Network pics thread

It's very quiet actually. No purpose so far. I have a bad habit of buying things and then figuring that out.
 
I've been wanting to upgrade my rigged up 2-post telco rack to a real server rack for a while and this week I came across a company that was going out of business and was pretty much giving stuff away, they had several racks available.

$50, including the slide-out keyboard/mouse -



Here is my old telco rack.... There was some wood involved to hold up the 2950 -



Spent about 6 hours yesterday moving everything over, had to build a ramp to get it into the house from the garage, almost killed myself getting it into the basement. I host about 35 websites, only received 1 phone call about the downtime :-P

New Rack -



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Top to Bottom -

-22" Samsung LCD (got 2 of these for $20 each from the same place I snagged the rack)
-Raspberry Pi behind monitor
-Keyboard/Mouse
-SMC Cable Modem (Charter Business Internet, Managed by Charter, 5 Public Static IPs)
-TP-Link Unmanaged Gigabit Switch
-Storage Server, 21TB Raw disk, Server 2012 R2, serves Media for Plex, iSCSI for ESXi etc.
-Dell PowerEdge 2950 ESXi Server, 32GB runs around 11 VMs including 2 web servers, mail server, hosted application server, pfsense, Plex, torrent box, Minecraft server for sister, lab machines for work etc.
-PDU, APC UPS sitting behind it

Quick Network Specs -

-80mbits Charter Business service
-Around 40 Static IPs in use internally, have to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of everything
-Around 16-18 VMs, 7 physical machines
-2 Wireless AP's in the house, router/DNS is a pfsense VM
-Web/Mail Server VMs have their own public IP
-Lots of gadgets around the house, WiFi thermostat, 2 dropcams, 5 Google Chromecasts, 1 Amazon FireTV stick, 2 XBox 360s, couple Blu-Ray players, smartphones etc.
-Ethernet jacks in every room (phone jacks wired with Cat5e, easy conversion, who needs phone jacks?)
-Energy consumption is important, rack uses <500W, some machines are on a power schedule etc.
 
My home setup. From top to bottom:

1st Shelf: Alarm panel with one of the sirens and garage radar.
2nd Shelf: Various cisco phones (7972, 7960) that aren't currently used, 2 old routers (the stacked black boxes), a Linksys SPA941 and a cisco 2851 with a VIC2-2FXO card which is used as a backup PBX. Below you can see one of the alarm's keyboards and a thermometer.
3rd Shelf: Lexmark Optra T610 with duplexer and my XenServer box with 3 NICs running 6 VMs:

- Windows Server 2012 R2 AD Domain Controller, DNS, DHCP, Plex, File Server, WSUS
- Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft Exchange 2013
- Windows Server 2012 R2 with Lync Server 2013
- Windows Server 2012 R2 with SharePoint Server 2013
- pfSense which is solely used as an https reverse proxy
- Elastix PBX

4th Shelf: My ISP's modem (ZTE H108NS), an OBI110 FXS/FXO and a Mikrotik RB951-2N which is my main router. Below you can see a 3COM PS HUB 40 (very old), a 3COM 3c17203 and a Nortel BES1020-48T PWR (48x 10/100/1000 with PoE on 24 ports used to power some phones).

And on the last shelf you can see some PCs that are no longer used.

 
Wow MarkoDaGeek that's a nice score!

Not much has changed with my setup and not even sure if this counts as networking, but it is rack related. :p I recently decommissioned two of my SAN enclosures, that I never really used anyway. Needed to make room for my two workstations which I converted to rackmount to save space in my office. I have cables running up through the floor. It seems cheap rackmount cases never seem to come with rails, so I had to improvise and I used the L rails were for the SAN. I did not feel like dealing with trying to find 3rd party rails and hope that they match, especially when they were about the same price as the cases. Downside is the case sits a little high than it should due to thickness of the metal so I can't screw it in to the rack as the holes don't quite align. Not really a huge deal though. It's not like people go bolting down their workstation to their desk. It's not really going anywhere.



Used that little cart thingy when I was installing the drycore in my basement, works great for moving heavy things in and out of crawlspace too! These things are heavy! About 120lbs each.


New systems installed.


I should vacuum up these filters. :eek: Was suppose to retire that server and got side tracked and it's still chugging along. It still runs my DNS and email, and few other misc things. DNS should be easy to swich over, just need to setup in a VM and copy zone files over. Email is going to be a bigger beast. The setup is like 10 years old, but it's rock solid. I will need to replicate it with newer software.


