Network pics thread

Got some new toys to play with (click any picture to enlarge it):

HP certainly makes nice switches. Two 1800-24g switches in the pic (though I'm only keeping one).


Watchguard box runs pfsense. It was a bit loud, so I swapped out the fans and added two fan controllers. It's not pretty, but it works.


I'm going to get a rack soon as I have 3 x 4U cases (and 2 more on the way) and a 1U case to stick in there as well. More pics when everything shows up.
 
The black unit at the bottom is actually a patch panel. Front side is port, back side is usually a punch down with cables going to another location, either a device or another patch panel on the other end. It makes labeling and tracing cables much easier, and you only have to do it once while you can recable devices with out running entirely new cable the whole way.

Yup that's pretty much it. When you consider that the endpoints connected to that patch panel may be hundreds of feet away through inaccessible walls and ceilings, it's nice to have the modularity. Those yellow cables are maybe a foot long and are easily replaceable and movable without the worry of messing anything up.

Redoing another rack within the next few days, I'll post a pic when done :cool:
 
Watchguard box runs pfsense. It was a bit loud, so I swapped out the fans and added two fan controllers. It's not pretty, but it works.

It's a lot better than what I did. I took a Network Engines ns6400 and I'm using that for my pfsense box. The fans were super loud so I removed all of them and put a 120mm fan ontop of the cpu heatsink. The top no longer fits of course but it's super quite now and runs 2-3F above room temp. I just leave 1u of open space in my rack between it and the device above.
 
The black unit at the bottom is actually a patch panel. Front side is port, back side is usually a punch down with cables going to another location, either a device or another patch panel on the other end. It makes labeling and tracing cables much easier, and you only have to do it once while you can recable devices with out running entirely new cable the whole way.

Good to know, new office we are moving into will have some nice racks and alot of cabling happening, if i am doing it or not is still in the air, but either way i will be maintaining it so good to know! Always had me curioius but i felt too n00bish to ask :)
 
Good to know, new office we are moving into will have some nice racks and alot of cabling happening, if i am doing it or not is still in the air, but either way i will be maintaining it so good to know! Always had me curioius but i felt too n00bish to ask :)

yea, but at least you asked. too many people don't bother asking and just do things wrong. So good on you for taking the initiative and learning something useful :)
 
Watchguard box runs pfsense.

Where do you find something like that. I want to play around with pfsense some more and have a pc dedicated to it, but wouldn't mind an appliance like this? Any good links to find one on the cheap? Also any docs on how to install pfsense on something like that?

Edit: Would be interested in seeing the model of the box
 
Where do you find something like that. I want to play around with pfsense some more and have a pc dedicated to it, but wouldn't mind an appliance like this? Any good links to find one on the cheap? Also any docs on how to install pfsense on something like that?

Edit: Would be interested in seeing the model of the box
I got it on eBay for $20, though availability and prices are unpredictable. It is a Watchguard Firebox X500, though the X700, X1000, and X2500 all have the same internal hardware (they just intentionally limit functionality on the lower end models through their software). It is a Pentium 3 (1.2ghz) with 256mb of RAM (upgradeable to 512mb), 6 NICs (realtek 100mbit), and a hardware VPN/SSL accelerator card (which you could swap out for a wireless card if you like). This is one of the well supported appliances that is popular for pfsense. There is a large thread on getting it working (link) and another one dedicated to getting the LCD running (link). It isn't the easiest thing to get up and running, but it really isn't all that difficult. A bit of logic/reasoning goes a long way, so even with no prior freebsd experience (and a negligible amount of linux experience), I was able to get it up and running (getting the LCD working is the trickier bit). You'll also need another computer on which to first install pfsense on (unless you do some hardware modification on the unit itself).
 
Got some new toys to play with (click any picture to enlarge it):

HP certainly makes nice switches. Two 1800-24g switches in the pic (though I'm only keeping one).
If you end up selling one here, let me know, I'm in the market ;)
 
If you end up selling one here, let me know, I'm in the market ;)
I sold one to a friend shortly after taking that picture. Unfortunately I can't sell my last one, but I know of a place where you might be able to pick one up for about the same price I paid ($135). PM me if you are interested.
 
I sold one to a friend shortly after taking that picture. Unfortunately I can't sell my last one, but I know of a place where you might be able to pick one up for about the same price I paid ($135). PM me if you are interested.

Sell me the watchguard ;)
 
It's a lot better than what I did. I took a Network Engines ns6400 and I'm using that for my pfsense box. The fans were super loud so I removed all of them and put a 120mm fan ontop of the cpu heatsink. The top no longer fits of course but it's super quite now and runs 2-3F above room temp. I just leave 1u of open space in my rack between it and the device above.

