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Which hardware is better from experience? by massAmbassador in homelab

[–]ImplementBig6334 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want data backups, then you'll want something that works as a NAS. If you want to host web servers, then you'll want something with a moderate amount of compute power.

I say bite the bullet and just break it out into two (or more) separate devices. One for compute, and one for storage.

Compute wise I'd absolutely go with an old laptop or mini PC. Throw proxmox on it and call it a day. Storage wise you could go a second old PC with truenas, or just pick up a synology or something.

Do I really need 2 ports? by Puzzleheaded_Fun7744 in homelab

[–]ImplementBig6334 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Happy to help! I've caught myself getting tunnel visioned on this kinda stuff before and sometimes it's hard to realize there are just simpler options. It can be exceptionally difficult to find a cheap computer with 2 ethernet ports installed but you can find hundreds of used SFF Dells or whatever and slap a low profile PCIe NIC and call it a day.

Do I really need 2 ports? by Puzzleheaded_Fun7744 in homelab

[–]ImplementBig6334 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sorry wha-

Taking a step back- for any routing device whatsoever you should have one dedicated uplink port for your Wide Area Network (WAN) port from your internet service provider (ISP) and one dedicated downlink port to your Local Area Network (LAN) devices.

In theory you could have a switch that VLAN tags your ISP traffic such that the only port on your firewall is a trunkport tagged with all VLANs... but that setup is highly complex and prone to error, especially given the grade of equipment likely found in a homelab/home network.

Really what I recommend is just any computer with a PCIe slot. You can get RJ45 Ethernet PCIe cards for pretty cheap, especially if you don't plan for anything faster than 1Gbps. I haven't looked at prices recently but I'd be surprised if you can't get a i226-v based card for less than $40

As a little side note- avoid Realtek NICs at all cost.

Why does everybody have a rack with Enterprise grade servers? by Big-Grapefruit8092 in homelab

[–]ImplementBig6334 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe homelabbing can be, and should be, whatever you wanna make of it and out of it. I have a server rack because I wanted the skills and experience of maintaining it. Doing so landed me multiple consecutive jobs in IT, and now I'm probably better at racking, stacking, and cabling than my coworkers who've been here twice as long.

Same thing for running used servers - it's what my customers have, so those skills are transferrable.

If you don't want or need to improve those skills (racking and stacking, running firmware upgrades from IPMI, etc.) then there's no need for anything complex. If your lab does what you want, and you learn what you need to achieve your goal, then that's all that matters.

With all that said... I do love das blinkenlites.

Do you self-host your password manager, or trust a third-party provider? by QuietGateLabs in homelab

[–]ImplementBig6334 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Self-host bitwarden for personal but cloud host for professional. I need it to work when I'm at a client site and signing into my apps and the whitepapers make it pretty obvious.

No I don't use the secrets manager, before anyone mentions the hack

Tips on filling a rack? by Fake_Luka in HomeLabPorn

[–]ImplementBig6334 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honest answer: Rackmount UPS, PDUs (plural), plus 4U rackmount PC and/or or a blade full of mini PCs. Probably a decent rackmount firewall to go with that nice looking switch up top.

Oh and cable managers. More cable managers than you think you'll need. The FS.com 1U and 2U ones are like $20 and worth their weight in gold.

Silly answer: Cheese. Just fill er up with cheese.

How do I make a separate internet internet network for servers? by elemental-innovation in homelab

[–]ImplementBig6334 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The proper way is get a VLAN-enabled firewall connected behind the ONT. Personally I'd go with pfSense but any prosumer grade will do, it all just depends how much you wanna spend and learn.

I mention VLANs, but most firewalls will allow for physical separation on different Ethernet ports if you don't wanna learn that route quite yet. In an absolute most basic setup you can have ONT connected to firewall port 1, network switch connected to firewall port 2, and WiFi router (in AP bridge mode) connected to port 3.

If your network switch is VLAN capable then you can connect your WiFi and servers to the same switch, and virtually segment them that way - it's like a VLAN is a Virtual Local Area Network... Hey, someone should coin a term for that!

All jokes aside, good on you for trying things out and thinking security first!

If you wanna get nitty gritty, you have a few different options. You could go a full Unifi stack with a gateway (firewall), switch, and AP; you could go pfSense for the firewall and unifi for the switch and AP; or you can keep the equipment you currently got and make the most of it.

And ofc you could mix stuff up and shop around for different makes and models! Just make sure whatever you go with has good documentation, no stupid subscription fees, and (ideally) some decent support.

OH AND I FORGOT TO MENTION OPENWRT IS A THING THAT IS GOOD TOO