I will experiment with stitching software later and post a better pic of my entire rack. I don't have a wide enough lens to get it all in one shot.
 
Red Squirrel, that just looks sexy! A refresher of everything you're running would be cool! ;)
 
Bad luck trying to make a panorama so more pics individually instead!







Top to bottom:

-DIN rails for home automation stuff, looks more complex than it really is, I just put lot of power distribution blocks for expansion. I actually want to redo all this on a separate board outside of the rack, since it's not space efficient the way it is now. Will put controller in a nema cabinet with cross connects on the outside, most likely. (big nema cabinets are very expensive so just got a small one)

-Shelf with relay controller and arduino board (will eventually combine this into one system)

- Firewall (pfsense)
Asus server / Core2Duo / 4GB ram

- hal9000 : Home automation server (stuff on shelf connects to it via usb)
Supermicro / Atom / 4GB ram

- Borg : main server/previous VM server.. in process of virtualizing stuff on it in their own VMs so it can be retired or reused as something else
White box / Core2Quad / 8GB ram

- Moria: new VM server
Supermicro / Xeon / 32GB ram

- Isengard: NAS/Fire server
Supermicro / Xeon / 8GB ram

- Two IBM SAN enclosures connected to Isengard, rarely used, not enough UPS capacity and they're too proprietary, can't add my own drives if they fail.

- Then my two workstations at bottom
Cables run up to my office which is above server room. Awesome setup, I don't get as much dust in the office and no noise and in summer, no heat.

The back has two Dell switches and 2 PDUs, one connected to my APS750 UPS and other is surge only. It's a bit ugly behind there, but it was MUCH worse:
I still kind of want to redo it though. I should have routed all the cables going to the switch from the same wood bracket, would have looked better.









Overall view of room:




(rack 2)


(rack 3)

Rack 1 is where most of the magic happens
Rack 2 has battery backup system, and is eventually going to be a Cisco lab or where misc stuff goes. I want to put in telco style rectifiers and inverters at some point to build a even bigger UPS. Possibly tie in solar or wind system at some far point in the future.
rack 3 is where the batteries are, got 4 100AH deep cycle batteries
The panel part on top o file cabinet is most likely where I'll move the home automation stuff to. Those two big switches allow me to isolate the battery banks for maintenance. there's fuses in the back, each bank is fused separately so if there is a fault it does not take the entire system down. I can then isolate that particular bank to replace fuse. I tend to shut down a bank for like 15 minutes before I add water to the cells, since they fizz a bit and it's not fun getting acid on my hands. :p

There's some stuff left to do such as hvac and enclosing the room so it can be air quality and climate controlled, but I put that on hold for now to save more money. Once that's done I'll vacuum out all the systems and clean stuff properly. Overall I'm happy with this setup though, it just needs some cleaning up is all.
 
Red Squirrel that is a pretty neat setup. I need a basement in my next house. I will be posting some pics of my setup tonight most likely (running cable today) as I just got the rack semi setup and positioned. It is going to be in a closet for my wife's home office right now.
 
This is the first time I have posted a network on here before.

I just finished getting this live last night and it is still very much a work in progress (cable management and some more stuff in the mail.

Here is the rack (placed on a table elevated so that the ferrets wont climb up the thing...we have 4 ferrets that hang out in the room where the media box is.)

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Here is the rack with some of the stuff in it and on it (during initial setup)

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Here is the rack as it sits now.

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I am waiting on PDU's and another shelf to showup so I can clean up the power cables etc.

On Shelf: Cisco Cable Modem (100/5 Charter) and FortiWifi 60D
Patch Panel
HP 1810G-24
2 laptops (will load some flavor of linux on it to play with)
Cisco 1800 Series
Cisco Catalyst 2950
CyberPower 700VA Rackmount UPS
To the left: Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4
 
Just moved my lab onto a "rack" (box with a tablecloth),and bought a new server. I'm hoping this will be temporary.

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This is what I practice with and have gathered over time. None of this is "production", just messing around with

Networking Gear:

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2 x ASA5505's
1 x 1801 (w/ADSL WIC, used as actual router for a long time with one ASA above)
2 x 1841's
1 x 2620
2 x 3750 (Non-Gig, one middle one bottom)
3 x 2950's
1 x 2821

This stuff is always in limbo, especially since I just got the ML350 Gen6 for DIRT CHEAP, I got it with the two Xeon procs, 8 GB RAM and no drives, but for $300 it was a great deal! I have to find a second heatsink and fan for the other CPU (not installed yet) and a LOT more RAM (probably around 48GB) but that's stuff I can do as I go along. It will be replacing the OLD VM server to the left. I decided to "retire" its VM duties becasue ESXi 5.5 removed support for my network cards and this 350G6 magically showed up and works out of the box with all sensors, cards, controllers and even has a full iLO2 advanced license.

