I’ve wanted to do a deeper dive on the subject but really actually going to keep it brief. I upgraded home network from Firewalla Purple (1Gb) to Firewalla Pro (10Gb). I like firewalla for home consumers!

It was again super simple to set up and get instand visibility of who and what is connecting to the network.

There was a WiFi7 learning opportunity. I have the new Firewalla AP7 plugged into 1 of the 4 ports on the Pro model but found the throughput performance upstairs in the office as abismal. I was connecting on the 2.5G band frequency and getting less than 20Mb of throughput, :(. I cannot work from home with that kind of bandwidth to the upstairs office!

So I had to plug back in the Ruckus APs and still using their unleashed Wifi5 technology. They are still running strong with 10x perfomance of more than 200Mbps. I just need another $1,200 for their switch and additional AP7. I ran cat6 from office up through attic ceiling, out attic crack, along house utility lines, into back den where ISP comes into house as well. So definitely plan to update whole house to 10G LAN and Wifi7. However, Firewalla sold out of their switch and I spent $1,200 on 3 Dell optiplex towers and a 12 port 10G switch.

So lab is getting officially started heading into August!

I found an old external USB TB HDD that I haven’t used in decade for back ups.

It is funny to go back a decade and see that not much has changed and that I am still doing the same things that drive me crazy but also makes me better in IT.

It looks like July of 2014 I had a VMware server that I set up and was able to log into. It seems I was stuck at console at that time. It was like, “OK I got this system set up. Now what do I do with it?”

I ran into the same issue with my personal PC that I built for Hyper-V Manager virtual labs. I set up some VMs (couple Windows and couple Linux) and GNS3 in a nested environment. Again lost interest in virtual labs when GNS3 client is all that is needed for 1 system. There is value in continueing to explore Hyper-v manager features within Windows Pro, but it is not directly effecting my sales conversations.

I am giving myself a couple of weeks to get the in’s and out’s of setting 3 ProMox’s up into a quorum cluster. I plan to use real application of VLANs and system resources (storage) across a simple network. I’ve done hours and hours of reading on the subject and could probably pass a multiple choice admin cert but I have no real practical expertise on setting up a redundant solution.

#Iwork4dell and everyday I have follow the wire conversations about multiple Dell servers having LACP connection to a pair of top of rack (TOR) switches. Those TOR switches would then need to plug into a redundant number of spine switches. The Spines could then connect to another pair of TOR switches for Storage and also should have a pair of border leaf switches that connect to External services and internet. That is my simplest spine-leaf Data Center architecture. Of course, I will need to put together edge solutions that do not include stacking and a collasped core that can expand to spine-leaf.

I am putting this lab together to go into next half speaking confidently to Dell customers about open networking options. The house is finally in order for me to prioritize this next home lab adventure.

First couple of pictures show the den where I kinda have a man cave for sports events, movies, and couch gaming. This is where ATT Gb fiber comes into the house. The exterior images show that I slayed a giant to-do off the list by reinsulating 30ft of the AC cold line and tied the 10G cat6a cable to these lines. Not perfect but definitely good enough to be in business. Lastly is current pictures of my office where magic happens. Only 2 out of the 3 systems have arrived. Last opti is due to arrive today.

This is day 1 of 2 weeks to try to get as much accomplished before a territory change. I wonder how I will be feeling at the end of these 2 weeks.