klaxzy[dot]net/var/log

klaxzy[dot]net

ieee 802.3ae-2002

nikola[at]klaxzy.net:/var/infra/10g-upgrade_

home_lab

running self-hosted services requires network connectivity, there is no escape from networking, in my opinion. a good network foundation is key to the stable and smooth operation of any modern infrastructure. in the era of cloud and virtual services, the network level is often invisible to end users as well as people who manage all the underlying network infrastructure.

today, I still believe that networking is an important part of the infrastructure, which is nicely reflected in my hobbies as well. now, I host my own infrastructure (and try to keep it modern) at home, and it's a nice little project that keeps me busy and happy.

currently, my setup looks like this (connection diagram ).

in the early stages (it was 2014 if i remember correctly) i would just use a decent WiFi router, back then that was ASUS router with asuswrt-merlin [0] firmware, and connect the server directly to it. then, i have discovered a pihole at around 2015, got an Raspberry Pi with the only possibility to connect via LAN, plus i already had a proliant server, qnap nas and then another LAN device that required LAN connectivity. then i thought, let me get a switch. the next state was getting a switch, and i got a cisco switch (SG200-26 ) and started to grow my network slowly including the LAN connection to all my workstations since I got very bad experience with WiFi plus back then there was the key reinstallation [KRACK][1] vulnerability with WPA2 that just kept me using physical cabel. everything was in one network and i haven't been using much of the security features of that cisco only to introduce vlans in 2019 when i got my first firewall (UniFi gateway[*]) and then later added even more segmentation with the opensense coming in the game.

*i have replaced unifi stuff very quickly from the moment i got it, primarily because of the lack of flexibility, weird and confusing terminology and the "ecosystem" nature. all the equipment got sold at swapfest @c-base.

image: ieee802.3 and ieee802.3q dataformat comparison, source: internetworking, technische grundladen und anwendungen

why to upgrade?

the cisco SG200-26 served me well for years, it was a decent little switch, honestly. however, over the time ports started flapping up and down, crc errors popping up like weeds, and the switch just giving up and putting ports into err-disabled mode. the hardware was basically dying, choking on the all the heavy backup traffic that wasn't built to handle gracefully. originally, i got this cisco switch without working power supply, the switch was refusing to start and I have diagnosed that the power supply capacitor was swollen and electrolyte has escaped, it was an easy fix and i was really proud to make it work again. meanwhile, the model was EOL[2] by 2023 already and UI became painfully slow + all the port issues, etc...

*cisco small business sg200 series had an EOS (end of sale) after just 6 years which i find very short for that period and the successor sg350 was targeted for more larger corps rather than small business, everything after that became meraki which essentially became all cloud dependent.

so, clap-clap to cisco serving me for more than 10 years, i couldn't save it again, and honestly i felt like that is time for an upgrade. i built couple of servers, 2 NAS devices, lots of VMs, containers, personal data backups and syncs, cisco was just a bottleneck. plus, i already got Intel NUC with 2.5Gibt NIC, firewall with 2.5Gig interfaces and 3xIntel 10G 2P x520 adapters rescued from servers that were thrown away by the ship company I worked for (yes, shame on you HAL for throwing away all those Dell server carelessly)

image: das netz, source: self, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

then, there was a question of powering some of the PoE capable devices like Netgear AP and temperature sensor device. the thought on having PoE switch gave me the fantasy of removing those extra PoE injectors that were consuming power sockets.

when cisco announced EOL i developed the fear of having something that cannot be patched anymore therefore i put all my network management in the separate vlan without external internet access and restricted inbound traffic. this vlan still exists and all the network management is still there!

10g decision & oss dilemma

first of all, why not cisco again? well, cisco is fully-blown cloud dependent bro now with their meraki series and catalyst was simply expensive. then, cisco is not open source, i mean there are some really honorable mentions, however here SONiC could be a choice but looking at their hardware support list the switches there cost 3K+ EUR, and those are mostly enterprise grade hardware switches and those are not easy to find used. then the consumer oss software could be vyos , opx , openwrt or milk-v but those are still niche products with not that broad hardware support.

i...