I've been tinkering, on a budget, with various technologies over the last year (mainly FreeNAS, Docker and pfSense) and I just looked up and realized how messy my home network is now. My home network also serves as my home lab and network for my small IT support business so that adds to the mess (network is flat/basic single subnet, no VLAN). I've got techie's block right now... how would you re-organize this mess of a network? Any improvements that can be had very cheaply?
Separation between personal & business and consolidation would be nice, but any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. - I do have spare mobos, builds, laptops and parts lying about, but unfortunately they're as old as the components listed above (if not older).
- NAS - Synology DS415+, 16.3 TB (4 x 6 TB, Intel ATOM C2538, 2 GB)
- stores Plex media, ESXi datastore (NFS), some backup and archive (full metal and file & folder)
- NAS - FreeNAS 11.0 U2, 9 TB (5 x 2x2 TB mirrored pool, 1 x X5650 6c/12t, 24 GB, Dual CPU capable mobo, 16 x HDD capable ATX case)
- mainly built to store CrashPlan backups for home, family and business. has backup and archive too (full metal and file & folder)
- VM host server - ESXi 6.5 (X5550 4c/8t, 64 GB, Dell Precision T7500, Dual CPU capable mobo)
- VM (Ubuntu) for Docker host for Plex (and related apps), CrashPlan and ThousandEyes
- Business Windows Server VM - line of business, QuickBooks
- Business Windows client (Win 10) VM
- Personal/home Windows client (Win 10) VM
- VM host server - ESXi 6.5 (Core i5 2400, 4c/4t, 14 GB, Dell OptiPlex 790)
- only set up because VT-d/DirectPath I/O kept crashing the above ESXi build
- Windows 10 VM for VT-d use with tuner (for recording HDTV OTA) and NVR software (Blue Iris), which won't perform well anyway (Intel's Quick Sync doesn't pass through to VM apparently)
- Firewall/Router - pfSense (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, 2c/2t, 2 GB, dual NIC PCI-e)
- Docker host - Raspberry Pi 3
- Docker for Uni-Fi controller (Ubiquiti access points)
- This container/service is isolated because I read somewhere that "edge" services should be hosted separately from other services to avoid a single point of failure in your network...???
- Docker for Uni-Fi controller (Ubiquiti access points)
- 16 port smart switch (VLAN capable)
Separation between personal & business and consolidation would be nice, but any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. - I do have spare mobos, builds, laptops and parts lying about, but unfortunately they're as old as the components listed above (if not older).