Server Gear:

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ML350 Gen6
2 x Xeon E5649 2.53Ghz 6 cores each w/ HT 24 Total threads
8 GB Reg. DIMM RAM (244GB Max)
250 GB Samsung SSD
VMWare ESXi 5.5

Older Whitebox VM:

This Machine will now be running Win7 Pro as the main lab machine next to the ThinkPad T500, kind of over kill but I can run single instances of VM's within workstation to test with and move over later to the 350.

ASUS P7P55D Pro
4 Core, 8 Thread Xeon X3450 (S1156)
16 GB RAM
500 GB Seagate 7200RPM HD
VMWare ESXi 5 (Now Win 7 Pro until I figure out what to do with it)

Eventually when I can get everything fully loaded with the ML350 to the point where I don't have to shut it down every day to change a part or install a processor I will have it running 24/7 doing main network tasks and some low-use hosting.

The reason I picked it up was that it is SUPER quiet for what you get, no jet engine like the 1U 360Gen7 and others, but still can use all the parts from them(how I got this thing in the first place,pulling parts from a 360G7) It can run in a home basement with no issues.

Actual Network:

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Super Stable Siemens DSL modem (10/1 w/ /29 public subnet)
pfsense box: Lanner Electronics FW (Dual Core 1.6 Ghz Atom, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, 6GBe Ports)
Hp 1910-8G PoE
QNAP Ts-419PII (8TB RAID5, 5.36 Usable)
Ubiquiti UniFi AP's (x2 not shown)
Misc Electronics, helping hands and my variable bench PSU)

This is what is currently running my entire house.
 
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Updated my parents network for them. They had an old Belkin G router that was about 8 years old . The thing was so slow that it was even holding back wired Internet speeds. I updated their network to:
  • Ubuquiti EdgeRouter Lite
  • ZyXEL GS1100 16 port unmanaged gig switch
  • Ubuquiti UniFi AP-Long Range

Also done as part of the upgrade:
  • Installed wooden backer.
  • Ran new 120V AC.
  • Ran Cat5e runs - 4x Living Room, 1x office to a new punch down.

Overall huge upgrade for them, they're really happy with the wired performance on the desktop in the office and at their living room media area. Their wifi range and speed is also greatly improved. Opted for the LR AP as their home is ~3600 sq ft. They are doing a remodel this spring for he 2nd floor, I'll be pulling another 6 runs of cat5e for them (2x Master Bedroom, 2x exercise room, 1x Spare bedroom, 1x for another WiFi AP) at that point and installing conduit.

I'm far from being a pro, but I think I did OK for an amateur.
 
UpMAh7X.jpg


Updated my parents network for them. They had an old Belkin G router that was about 8 years old . The thing was so slow that it was even holding back wired Internet speeds. I updated their network to:
  • Ubuquiti EdgeRouter Lite
  • ZyXEL GS1100 16 port unmanaged gig switch
  • Ubuquiti UniFi AP-Long Range

Also done as part of the upgrade:
  • Installed wooden backer.
  • Ran new 120V AC.
  • Ran Cat5e runs - 4x Living Room, 1x office to a new punch down.

Overall huge upgrade for them, they're really happy with the wired performance on the desktop in the office and at their living room media area. Their wifi range and speed is also greatly improved. Opted for the LR AP as their home is ~3600 sq ft. They are doing a remodel this spring for he 2nd floor, I'll be pulling another 6 runs of cat5e for them (2x Master Bedroom, 2x exercise room, 1x Spare bedroom, 1x for another WiFi AP) at that point and installing conduit.

I'm far from being a pro, but I think I did OK for an amateur.

Very impressive.
 
*snip* img *snip*

Updated my parents network for them. They had an old Belkin G router that was about 8 years old . The thing was so slow that it was even holding back wired Internet speeds. I updated their network to:
  • Ubuquiti EdgeRouter Lite
  • ZyXEL GS1100 16 port unmanaged gig switch
  • Ubuquiti UniFi AP-Long Range

Also done as part of the upgrade:
  • Installed wooden backer.
  • Ran new 120V AC.
  • Ran Cat5e runs - 4x Living Room, 1x office to a new punch down.

