster

I want to set up the cluster to provide an IPSec VPN into the No-Mans Land vlan.  From there, I intend on setting up the other three RPis to connect to various vlans throughout my network.  The following diagram shows what I intend on doing:

The RPi coming from the Internet into NoManVlan would run the IPSec VPN.  I would then be able to access the cluster from external places.  The other three RPis would then perform the function of a gateway into other vlans from there.  Quagga would still be used to setup the routing tables in each RPi with respect to the NoManVlan.

Cluster#1 - 802.1q at L2 Along with Routing at L3 in the 1-Port Router

Ok, I am still playing around here with routing and 802.1q.  My latest endeavor is using Quagga along with shorewall to produce some useful home appliances.  Unfortunately, this is all going to be running at a 100MHz clip on Ethernet rather than the nice 1GHz Ethernet lines I have running through the house.  However, I get to play with the outcome.

When I last broached the subject here, I had added the 802.1q capability to the RPi Raspbian load.  I have since been adding a number of RPis, without a clear purpose to what I would do with them.  I now have a quad RPi cluster (shown in the image above) that I can use for some of the networking experiments.  The latest experiment is to setup each RPi in the cluster with a Quagga and shorewall routing load.  Shorewall is primarily a firewall, but with some alterations to the definition files, it will serve its purpose as a router capability.  The Quagga software allows me to experiment with OSPF and BGP routing protocols, the idea being that I can simply configure them and drop them into my network at home at any place and the routing tables will automatically be built for me.

My idea is to use the normal Ethernet interface to the RPi as the connection point to the other Quagga/shorewall RPis on a separate no-mans land VLAN.  I would then use 802.1q to trunk my way into VLAN switches which would then distribute the information as necessary.  I can also modify the way that I am connecting and actually have a VLAN switch capability on an RPi with attached USB hub running to USB-to-Ethernet adapters, each "port" having a trunk line or untagged port.  This of course gets somewhat expensive since the cheapest I can find those adapters is $6.99 at amazon.  I wish that I could find an Ethernet switch adapter that would allow me to experiment with an RPi controller.

Update: as you can see from the new site picture, I have been able to setup the RPi cluster along with some cheap ($6.99) USB to Ethernet adapters.  Now the fun begins!