Let me get this straight, you spent a bunch of time and money on a 12U rack, a bunch of Unifi switches, and a bunch of cameras, and you're just now realizing that you need to set up VLANs and firewall rules? That's not a "homelab project", that's just a bunch of stuff you bought and now you're trying to figure out how to make it work.
And what's with the obsession with aesthetics? You spent a bunch of money on fancy cable management and patch panels, but you're still using a bunch of ugly, exposed cables. It's like you're trying to make a statement about how much money you have, rather than actually building a functional network.
And don't even get me started on the DNS settings. You're using a custom domain name for your Synology NAS, but you're still using DHCP to assign IP addresses. What's the point of having a custom domain name if you're just going to use a dynamic IP address?
I'm not trying to be mean-spirited, but this post just reeks of "I have a lot of money and I want to show it off". If you're actually interested in building a functional home lab, I'd be happy to offer some advice. But if you're just looking for a way to justify buying a bunch of expensive networking gear, then maybe you should just stick to playing with your toys.
I somewhat agree. The priorities just seem off for a large percentage of homelab creators. If you are starting new, a more reasonable priority list would be:
1. Get a hardware firewall (opnsense/pfsene) and learn to use it (1-3 years)
2. Get a virtualization server and learn what the separation of concerns principle means (1-2 years); (this includes adding vlans)
3. Add the first Smart Home tools that are critical to you (e.g. monitoring of electricity consumption/production or automation of activity scenes for burglar defense) (6 months)
4. Work on a resilient backup solution. This includes offsite backups, so you will need to add a second server in a second house somewhere else. This _should_ come earlier, but you may have some backup solution in place already when starting at (1), so now is the time to do it properly (e.g. ZFS, automated syncoid pull-mode snapshots etc.) (1-2 years)
5. Try to improve individual pieces, maybe buy a larger rack, a UPS etc. (3 months)
6. At this time, you have a fully functioning Homelab. Now it is time to improve the look.. but doh, you have no time left anymore!
(above is basically my history.. started in 2017 and I am now after 7 years at stage (6), but otherwise overall pretty happy with my ugly looking setup)
Note: the latest OpenWrt on rack-grade routers is significantly more secure than proprietary, backdoored firewall appliances. I haven't really used Netgear/pfense but I reckon it wouldn't be much of improvement.
VLAN are perhaps the most important aspect of a network, and honestly I would start with it: tag the ports, bonding if necessary, and figure out IPv6-PD and resolve topology for it all, so that downstream DNS is easily configurable.
Do you mean pfsense/opnsense with "proprietary, backdoored firewall appliances"? I don't think so (if we are talking about OPNsense or the CE variant of pfsense).
Otherwise, I slightly agree that for the regular user, OpenWrt is simpler and less of a hassle than pfsense/opnsense, but still offers enough features. Personally, I enjoy having full control over all and every detail in my FW, which is only possible with the latter.
Thank you for the hint towards IPv6-PD/resolve topology - my migration to IPv6 is still on the ToDo list!
I guess this is a sort of meta comment rather than a reply. You seem like someone who hasn't had an account for a long time and upon clicking your profile I see that is in fact the case. It seems plausible that you haven't read the site guidelines, so I'll be that guy and point you to them. I like this place largely because of the good moderation. I hope you come to like this place for the same as the years go on.
I disagree, but mostly just in the present. Sometimes I take an active approach to getting unconstructive communication out of where my eyes naturally go. It's rare. It's a feeling in a moment in a context as kind as I can possibly be. This has been net positive, but sure we agree in this context it's just a forum on the internet and I click my share of downvotes like any other.
Agreed, addressing the bully directly allows them to see they are wrong. The HN “just downvote it” is passive aggressive and disincentivizes interaction. It may work well for Apple related threads or other noisy topics to help cut the noise down but you’re still basically telling people to “shut up” which feels bad if you’re on the receiving end. Some people are just emoting even if it’s off-base.