Overall huge upgrade for them, they're really happy with the wired performance on the desktop in the office and at their living room media area. Their wifi range and speed is also greatly improved. Opted for the LR AP as their home is ~3600 sq ft. They are doing a remodel this spring for he 2nd floor, I'll be pulling another 6 runs of cat5e for them (2x Master Bedroom, 2x exercise room, 1x Spare bedroom, 1x for another WiFi AP) at that point and installing conduit.

I'm far from being a pro, but I think I did OK for an amateur.

Seeing the AP flipped.. I cant help thinking that'll fuck up the coverage though, with the antenna like that..
 
Have the same setup at home with the exception of the switch. I use a Ubiquiti Tough Switch PoE and the whole setup is awesome. Works extremely well. I have mine in a Leviton Structured Panel in the basement next to my Power panel and the AP is on the ceiling centered in my house.
 
Updated my parents network for them. They had an old Belkin G router that was about 8 years old . The thing was so slow that it was even holding back wired Internet speeds. I updated their network to:
  • Ubuquiti EdgeRouter Lite
  • ZyXEL GS1100 16 port unmanaged gig switch
  • Ubuquiti UniFi AP-Long Range

Also done as part of the upgrade:
  • Installed wooden backer.
  • Ran new 120V AC.
  • Ran Cat5e runs - 4x Living Room, 1x office to a new punch down.

Overall huge upgrade for them, they're really happy with the wired performance on the desktop in the office and at their living room media area. Their wifi range and speed is also greatly improved. Opted for the LR AP as their home is ~3600 sq ft. They are doing a remodel this spring for he 2nd floor, I'll be pulling another 6 runs of cat5e for them (2x Master Bedroom, 2x exercise room, 1x Spare bedroom, 1x for another WiFi AP) at that point and installing conduit.

I'm far from being a pro, but I think I did OK for an amateur.

The only thing that I can think to change is the position of the AP. Seeing as that looks to be like in the basement against one end of the house, why not run some CAT5e to the middle of the basement and mount the AP there to equalize the coverage for a consistent coverage for the whole house? As it looks right now is that you would have some massive bleed out on the end of the house over to the neighbors house and then possibly having low coverage on the opposite end.

This post is based on limited knowledge where exactly you have your equipment positioned.
 
Seeing the AP flipped.. I cant help thinking that'll fuck up the coverage though, with the antenna like that..

I had some real issues with coverage while I had 2 of 3 mounted that way. Putting them on a wooden bracket attached with metal brackets to the wall (ceiling was too high) did result in a coverage as I had wished before.
 
A little Ubiquiti love for my "new" home. Anyone in need of some used 'burnt orange' shag carpeting?

Ubiquiti-Unifi-AC_zpsculjactt.jpg
 
Jesus, my down is 2.5 and up is .5. Thats what i get for living out of town. Cable company wont run a line out here and the best i can get it 3mbs dsl because from 14k feet from the CO...
 
Jesus, my down is 2.5 and up is .5. Thats what i get for living out of town. Cable company wont run a line out here and the best i can get it 3mbs dsl because from 14k feet from the CO...

Still wouldn't help you. TWC offers 300mbps in one city within the US.
 
Jesus, my down is 2.5 and up is .5. Thats what i get for living out of town. Cable company wont run a line out here and the best i can get it 3mbs dsl because from 14k feet from the CO...

at least when FTTP finally becomes commonplace you will get it before everyone else. Rural markets are always cheaper to do FTTP when compared to cities, even if the majority of the ducts are in place in a city. No one cares if you tear up a little of their yard in the country.:D

Heck, FTTdp+g.fast might even hit the country before the city.
 
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at least when FTTP finally becomes commonplace you will get it before everyone else. Rural markets are always cheaper to do FTTP when compared to cities, even if the majority of the ducts are in place in a city. No one cares if you tear up a little of their yard in the country.:D

Heck, FTTdp+g.fast might even hit the country before the city.

We're planning on rolling out FTTH in my small town of 4000 people within the next 5 years.
 
