NANOGers home data centers - What's in your closet?

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1

Hey all,

I'm curious what other NANOGers have in their home compute centers? On
the extreme end of course we have mr morris :slight_smile:
with his uber lab: Lab Overview

I've got the following:

Production rack (4 post AV rack)

From top down:

Current primary internet connection, soon to be out of band internet
connection (Wimax from Clearwire)
Ubiquity Networks Nanostation2 based AP (MeshPotato via the VillageTelco
project) << serving up 3 SSID (bridge to main vlan, guest, honeypot)
Linksys WRT54G T-mobile version << not doing anything at the moment

3 dell optiplex 745s

PFSense router (WAN to clearwire, LAN to Cisco 3550)
AlientVault server (amazing software package)
Proxmox server (another great software package)

I have also considered turning all 3 machines into Proxmox boxes and run
everything in a virtual machine. I like the Dell Optiplex machines, they
sip power.

APC UPS (considering a rack mount UPS and will probably buy one this
weekend from the local Goodwill computer works store)
PS3 << gotta get my parallel hacking on
Avocent Cyclades PDU (unused currently as my apartment wiring won't
support it)
Cisco 3550 Distribution Switch
Cisco 2950 Access Switch
Dell PowerEge 1800
Dell PowerEdge 2800

I've got a network lab rack (skeletek) as well. This hosts a 6509 and
other fun things (cisco routers/switches). Pretty sure I can do any
CCNA/CCNP/CCIE(R&S) lab scenario).

So what's in NANOGers home networks/compute centers? :slight_smile:

2

I'm curious what other NANOGers have in their home compute centers? On
the extreme end of course we have mr morris :slight_smile:
with his uber lab: Lab Overview

He doesn't get out much, does he? :slight_smile:

So what's in NANOGers home networks/compute centers? :slight_smile:

Surprisingly minimalistic - a Linksys cablemodem and a Belkin Play wireless
router, both from Best Buy, a Dell Latitude laptop from work, and a PS/3. I'll
upgrade if and when Comcast deploys IPv6 or other stuff worth upgrading in my
area. :wink:

(I used to have more gear, but it came down to floor space for compute gear I
didn't use versus guitar gear I *do* use.. :wink:

3

I cheat... I use the lab we have in house within the company I work for.
After all MXs/Ts/Nexus7k/etc. puts a heavy toll on the home power bill.. :slight_smile:

4

In a message written on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 06:28:57PM -0500, Charles N Wyble wrote:

I'm curious what other NANOGers have in their home compute centers? On
the extreme end of course we have mr morris :slight_smile:
with his uber lab: Lab Overview

I have installed a 2 post rack in a previous house, and wired several
houses now with Cat 5E to every room. That said, I gave up on large
amounts of equipment at home a long time ago. Be it the power bill,
AC needs, or just plain noise from data center equipment they are
all good reasons to not have gear at home.

A quality home router is important, I've rolled my own with FreeBSD
running on a PC-Engines box, 5W, no fan, sitting on a 1000VA UPS,
it lasts for like 3+ hours when the power fails. I've also had
luck with some Netgear boxes. Simiarly a good WiFi box, these days
MIMO on both 2.4 and 5Ghz. Airport Exterme or Netgear again are
good choices. Don't want to roll your own? Consider OpenWRT, or
CeroWRT on the right hardware.

Beyond that, a nice home file server, rsynced to something in a
real data center each night. This a combo of backup plus high speed
access no matter which side of the home connection you are on. I
currently use a PC I built myself, which is good, but I would like
something that uses less power. I'm looking hard at a Mac Mini
"server", with an external RAID (perhaps 2x3TB drives, RAID 1) as
I think it will draw even less power, but I'm not sure yet.

You might notice a trend with me, low power, which means low heat
output and long runtime on UPS, fanless so no noise, small footprint.
Gotta have GigE to every room wired for desktops, printers, cameras,
TV's, playstations, etc. Netgear 5 port switches are awesome,
lifetime warranty, small, cheap.

The holy grail I'm searching for now? A GigE switch with POE,
unmanaged is ok, and probably preferred from a price perspective;
but with NO FAN.

5

The holy grail I'm searching for now? A GigE switch with POE,
unmanaged is ok, and probably preferred from a price perspective;
but with NO FAN.

I can't help with the POE part. I have a 16-port D-Link DGS-1016D
-- GigE, no fan, unmanaged.

    --Steve Bellovin, Steven M. Bellovin

6

In a message written on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 09:11:56PM -0400, Steven Bellovin wrote:

> The holy grail I'm searching for now? A GigE switch with POE,
> unmanaged is ok, and probably preferred from a price perspective;
> but with NO FAN.

I can't help with the POE part. I have a 16-port D-Link DGS-1016D
-- GigE, no fan, unmanaged.

Yeah, found a few of those.

My reason is simple. There are people who make a 4-5 port switch
that is POE-powered, that is it gets it's power on the POE uplink
and then provides 3-4 switched ports with no power.

So if I have a POE central switch, in addition for working for the
direct to Phone and Camera POE device ports it would allow me to
have desktop hubs where I need a breakout without any power cable,
plus they would then all be on the central UPS!

I realize this is a bit of a tall order, as the switch must be
designed to deliver full wattage on all ports even though that might
not happen. I would accept a switch with fans that rather than
just changing speed kept them off until a temperature threshold was
reached.

Heck, even finding 16 port _unmanaged_ _affordable_ POE is very hard, a
couple of 100M options, I don't think I know of any GigE options, and
Managed seems to add $1k to the price, which is steep for home.

7

I'm curious what other NANOGers have in their home compute centers?

a soekris 5501 running freebsd 8-stable
a mac mini connected to the tee vee
an apple tv connected to the tee vee

i moved all servers and such crap into real racks in real colos over a
decade ago. i don't want that kind of crap in my *home*.

randy

8

Mine is mostly server stuff, as that is my primary function. Router testing is usually done at the office

In the utility room in the basement:

4-post rack with the following:

Tripp Lite 5000VA UPS with extra battery (everything runs on 240V)
NetApp FAS980 with a single shelf of 500GB SATA drives (used as off-site backup for work, and minor hosting of my own)
A few home-made servers (AMD 6-core box for virtualization and mail/web hosting, core i3 box for backups and such)
Dell 24-port switch
Juniper SRX 220 (Main firewall/gateway) connected to TWC Cable modem, and a metro ethernet back to the office.

Various ancient routers, switches, servers, etc. that were at one time used for testing. Virtualization has pretty much obsoleted most of it.

In my home office I have:

2 3000VA Tripp Lite UPSes for all computers.
Mac Pro
2x MacBook Pros
Core i7 Hackintosh

Around the house we have other various clients, media center, etc.

I recently did an audit of everything and I have a total of 108 GHz of CPU cores, 59 GB of RAM, and 57 TB of hard drives across everything.

Overall pretty modest compared to some people, but I also don't want to have to have special electric service or the bill that goes with that!

-Randy

9

In a message written on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 06:28:57PM -0500, Charles N

Wyble wrote:

> I'm curious what other NANOGers have in their home compute centers? On
> the extreme end of course we have mr morris :slight_smile:
> with his uber lab: Lab Overview

I have installed a 2 post rack in a previous house, and wired several
houses now with Cat 5E to every room. That said, I gave up on large
amounts of equipment at home a long time ago. Be it the power bill,
AC needs, or just plain noise from data center equipment they are
all good reasons to not have gear at home.

A quality home router is important, I've rolled my own with FreeBSD
running on a PC-Engines box, 5W, no fan, sitting on a 1000VA UPS,
it lasts for like 3+ hours when the power fails. I've also had
luck with some Netgear boxes. Simiarly a good WiFi box, these days
MIMO on both 2.4 and 5Ghz. Airport Exterme or Netgear again are
good choices. Don't want to roll your own? Consider OpenWRT, or
CeroWRT on the right hardware.

Beyond that, a nice home file server, rsynced to something in a
real data center each night. This a combo of backup plus high speed
access no matter which side of the home connection you are on. I
currently use a PC I built myself, which is good, but I would like
something that uses less power. I'm looking hard at a Mac Mini
"server", with an external RAID (perhaps 2x3TB drives, RAID 1) as
I think it will draw even less power, but I'm not sure yet.

You might notice a trend with me, low power, which means low heat
output and long runtime on UPS, fanless so no noise, small footprint.
Gotta have GigE to every room wired for desktops, printers, cameras,
TV's, playstations, etc. Netgear 5 port switches are awesome,
lifetime warranty, small, cheap.

The holy grail I'm searching for now? A GigE switch with POE,
unmanaged is ok, and probably preferred from a price perspective;
but with NO FAN.

I have a spare Poe dummy switch you are welcome to.
Oh and it doesn't have a fan,

10

I have a bunch of these, very useful and not super expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/800poe-edgeconnect-managed-ethernet-switch/dp/B002YBC4VG

11

Call me lazy, skinflint or otherwise, but I don't have much equipment at home and only very occasionally wish I had something extra. Mind you I'm more sysadmin than network and mostly my fiddling stuff is server side rather than network.

