The Origin
My home lab developed out of my need to quickly learn how to troubleshoot complex issues in enterprise networks. As the only Linux administrator in a company of 24,000 employees, I faced unique challenges, especially as a recent college graduate. This lab allowed me to simulate simplified versions of the issues encountered at work and provided the flexibility to experiment with larger changes that required careful planning.
This lab allowed me to explore configuration management systems, which helped me find a more reliable replacement for the “tarball-series” deployment strategy that was in use.
Network Growth
As time went on, my home lab expanded to include essential services crucial for enterprise operations. I implemented both physical and virtual redundancy, adhering to best practices wherever possible. At one point, I was managing connections from three ISPs, alongside a couple of wireless access points.
Network Diagram:
My ultimate goal has been a robust and secure hybrid cloud environment, fully automated for deployment and maintenance. I developed the capability to deploy new clustered services, both locally and remotely, simply by defining devices in an inventory management system.
My ultimate goal became a robust and secure hybrid cload that was deployed and maintained entirely from automation. I was able to deploy brand new clustered services locally or remotely just by defining devices in inventory management, and then make any modifications using version control.
Netbox Inventory:
The journey of learning included:
- Out-of-Band network management using Raspberry Pi and cellular modem
- Automated deployment and configuration of physical, virtual, andcloud resources
- Encrypted off-site backups using a variety of cost-saving measures
- Exploring how malware behaves in various simulated environments
- VLAN and subnet management using different routing solutions
- Every best practice I could find, including a subnet with every silly option applied
- Cost analysis to determine exact break-even points between self-hosted, VPS, and cloud
- Modified UPS that was able to supply four days of run time on batter power
Some Photos
| (click/tap to view larger images) | |
 |  |
 | |
 |  |