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Homelab Introduction: Part 2 — Network Infrastructure

May 5, 2015 By Andrew McLean Leave a Comment

Network Anatomy

When people think of networks, most will think of the wireless router they use at home. But in fact, the typical residential or even small business router is many separate systems combined into one unit.

Gateway

The first function is as a gateway router. A gateway router routes traffic between different networks — for example between Internet or Wide Area Network (WAN) and your Local Area Network (LAN). A gateway router itself is already two separate functions: a gateway and a router. That is a complicated subject in itself that I’ll save for another time, but the bottom line is that its primary function connects your internal network to the internet.

Switch

The second core function of residential routers is as a network switch. Whereas a router passes traffic between different networks, switches pass traffic between devices inside the network. The difference isn’t apparent so much in residential networks besides the fact that a Switch enables more devices to be plugged in at a time. For enterprise environments, the differences and capabilities become much more pronounced. Again, the key point is that it connects your internal devices to each other.

Access Point

A wireless Access Point (AP) behaves much the same way as a Switch does, but utilizes microwave frequencies to transmit information to and from devices on the LAN. The caveat is that they are very prone to interference and stability issues. It can take a lot of effort to optimize a wireless network to mitigate these issues while maximizing stability, coverage, and throughput. Fortunately, this is something we specialize in. So think of it as a Network Switch with antennae for wireless.

More

What else do household gateway routers do? Most will include a kind of firewall, which can block malicious or unwanted traffic (both incoming and outgoing); a limited-capacity DNS server; DHCP, which controls and assigns the list of available IP addresses to assign your internal devices; and more.

In a large-scale enterprise environment, each one of these would potentially be controlled by entirely different systems. It would be both unthinkable and impossible to service an entire network from a single device and all of these functions because of the scale involved and the technical limitations (barriers would be technical, mathematical, geographical and even the laws of physics).

Design Philosophy

The point of the above is that the limitation of most residential or even small-business-grade network equipment is the same age-old problem of all combination devices. By combining the disparate devices, it somehow loses the ability to perform any one of those jobs as well as it should. Worse, if any single function fails, the whole device must be serviced or replaced. The configuration software, too, is buggy, limited, and infested with security vulnerabilities. Manufacturers produce home routers to be cheap and disposable, putting minimal effort into weeding out bugs and addressing security flaws. The inadequacy of these devices is so infamous that it’s prompted some industrious programmers to develop “alternative” firmware such as Tomato Alternative Router Firmware and DD-WRT which can be installed on some compatible routers instead of the stock firmware.

Just say no to combination devices
Just say no to combination devices

The bottom line is that my ideal network design philosophy is one device, one purpose – at least as far as I can separate the functions logically.

Ubiquiti Edge Router ERLITE-3

Historically, my homelab relied on a sturdy Cisco 871W Wireless Integrated Services router, and it ran flawlessly for about eight years. At the time I bought it, it was the single most expensive piece of network equipment I’d ever owned (I think I paid about $900 for the then-$1200 device), but I had grown tired of the shoddy off-the-shelf garbage failing every six months so the investment paid for itself many times since, both from an educational perspective and an operations one.

The limitations of the Cisco had been showing for some time now, requiring a Java-based software controller if I didn’t want to deal with the Command-Line-Interface (CLI). As familiar as I am with it, I do like to have some visual feedback to fall back on. And as time went on, Java and browser versions marched on but the HTML/Flash/Java controller software remained the same, requiring a lot more effort on my part to keep it running.

Ubiquiti ERLITE-3 - So fast, I can't even afford the equipment I would need to find the speed limit.
Ubiquiti ERLITE-3 – So fast, I can’t even afford the equipment I would need to find the speed limit.

The final nail in the coffin came when I realized that the processor on the device was so underpowered that it could not even attain the speeds my ISP offered me — the bandwidth that I was paying for, but could not meet. It was peaking at about 60% of the purported capacity.

I had been a longtime admirer of Ubiquiti equipment, and had demonstrated their effectiveness and stability in many other client projects, so I decided it was well-suited for the role in my own network.

Based on tests that I’ve seen online, the LAN-to-WAN throughput is so ridiculously high that it outperforms most people’s testing capacity. That is to say, if Gigabit internet speeds ever become common in North America, this thing could handle it without breaking a sweat. And for comparison’s sake, the Cisco 871W was peaking at about 30 Mbps, meaning the ERLITE could theoretically outperform it by more than 30 times!

Ubiquiti ERLITE Web UI

Besides performance metrics, the Ubiquiti Edge Router drew me in because of the cost (which was about 8% the MSRP of the Cisco 871W in its heyday). So 8% the cost, 30x the performance. I suppose it’s not fair to compare it to a device so old, but the major point here is that it has way more capacity than I can throw at it, which in theory should last me another 8 years.

Even some Ubiquiti loyalists have voiced concerns that the Web interface of the EdgeOS is still missing some advanced options, but I do most of the configuration through the CLI anyway so it’s not really an issue. But the options that are available are easy to find and configure, I daresay, for a savvy home user.

Netgear GS724T

When shopping for a Network Switch, I had a list of requirements in mind.

  • It had to be Gigabit, (1024 Megabits per second, or a theoretical max of 125 Megabytes per second between devices).
  • It needed IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation (LACP), which basically combines multiple ports and enables them to work together to increase bandwidth to compatible devices. In my case, my Synology DS1815+ had four ports that I wanted to combine together to enable a theoretical 4Gbps throughput (500 Megabytes per second between multiple hosts).
  • To enable advanced functions like LACP, it had to be a “Smart” or “Managed” switch, as opposed to an unmanaged switch which has no interface or higher functions whatsoever, and merely connects devices together (but at a much lower cost).

I had some other requirements but it would be beyond the scope of this post to explain the why and how.

Netgear GS724Tv4 Gigabit Smart Switch
She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.

Most of the requirements revolved around speed and management, which allows me to save to my Synology server as fast as I might with a locally-connected hard drive. It also allows me to play videos on virtually every device I have over the network without noticeable hiccups or buffering. Since this same network is also the backbone of my home, it’s important that our home use does not interfere with business use and vice versa.

My wife does a lot of photography, and she had the habit of storing all the files on her local hard drive because navigating them over the network was painfully slow. Folders were slow to open, and the thumbnails would remain blank for quite a long time whilst they loaded. Now, it’s still an uphill battle breaking her of the habit of storing locally, but the network experience is dramatically improved – thanks to both this switch and the Synology DS1815+.

The Netgear GS724Tv4 checked all the boxes, and the price was right. Purists might argue that I would be better served by a fully managed switch, but I’ll perhaps save that for a future upgrade.

Ubiquiti UAP-AC (802.11AC)

Where the ERLITE is a high-performance, low-cost router, Ubiquiti’s line of Unifi Access Points (AP) are likewise positioned. They’re designed for scalability, which means that instead of the configuration software being installed and accessible from the device itself, it’s installed separately (on a server, desktop, or a dedicated device). Once the device is configured, the software doesn’t have to run in the background, even if the device is reset. It will simply continue to operate as it was configured when it last received instructions from the controller.

Ubiquiti UAP-AC
I had heard mixed reviews of the UAP-AC. IEEE 802.11AC wireless AP enables up to 1300 Mbps to compatible clients, though it’s such a new wireless spec that I only have a couple of devices that support it. This is the once device in my homelab that I don’t own — it’s on loan from a strategic partner. So although I haven’t experienced any issues reported by some about the AC model, I can’t really comment on it because I haven’t been able to really utilize it fully.

Ubiquiti UAP-AC Dual-Band 802.11AC, capable of 1300 Mbps
Ubiquiti UAP-AC Dual-Band 802.11AC, capable of 1300 Mbps, and up to 200 concurrent client connections

The bottom line here is that it’s a Dual-Band AP so it operates both on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies and I have fast, stable wireless throughout a two-floor, 3000 ft2 home not including a limited range outside.

Another important design strategy here is that wireless communications ideally should not be the core communications infrastructure, rather it should be supplemental to a wired network. Although wireless speeds can sound deceptively fast on paper, it is inherently a half-duplex medium — in other words, only one device can “talk” at a time, and only in one direction at a time, like a two-way radio. This is why high-bandwidth protocols like video streaming and torrents can choke even the fastest wireless network.

As ubiquitous (no pun intended) as wireless technology is, there really is no comparison to a wired network.

One thing that you may not have outright gleaned from all this is that the function, ability, and requirements of each device impacts the decision of each other device. This highlights somewhat the “design” aspect of a network. The goals I had for the Synology NAS required at least the advanced functions of a Smart Switch, and at Gigabit speed. That speed, in turn, required a minimum of Cat5e cable. The wireless AP had to be placed somewhere central, relatively free from obstruction, not against metal or tucked behind stone or concrete. In a well-designed network, each decision potentially affects another. And of course, above all else, it needs to be well documented.

To Be Continued…

So there you have it: my core network infrastructure. Stay tuned for part 3, Virtualization and Monitoring.

Filed Under: Homelab

Homelab Introduction: Part 1 — Synology

April 1, 2015 By Andrew McLean 3 Comments

Since I can’t reveal a lot of the projects I’m working on due to nondisclosure agreements, security, and privacy concerns, I thought I’d post some information about my homelab.

A “homelab” is a testing environment where I can simulate the infrastructure of different clients in order to create new systems or improve upon old ones — without risking the client’s information in a *production* environment. In other words, it’s a safe place to break things where the breaking of the things doesn’t disrupt business operations.

Instead of describing it, it will probably be helpful to see some photos.

Homelab
McLean IT’s server rack, or “Pretty In Pink”

Everything here was selected carefully for the available features and performance. I opted for CAT6 cable instead of CAT5e so that it would be relatively “future proof” without going overboard with fiber. I colour coded the patch cables to simplify visual inspection. Black for core network (Router Gateway/Firewall, Wireless AP), green for my Virtualization server, the four purple cables for the four NIC interfaces on the Synology DS1815+ in order to take advantage of the Link Aggregation (LACP) bonding for a 4-Gbps connection (made possible by the Netgear GS724Tv4), and the other patch cables I chose pink to please my daughter who loves pink.

Synology DiskStation DS1815+

I’ve been a Synology reseller for a while now, but until now didn’t have the budget to invest in a unit of my own. For the last several years I’ve relied heavily on a tried & true SuperMicro rack mount server (not shown) that I believe originally ran Windows Home Server before being upgraded to every Windows Server iteration since. Microsoft Windows was the path of least resistance since most software was available for it and I mostly had Windows workstations anyway. The more recent operating systems also had the benefit of coming with Hyper-V as a virtualization platform. Though it doesn’t have some of the features I’d grown to love from VMware (like the ability to forward physical USB devices directly to a guest OS), it did the job. However since there were only four drive bays, and because Windows software RAID doesn’t expand gracefully when swapping in a larger disk, it was quickly showing its age with a meagre 1.2 TB storage spread across four 500GB drives. This was not sufficient capacity for my family’s digital photo collection, let alone our music collection, videos, or any other projects I might intend.

Long story short, I took the plunge and invested in a Synology DS1815+, a relatively new model with an 8-disk capacity, quad-core processor, 6GB of RAM (upgraded from 2GB) auto-expanding RAID file system and the option of two additional 5-disk expansion devices for a potential total of 18 disks. At this point the largest drives available are 6TB which means a theoretical maximum of 108TB of data.

I knew the features Synology offered but somehow it wasn’t until I began to use it at home and started looking for opportunities to use it more that I really started seeing the potential.

First Up, Photos.

Photo Station demo
Photos load fast and transitions are fluid.

Photos were the top priority for us. My wife takes a lot of pictures. Currently we are storing a little over 380,000 photos, taken over the course of the last 15 years plus some older ones that were scanned in from analog photographs. That said, if I were ever to lose the photos in a drive crash or other disaster, she might murder me. Until we had the Synology, out of paranoia she would store primary copies on her desktop, backup to the old server, and then copy again to a couple of NAS devices I had lying around. The problem was that no single location had enough capacity to store the entire photo library, so it had to be split among devices. It was becoming increasingly difficult to know what was stored where, or even where the most up-to-date repository was. This simply could not stand for a trained IT professional, but as they say “A builder’s home is never finished.”.

Anyway long story short, I loaded the whole photo library to the Synology and it spent a few days generating thumbnails in the background in order to more rapidly show images through the Photo Station interface. In the end it looks and performs great! I can even access all the photos and videos remotely from my phone, tablet or laptop. The iPhone utility also enables me to auto-upload photos, which is great for someone like me who never takes the time to copy the photos off of their phone. Photo Station can also act as a full-fledged website, complete with photo sharing, tagging, and commenting. And not everything needs to be shared. Folder availability will depend on user permissions and all folders and albums can be locked with a password.

Then Music

Like most people, my wife and I have amassed a collection of music — not quite as extensive as the photo collection, but significant enough that it would be beneficial to store it somewhere we could access easily. Synology has a solution for that. More than one, in fact. One is Media Server, which is a DLNA/UPnP server that streams both audio and video to compatible devices. Then there’s the iTunes server, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — it makes the entire music library available and accessible from inside iTunes on your desktop. Then, of course, there is the Audio Station.

Synology Audio Station
My family and I have eclectic tastes.

Again the music is accessible from anywhere (with the proper configuration). I sometimes stream music to my phone while I work, since somehow I’ve grown tired of the hundreds of songs on my iPhone. Audio Station can also stream music directly to AirPlay devices which is perfect since there are a handful of AppleTVs scattered throughout my home. Plugins are available to automatically search and display lyrics to the library.

Central Video Hub

Synology also has a streaming video solution — Media Server as mentioned above, and also the simply named Video Station. I spent a couple of weeks importing video from a large data set of old home DV tapes, over 120 Hours worth, and put them into the Synology Video folder. The system automatically scanned all the videos and generated thumbnails for easy identification. Lately I’ve been trying to introduce my kids to some classic Disney movies that I used to love at their age, but I don’t want them to continue to abuse discs the way kids do, so I imported a bunch and we’ve been enjoying streaming directly. You can see from the photo below that the system automatically recognizes films, then searches and displays the cover art and other information. Video Station also supports certain USB TV tuner cards which can effectively turn the unit into a DVR.

Video Station on DSM 5.1
Classic Disney is the best.

All of this software and more runs on DiskStation Manager or DSM. Other packages include a built-in AntiVirus, Download Station (which searches and downloads from a variety of Torrent and eMule sources), and hundreds more.

General File Storage

Of course on top of entertainment, the Synology can be used as a regular file server. Boring old documents and such. One of my favourite features is an app called Storage Analyzer, which you can schedule to run as often as you like. Not only does it give you a visual representation of the storage on the unit, but also what types of media, what users stored them and more.

Synology Storage Analyzer (DSM)
See at a glance how storage is allotted.

Sometimes when I’m copying data from an old drive I risk storing the same file twice in separate locations. Or in the case of our photos and videos, something gets mis-filed in the wrong month. The same Storage Analyzer automatically checks for duplicate files. From the window I can compare the files and delete the mis-filed one if necessary and saves me from wasting precious storage space.

Synology duplicate file detection
Easily identify duplicate files

What About Backups?

Synology has a great backup system already which utilizes Amazon’s Glacier service — with possibly the most intuitive interface I’ve encountered . If you can manage to navigate your way through Amazon’s sometimes labyrinthine AWS console, and sign up for Glacier, you can store backups there for around 1¢ per GB. So for 500GB you’d be charged $5 per month.

However, since my photos alone account for around 1.2TB of data, I had to get creative. Google, as always, never fails to disappoint, and I ran into Scott Hanselman’s blog which outlined for me how to deploy CrashPlan to the Synology for unlimited storage at around $6 USD a month.

NAS>DAS

I love the fact that the Synology DS1815+ is mostly autonomous, but that I can get my hands dirty when necessary. The fact that it has it’s own “brain” means that it doesn’t depend on any other device to work. Not so with Direct Attached Storage — if I wanted to run a full AV scan, I would have to wait until it finishes, and could not let my computer sleep, reboot or update for fear of having to start the scan over again. In the past I’ve enjoyed using Drobo DAS and NAS devices, but I was often frustrated by the lack of administrative control I had over it. Drobo has designed their hardware and software to be dead simple, and for that they’re incredibly great. But I’ve grown to need a higher level of control. Another problem I encountered with the Drobo units was a Volume size limit of 16TB — no such limitation exists on Synology.

So that’s the Synology DS1815+ at the core of my home office/homelab. Stay tuned for part 2 where I highlight the network equipment, and part 3 for the various client systems.

Filed Under: Homelab

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