With the 74-409 text passed, I’m now starting to do non-Hyper-V stuff on my lab network. My next cert I plan on getting is my CCNA from Cisco. While I’m flying and training toward my ATP, I plan on doing minimal studying for my CCNA to keep my stress level down.
That doesn’t mean I’ll be leaving my test home lab alone! =D
I’ve been learning how to use Media Wiki and building my own wiki of tech related information. Hopefully down the road I’ll have a massive wiki of information at my fingertips with references to information I’ve found helpful in the past.
I’ve installed VMware ESXi 5.5 on my Dell 1950 and have started setting up VMs. Thus far, I’ve installed a generic Centos 6.5 server, a Debian 7.4 server, and a Mint 13 desktop environment. Right now, I can SSH tunnel and VNC into my HP DL360G4 server running Centos 5.9 from anywhere, but having my remote desktop as a VM with a modern desktop OS gives a MUCH improved experience!
On the Vmware ESXi server, I’m also looking at setting up a logstash server and sending all the logs for my equipment to it, so it is easier to review. I’ve also planned on setting up a FreeRadius server and setting all the sign ins for my various computers to use it for authentication.
Another time saving feature I’m looking at setting up is integrating DHCP with an internal DNS server (and setting up redundant fail over on both). This way, instead of specifying an IP address to get to a server I can instead specify the name of the server I want to access. In the Windows world, I would set up an AD Domain and call it a day, but I think figuring out the open source side of things and setting it up manually is a good learning experience (until it blows up in my face).
Another VM I’m toying with is running my own Asterisk server and purchasing a cheap VoIP phone. I’ve looked into integrating it with my google voice number and thus creating a house phone number that is local to Phoenix (instead of my St. Cloud phone number).
I am also planning on changing my IBM x305 file server from using an iSCSI link direct to my desktop to using a NFS link so I can share the file storage with VMware and my HTPC.
On the hardware front, I’ve been looking at upgrading my primary switch from a Cisco 2950 to a gigabit managed switch, but I’m still looking at various options. Additionally, I’m looking at putting another gigabit NIC in all three of my servers. They all have two gigabit ports, but I would like to have a gigabit port for management of the server, a gigabit port for outside internet access/general use, and two gigabit ports apiece for the storage network. This requires at least 4 ports per server, and I would like to expand the Dell 1950 running ESXi and the IBM x305 file server to 6 ports (giving 4 ports to the storage network).
Sadly, hardware is expensive and likely out of my current reach. I’ve been looking at the gigabit switch for the last 3 years, and I still haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
I’ve outlined the next few months of playing around in my home lab. Expect to see some posts on setting these servers and features up!