Responding to cruelty with more cruelty, breeds cruelty.
Hey why not just offer the advice instead of commentary about money? I’m all for critiques of why 12U rack might be a wrong or right choice, and if the author is such a snob they can’t handle some nice advice then there are plenty of people here to discuss it with. If you’re happy to offer advice, please do. Your post comes off as elitist and diminishes your trust. Delivering the actual advice is more valuable than an attacking rant. Computers are often a consumer hobby, so it’s ridiculous to complain about money.
Yup, if the dissemination of advice is gated behind passing some judgement test of purity, that's just gatekeeping and a toxic attitude. Just share the knowledge (or other worthwhile discussion points) or scroll past. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it".
honestly, I've always thought the focus on aesthetics was a bit... superficial. I mean, who cares what the thing looks like as long as it gets the job done? But the more I think about it, the more I realize that's a pretty utilitarian view. If I'm going to be staring at this thing for hours a day, shouldn't I want it to be visually appealing? And let's not forget, a well-designed system can actually make troubleshooting and maintenance easier. I've seen some beautifully cable-managed rigs that make it a joy to work on. Maybe I've been wrong to dismiss aesthetics all these years... you've got a point, aesthetics maybe matter.
> who cares what the thing looks like as long as it gets the job done?
Aesthetics (or lack thereof when things are messy) does have some direct unconscious cost to mental load, and a direct tension between cleanliness and horror vacui.
> And let's not forget, a well-designed system can actually make troubleshooting and maintenance easier. I've seen some beautifully cable-managed rigs that make it a joy to work on. Maybe I've been wrong to dismiss aesthetics all these years... you've got a point, aesthetics maybe matter.
That's where we start talking about "design" instead of "aesthetics"! Dieter Rams's 2 to 6 would definitely apply:
Who cares if he bought a bunch of stuff and is figuring out how to make it work? It's a great learning opportunity and he's getting some real practical use out of this stuff. In reality it's his money to spend and I'm glad to see someone sharing their "build" and sharing a bit of experience and whatnot. If he did some stuff "wrong" who cares? There's nothing useful in being judgemental and derisive. I learned a few things from his post and I think others will too -- and the author himself will surely be learning more as time goes on. It's all good.
Yes, he has a lot of money. But I see quality of work that he is putting in. I am very much impressed with his work (Hardware setup and his blog as well). However, am going to take what I can and use my RPi based home server to make to anywhere close to what he has achieved in terms of aesthetics and output.
This seems fairly overly critical, especially when you are complaining about thing like DHCP assigning dynamic addresses when the intention is started in the article itself, (the lease is reserved in the DHCP server config.)
Different goals for different people. Some people want to make the best looking network setup they can. Some will appreciate the beauty that creates and others won't. That's fine.
Quality comment. Somebody needs to remind these lamers what home-computing is all about. I don't know why people are upset, it's a really accurate assessment of OP.
Not really. People are upset because it's contains a super shitty value judgement on how someone else spent their money. If you don't have anything nice to say, you can just not say it.
What's shitty about stating the obvious? Or do you really think that being "nice", i.e. giving lamers pointless validation that they don't deserve would make anything better?
People need to learn, and Internet culture has a real good way to teach.
And what's with the obsession with aesthetics? You spent a bunch of money on fancy cable management and patch panels, but you're still using a bunch of ugly, exposed cables. It's like you're trying to make a statement about how much money you have, rather than actually building a functional network.
And don't even get me started on the DNS settings. You're using a custom domain name for your Synology NAS, but you're still using DHCP to assign IP addresses. What's the point of having a custom domain name if you're just going to use a dynamic IP address?
I'm not trying to be mean-spirited, but this post just reeks of "I have a lot of money and I want to show it off". If you're actually interested in building a functional home lab, I'd be happy to offer some advice. But if you're just looking for a way to justify buying a bunch of expensive networking gear, then maybe you should just stick to playing with your toys.