Hi,

I have been reading this post for a while (yes almost all 600 pages), an d found this verry interesting.
In fact i'm looking to build a network rack (wall mounted) for my home

Don't be surprise by the amout of connections i have, i have an home automation and multiroom audio (sonos)

Here i a little summary (and pic attached):
8 sonos zones(hardwired)
14 Home entertianement
7 home automation
6 IP cams HD
4 AP's
2 NAS
x Computers
x spare

I counted 51, but probalby it's going to end up around 58

What i'm looking for i wal mounted racks (middle atlantic seems great but expensive!) around 700&#8364;
Here a first draftof my configuration, I would like to have your apinion and advice

PDU: APC basic PDU 1U with surge protection: does it exist i could not find it?
Patch panel 4 x 24 of 2x 48? I there a difference in quality, what brand do you recommend?
Neat Patch 2x not yet sure about it
Switch: 2 x HP 1620 48G: anyone has experince with this one?
POE switch (for IP cam and maybe unify AP's) any suggestion? Maybe HP, i like to have a 1 brand racks, looks nicer
Router? any suggestion?
What about a firewall, any added value for a private house? I read about firebox that could be "hacked into Pfsense... worth the price or not?

Thank you

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What model Unifis are you using?

Their UAP-LR and UAP aren't 802.3af/at compliant, so you would have to use their own PoE switches, keep using the power injector, or use their INSTANT 802.3af adapter.

Also can this thread be used for discussion or should it be pics / comments to pics only? Might want to start your own thread.

Have you configured CLI routers before? Picking a router purely so it matches the other equipment and not for other reasons is scaring me.
 

I've been having issues in the 2.4GHz band, with nearby AP's, causing them to drop and reboot randomly. Lowered the # of AP's using 2.4GHz from 6 to 2 in the building (one per floor). It's stable this way, but it requires more digging to see what's up... :(
 
What model Unifis are you using?

Their UAP-LR and UAP aren't 802.3af/at compliant, so you would have to use their own PoE switches, keep using the power injector, or use their INSTANT 802.3af adapter.

Also can this thread be used for discussion or should it be pics / comments to pics only? Might want to start your own thread.

Have you configured CLI routers before? Picking a router purely so it matches the other equipment and not for other reasons is scaring me.

Sorry i thought there a lot of advice and info in this thread, should i start a new one?

I still have to buy my unifi's, but i want 802.11AC, but i read some negative revieuws about the unifi one, so waiting for them to bring something new out or upgrade...
I didn't even know the instant adapter, seems a good solution any downsides?

No i have no experience with CLI routers, i'm not a fan of this, i'm sure those day's we can find a good router with webinterface isn't it?
Don't laugh but i now have a Dlink router, wich works ok, but i won't need Wifi on the router anymore since i go for AP's, furthermore my router is in the basement (concrete) and range is terrible, at the moment i use a temporary solution with 3 airport express in the house(wich i had before) as AP's (hardwired)
What should i need in the router? Qos is done but the HP1620's, portforwarding also i think not sure. What my router really needs is DynDNS, portforwarding and maybe linkaggregation to connect to the switches?
BTW i have a cable internet a 160Mbps so a Gigabit router is needed

FYI, i'm a novice in this network thing, and wil need a lot of advice, but i'm engineer (mechanical) and i'm a quick learner ;-)

That's not what i meant about the router, of course quality and feature come first, but i have a little preference for HP, but i'm open for idea's since i'm new at this...
 
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(Tower server esxi box)
Intel Xeon E5420 Quad Core 2.5ghz, 4GB DDR2 (test machine)

(Pfsense box)
Dell GX 520, Intel Pentium D 2.8Ghz, 2GB DDR2

(Web server - CentOS)
Dell GX 520, Intel Pentium D 2.8Ghz, 1GB DDR2 (for learning)

Small HP Thin Client, Windows 8.
Dual 20" HP TFT's

Zigor UPS

The rest are empty cases until I find cheap enough deals.
 
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Switch will be fully populated once my 3U gets here. Until then...

(Steady 60dBA @ 3'. Loud enough that I want the door closed, quiet enough that I'm okay with the noise once the door IS closed.)
 
TeeJayHoward are you happy with that rack? Would you recommend it?

Seconding this, was just looking at these on amazon.

I'm not TeeJay, but I do have that StarTech rack at home and have been very pleased with it. Mine looks like it might be a slightly older vintage though. Mine has square holes directly on the posts, not recessed like TeeJay's. Couldn't be happier with it, and pretty much anything else I've bought from Startech.
 
I've got one as well, very handy with the castor kit fitted too. It's good quality and variable depth goes as small as 600mm and up to circa 11-1200mm iirc, the only reason i'm not still using it as I outgrew it and went to a full size 42u.
 
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