This weekends project, from loose networking kit and stacked servers into a rack. I recently upgraded from Dell PowerConnect switches in desktop configuration to TP Link Omada switches. Firstly I upgraded to a SG3428 switch which was much bigger than the Dell 2724 and so wouldn’t fit in my neat under the shelf corner spot right under my Microserver stack. I then spotted a great priced SG3428MP which being a POE switch was even bigger than the none POE version. This caused me to lose desk space to this mahusive switch and a mess of cables. I also moved away from a consumer router RT-AC66U over to the Omada ER605 v2 and have 2x EAP650’s for wifi.
I decided its time to get a cabinet to house the microservers, POE switch and router. After finding a good priced wall mounting one, with 2x full depth shelves, a brush plate and was deep enough to mount the POE switch.
I decided to mount the switch at the bottom, with the usual 1U gap below the switch, brush plate, then the two shelves with a gap to mount the ER605 on velcro(this is a trick we use at work to mount loose kit) and the top shelf holding the microservers.
Having mounted all the kit and routing the cables through the back and up to the top and out to under the desk on cable trays. It soon became clear that the temperature inside the cabinet would struggle in the UK summer with both servers and switch running. It also became quickly apparent that the size of the switch caused it to sag quite substantially. Amazon next day delivery comes to the rescue, one mains powered 120mm fan with speed controller and a pair of 1U blanking panels on order. Fitting the fan dropped the temps inside the cabinet even just on the lowest setting and thw controller on the outside of the cabinet. With one blanking panel fitted to the back under the switch and the sagging was sorted, the other was just to blank the space under the switch at the front.
Not sure why I haven’t done this for ages, nor why I hadn’t moved over to SMB/enterprise kit for years and the old Dell switches were just OK for basic use but for more substantial tinkering/setup.
Youtube is a good start, or just browsing posts here on Reddit or elsewhere.
It does depend on your requirements, network, equipment etc for instance I did and could use a consumer based router, for Routing and Wifi. But this means all devices on one network, (Eck!), but also means I couldnt present a “Guest” network on a switch port to say present my work laptop a hard wired network connection but seperate from all my servers etc. So VLAN’s was the way for me, as such I went DD-WRT for a start before going over to SMB/Enterprise kit for Networking and then Routing. That then means also the same for Wifi AP’s, all meaning that consumer grade kit is out the window, purchasing SMB/Enterprise kit and the requirement for the Cabinet to house the main core equipment.
Start with the basics, how networks work, IP, DNS, DHCP etc, then once you understand that you can then start delving further. Originally (around 15x years ago) I had just a Laptop and Router, then a NAS (piece of poop WD one) which then quickly was replaced by a Windows Home Server, then the tinkering started which DHCP, DNS. Then a proper server with a domain, VPN Server, remote access. Then the more advanced Virtualisation, DHCP Failover, Dual Domain controllers, DFS replication, Veeam backup. Then the networking with VLAN’s, ACL’s.
Security is again another topic and is a question of do you or don’t you need access or restrict access from A to B etc. Such example is with the Wifi, without a Guest or VLAN’s Wifi SSID all those guests that come and want a bit of my internet for free would also be able to “see” my network, servers and computers. With that segregated network and ACL’s in place no device on the Guest network can see my kit, or talk to each other but just see the internet.