I did a similar thing with a NetGear switch. I just cut a hole in the top and powered it from the 40mm fan header. It runs an 80mm fan at about half speed, so it's quiet, but the bigger fan still pushes enough air to keep temps honest. I've since racked this device, leaving 1U above it for space for the fan, but I also use that space for cable routing so no biggie.

home_network_gigE.jpg
 
I did the exact same thing on my Baystack 350t. It replaced 3 annoying 40mm fans, now it runs cooler with a single 80mm and sounds much better.
 
Last edited:
cool, did something similar with my cisco 2924 XL, running all the fans off of 5volts instead of 12
 
Yes, if you don't mind. I'd like to see that mod. It sounds interesting.

Yea, I'll post some pics of it. It's not great or anything. I'm still moving into my new house, so I need to find my camera.


Edit: 2 quick pictures.
img0116b.jpg

img0117sgc.jpg
 
Last edited:
Follow up of my entire rack
rackm.jpg


Top to bottom:
Fiber Patch Panel
48-Port Cat5e Patch Panel
HP 5406zl (2 24-port PoE 10/100/1000 blades and 1 24-port SFP module)
HP 2900-24G
HP 2900-24G
(Open slot for the HP 1800-24G sitting on the floor next to the rack, only on floor until I pull cable to my desk)
Cisco 2621XM Router
Custom Firewall (was a Network Engines ns6400)
Custom 20TB iSCSI SAN
Dell PE1950 ESXi 4.0
APC UPS

And a picture of my desk
img0114euv.jpg
 
Last edited:
Yea, I picked one up quite a while ago when I started to build my first SAN. Switched it out for the Areca cards before I even used it. I have 2 VelociRaptors sitting ontop of the box I picked up and I was going to stick them on that card in one of my systems, just haven't got around to picking which system and actually doing it yet.
 
@LittleMe

I like the desk.. I wouldn't mind the 3 dell wide screens as your main setup
 
You can get the desk pretty cheap, it's just an Ikea Galant, I think I paid about 400 bucks total for it.
 


In the living room. Ports 1 and 2 are aggregated with LACP to the Soekris (running OpenBSD 4.5 built with Flashboot build scripts) I also have it segmented out into vlans, one port also goes to a Linksys 802.11G WAP.


In the back room, the shuttle is running ESXi 4.0. Switch is a 2950 24 port 10/100

I got some additional Cat5e to do another run up to the living room so I can aggregate a pair of 100mbps links.
 
Just updated my work diagram (click for size):
3524XL for your iSCSI(assume) SAN? :eek: Thats 1Gbps per/sec on your SAN tops(if you're using the gig port) ouch.... Not used so much? I noticed that with 4 or so VM's running things being to drag down with a 400Mbit's etherchannel.

Nice little network though.
 
The pic is wrong there. Gonna have to go back and fix it. It's a 2960G switch stack. But yeah, gigabit over copper is what we have.

So far the links are not maxing out (yet) because we have more servers than people in the office and the majority of the VMs are for development so they have maybe two-three users on at a time.

Fiber would be nice, but the NetApp module is pretty spendy and so's two fiber switches and a pair of HBAs per server, plus upgrading the tape library to Fiber Channel, plus, plus, plus...
 
Yeah, Netapp stuff is pretty decent from what Ive been told. I dont really see FC as a small business solution, which is what that network appears to be. Idd stick with the iSCSI and keep adding links to the channel as you need to.

Before you know it, you're going to be well over FC spec assuming you have ToE or full TCP offload NICs :D
 
Yeah, Netapp stuff is pretty decent from what Ive been told. I dont really see FC as a small business solution, which is what that network appears to be. Idd stick with the iSCSI and keep adding links to the channel as you need to.

Before you know it, you're going to be well over FC spec assuming you have ToE or full TCP offload NICs :D

The NetApp we have has been rock solid for us no question and there's no chance we'll be heading to FC any time soon, so when I built it out, I hooked up the VMs with ToE nics.

The upgrade path on this thing will be to replace the switches with 10g and replace the dual-ToE nics with iSCSI HBAs (or head straight to FCoE cards). We have a lot of room to grow with this setup. Thankfully, because our budget is pretty well nothing for the next while.
 
The upgrade path on this thing will be to replace the switches with 10g and replace the dual-ToE nics with iSCSI HBAs. We have a lot of room to grow with this setup. Thankfully, because our budget is pretty well nothing for the next while.
HAHAH, there goes your cost savings of sticking with iSCSI :p. If you're going to stick with Cisco, lowest end is 4900 series pricing in at just under 10 grand. Sounds like fun though, I never usually get to sick around long enough to get to see the SAN stuff that I play with really shine :( Ive been recently playing with some MDS9500's and integrating that with other vendor equipment. All FC environment.
 
some sort of scsi/4 port nic combo card. However based on the LED configuration, its more likely a 5 port switch with the fourth port hard-wired to a NIC on the PCB.
 
Back
Top