Straight forward setup, get internet with our TV over cable. Linksys WRT54GL running DD-WRT, set up to provide us with an HE IPv6 tunnel and wifi for a roku, my wife's laptop, my desktop machine and cell-phone. DD-WRT gives me sufficient balance between working 'out-of-the-box' and flexibility to do what I like. If I've spent all day arguing with software/servers the last thing I want to do is argue with a router. Besides which, if something should happen I don't want to have to spend time getting it up and working. It's quick to factory reset it and then tack the extra functions on afterwards over time.

We've also got a cheap Synology home NAS device plugged into the back of the router which we use primarily for backups and the odd bit of file sharing. Again, I'm quite capable of building something like that from scratch myself but it works out-of-the-box, is expandable for storage, fairly low power, nearly silent and is extremely flexible running some form of embedded linux distribution that you can access if you need to.

Paul

12

In a message written on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 06:34:03PM -0700, Thomas Crowe wrote:

I have a bunch of these, very useful and not super expensive.

Amazon.com

Yeah, 10/100 though, right?

The best option I know of is a TREDnet TPE-S80:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003O8J1AU

The fan is LOUD, but it's cheap, unmanaged, and supports full POE on all
8 ports (unlike many in its class that only do it on 4 ports).

I won't use it for my central switch though, as I want GigE in the house
(wired) for when I do need to move lots of data (backups).

13

Yes the 8 ports are 10/00, the uplink and downlink are both gige
though. You can use all 8 ports with full PoE, I've plugged in 8
polycom 331's and it works just fine.

14

My last house engineering project went out with my 40+ PC XT/AT/386 Fido
BBS/Usenet Hub (I remember picking up that 10megs of ram for my first 386 at
a cool $10k back in the 80's :slight_smile: ) in 1992 or thereabouts when I finally
managed to get on the web :slight_smile:

Now its a file server/media server feeding the house, PC/laptop and tablet
for the wife (which I "borrow" on occasion), a few switches and routers and
a firewall, and I just splurged and got me a new Alienware Dual GPU game
computer for me :slight_smile:

Retirement means playing with games more than routers/servers/etc these days
:slight_smile:

cheers
Jeff

15

What nobody wired their abode with fiber ?

Am i the only one here

16

In a message written on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 06:57:56PM -0700, Chaim Rieger wrote:

What nobody wired their abode with fiber ?

Am i the only one here

Why? Unless you live in a HUGE house, you can do 10GE over copper
to all rooms. Copper is infinately easier to run and terminate.
I dunno about you, but 10GE is both out of my price range, and
useless given the speed of my NAS disks, Comcast cable modem, and
WiFI box. GigE, switched, is quite nice and affordable.

Now, if you have to run to another building on the property (even
just a detached garage) fiber is the way to go due to ground loops,
but that's a slightly different story...

17

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Hash: SHA1

I still get out plenty, thanks! :slight_smile: It's been years in the making, and
more than served its purpose!

But convenient to have... And heats the home nicely in the wintertime!
And someone said it was all about the toys!

Scott

I'm curious what other NANOGers have in their home compute centers? On
the extreme end of course we have mr morris :slight_smile:
with his uber lab: Lab Overview

He doesn't get out much, does he? :slight_smile:

So what's in NANOGers home networks/compute centers? :slight_smile:

Surprisingly minimalistic - a Linksys cablemodem and a Belkin Play wireless
router, both from Best Buy, a Dell Latitude laptop from work, and a

PS/3. I'll

upgrade if and when Comcast deploys IPv6 or other stuff worth upgrading

in my

area. :wink:

(I used to have more gear, but it came down to floor space for compute

gear I

18

I have not found a fiber-to-Ethernet adapter for sufficiently low cost. If I ever do, backyard Gigabit, here I come.

19

In a message written on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 06:57:56PM -0700, Chaim

Rieger wrote:

> What nobody wired their abode with fiber ?
>
> Am i the only one here

Why? Unless you live in a HUGE house, you can do 10GE over copper
to all rooms. Copper is infinately easier to run and terminate.
I dunno about you, but 10GE is both out of my price range, and
useless given the speed of my NAS disks, Comcast cable modem, and
WiFI box. GigE, switched, is quite nice and affordable.

Now, if you have to run to another building on the property (even
just a detached garage) fiber is the way to go due to ground loops,
but that's a slightly different story...

I have both, 10ge and fiber.
Ran it more for the dare than anything else

20

What nobody wired their abode with fiber ?

Am i the only one here

I ran a bunch of fiber from the telco rack to the server rack to reduce
the risk of damage to expensive servers ... it's likely to be
meaningless but it is just a little extra precaution. The server rack
is at least a little bit isolated from everything else.

... JG