Notices by Keith Milner (majik@kopiti.am)

@dashrandom
Yeah, none of these are prod systems (other than occasional local use), and any spotty internet only affects external access. 95% of the time I'm accessing it internally.

@dashrandom Info have some stuff on the cloud, but only where it needs public access or for other reasons, like being off-site (for backups).

A major reason is speed: my Internet speed here is only around 40M so remote accessing stuff can be slow.

The other is cost. Cloud stuff adds up quickly, and there are times I have had dozens of VMs running which would cost $$$ per month. Yes I have the capital cost of the kit, but it's tax deductible and, over it's lifetime, it saves money.

@dashrandom For home use, I put the home stuff which is all mobile devices plus stuff like Sonos, Chromecast, etc. devices onto a network designated as "insecure". The work stuff, including the encrypted partition on my NAS containing confidential work files, is on a different network with no WiFi.

I also have a generic "LAB" network for managing any lab VMs, a separate network for CCTV cameras, and a Management network which the BMC and management of the Unifi are done through.

@dashrandom yes, a lot of work stuff. I have a home office and the lab is largely for customer-related projects.

The server is VMWare ESXi (which some of my customers also use) so I can build lab setups from VMs and VLANs very easily.

@dashrandom
I have multiple VLANs which are broken out onto separate 1Gbe connections to my server (near the bottom, above the UPS and storage array+ drive extension), plus a separate cable for the BMC.

So that's 5 cables just for the server. I have similar for the storage array.

Plus I have 4 going into my main firewall/router (Netgate).

Then there's various lab routers in the top half of the rack. At the moment, I have Junipers wired up because that's mostly what I'm working on.

@dashrandom yeah, this is in my garage in my house in the UK. It's got more serious over the last 10 years or so.

The main switch is a 1Gbe PoE which feeds a bunch of other switches and Wifi access points in the main house.

I also have a 10Gbe switch which is mainly for iSCSI to my storage array.

@dashrandom you can get inexpensive electricity clamp meters, if that's any help. When I had my solar panels fitted (on my UK house) they fitted a wireless clamp meter to allow me to track generation and consumption.

It's not the official meter, of course, but it's usually close enough. You also need to be able to get the clamp around the feed into your meter.

@dashrandom home labs are awesome.

Here's mine: