Upgrading the platform Last December I bought a mini PC, a Intel N100 CPU with 6 LAN ports. The other router did not really perform anymore and it was time to upgrade. Although I ordered the device without RAM and storage, the order was received with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB NVME SSD installed. Nice gift. I had ordered a 16GB DDR5 and another SSD. So what to do with the extra SSD? ...
Running applications on TrueNas Scale All of the application that run on the TrueNas Scale, run default unencrypted. When accessing it just from the same network and if you control access to that network, it is a reduced risk. Nevertheless I prefer the communication to and from services to be encrypted. It fits in the layered security and defense in depth strategies. Creating the PKI When creating the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) there are different solutions. Digicert has a nice series of white papers on what it is and how to use. However the scalable solution is a bit overkill for just one server with a load of services to secure. ...
Recently I tried to connect to my home using my trusted Wireguard solution, but it just did not work. Although the client claimed to be connected, I could not access anything on my Home Lab remotely. What is the issue? Why did this stop working? End of last year I replaced the router to a N100 CPU based mini pc, could it be due to migration of my config? Time to investigate…. And hopefully find a working solution. ...
Timeouts As storage for the applications I had chosen the same pool as in which the TrueNAS Jails were running. Just a simple set of HDD’s, running in a RAIDZ2. For most applications not a problem, it just works. However almost every time when I update an application the system complains of timeouts, and the application stays in “deploying” for ever. So the server or my Home Lab is running not as I like. Annoying to say the least. ...
Reasoning for upgrading After running my NAS on a Intel Xeon E3-1225 v5 for a couple of years it became clear that it was not fast enough anymore. So time to upgrade. But not sure with what, I could upgrade the CPU to a E3 v6, however the improvement would not be good enough for the price of such a CPU, even buying used. Next Steps What to do next? After watching a youtube by LTT, the solution was unexpected. Upgrading to AMD. The EPYC CPU’s seems powerful and used quite affordable. As a result more is needed then the CPU. Also another motherboard and memory are needed. A slightly larger operation. ...
In my post Road to CISSP I mentioned my use of a Fanless PC with a Intel Core i3, 8GB of RAM and 6 ethernet ports and a simple Wireless Access Point TP-Link AC1200. This post describes the next steps I took in this road lab setup. Purpose For me the purpose of this setup is two-fold. First I would like to have the same level of online security when I am not at home. The roles the server would have to fulfill: ...
Documenting Network Upgrade Creating a nice graph of the home lab What is next? Documenting Documenting, always the part most engineers loath. However it is proven to be a life saver. For me the home lab was becoming increasingly more complex, my better half, righteously, was more and more concerned that in case something happens to me or I’m not available for whatever reason, she did not know, where, how and what to do when it is relating to the devices at home. ...
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 The amount of the disks in the server is limited and I wanted to see if I could get a JBOD enclosure attached. I wanted to be able to increase the disks and it needed to be affordable. At the current prices enclosures are quite expensive. Thanks to this post, although quite old, twelve years to be precise, the concepts are still valid. ...
Part 1 Part 2 Part 4 At last the server is ready. Exchanged the mainboard with the SuperMicro board. Although it is now running “only” 16GB of RAM, it is ECC memory… So no more risk is broken ZFS pools. Replacing the board was quite easy. I also took the opportunity to add a nice Noctua CPU cooler to the kit. Just a matter of preparing the board with the CPU, Memory and CPU-cooler. remove the MSI board and re-locate one spacer. Reconnect the wires and done. Besides the benefit of ECC memory I also now have the access to IPMI, now I can control the fans and whatnot via a web-interface. Pretty interesting feature. ...
Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Over 30 years ago I started with “playing” with a Mac in the role of server. The first steps into what turned out to be part of my profession. All these time I have had administrator access to one or more server(s) running on the Apple platform. However the time has come to say goodbye to the MacOS and the Apple platform as a server platform. ...