New House, New Lab

By William Donaldson on October 12, 2023 • ( Leave a comment )

Hello all,

It has been some time since I have been active on this website. I have recently moved to Littleton, Colorado, and started a new job (system administrator), both requiring a ton of extra hours to get everything started. With the move, I finally got an office with an actual door (amazing, I know). While the office still has tons of boxes that need to be unpacked on the storage side, the basic structure is done. The rest of the house has been in a complete renovation for the past 7 months or so, and it just finally finished. I will add pictures at a later point as there are still a few projects I need to complete.

Still need to get my master’s degree properly framed.

The cabinet to the right is filled with books and has an all-in-one PC installed for simulating users/website traffic/etc.; this device is hardlined as well.

Still need to hang up my artwork, cable management, etc.

I now have a new home lab which consists of a Dell PowerEdge T420 server that I am in the midst of upgrading (already dealt with adding fans, boot SSD, 48GB of RAM, GPU, etc.) and will be upgrading its sluggish single Xenon E5-2440 with dual E5-2470v2 Xeon CPUs paired with dual Noctua NH-D9DX coolers and replacing the aging RAID HDDs. At the moment, I am using the server, which is separated from my network using a UniFi EdgeRouter 6P, as a firewall with OPNsense and running a few VMs; both for learning purposes.

NAS, switch, EdgeRouter, Hue, Server (Web/File), laptop, etc.

I also managed to get my internet connection to my house to run a more direct and shorter path to my office, even though it is just 1200 Mbps cable (no fiber in my gated community yet). I have the internet running into a NETGEAR Nighthawk CM2000 cable modem in the utility closet, paired with the NETGEAR Nighthawk MR80 Mesh Wi-Fi system’s main node; this is all connected to a patch panel I rigged up before I replace everything with a small wall-mounted and enclosed server rack. The patch panel connects both my office and the ASUS RT-AX82U Wi-Fi router that I have in WAP/repeater mode, which then connects to the basement’s 65″ 4k 144hz TV and Xbox Series X.

ASUS RT-AX82U and Xbox Series X: hardwired

The network has its own electrical circuit. Still need to clean up the wires by making custom ones, but waiting for the rack enclosure.

In my office, I am still pricing out a large enclosed server rack, which I would like to place near the window to allow for some of the hot air to be exhausted outside. I am using a repurposed cabinet for the time being, which actually works quite well. The modem connects to a TP-Link 16-port switch, which then routes to a NETGEAR Nighthawk MR80 Mesh Wi-Fi system with a satellite on each of our 3 floors (currently not hardwired, but it is on my do list).

From there, I have a NAS that I use for secure storage, a Philips Hue console for my office’s lights, and an older all-in-one PC I use for testing and simulating user environments. I also have another laptop that can turn into a tablet; I got it during my bachelor’s degree, so it is pretty old, so I just have it directly accessing the EdgeRouter. I also have a NETGEAR 5-port switch on my main desk which connects my main PC and docking station for my work laptop. Everything in my office is hardwired, and the rest of the house just uses Wi-Fi at the moment, including multiple Alexa’s, two more smart TVs, and tons of other IoT devices. There is also a workstation on the top floor, which has its own WAP. Eventually, I will segment more of the home network to separate IoT devices, PCs, etc. using some subnetting and VLANS, but I will wait a bit until I finish the hardware side of things.

A massage chair makes a world of difference!

While this setup is just the beginning, it is coming along nicely. In the future, I will be adding a dedicated hardware firewall (my server uses too much power to run OPNsense 24/7, UPS, another managed 16-port switch, and re-cabling everything using some nice white and flat CAT6 I picked up recently while utilizing the patch panel I haven’t had a chance to install yet.

If I fail to find an ideal rack for my office, I might paint/stain the wood of the current cabinet to a darker color, add some exhaust fans to the back, move it so it is in front of the window, and then potentially craft a front panel cover. Replacing the hardware with new stainless steel items would be ideal, as I seem to keep adding different wood variations to my office which are starting to look rather odd.

The other cabinet (which needs sanding and painting/staining as well) contains an all-in-one PC and some of my books.

At the moment, access to my office is secured with an electronic LED lock, and I will be adding a camera that captures entry to ensure HIPAA compliance (will have a wall-mounted display to the left of my desk showing the front-office camera 24/7, along with access to the rest of the house’s future security/surveillance system). I have yet to do a home security/surveillance system like I usually do, but I am currently researching my options. Running cat6 will be rather difficult due to the house’s layout and building materials, but I will figure something out (might just need to run on the outside and color match/hide everything).

I also moved the massage chair in the office as it will not go with our basement’s future color scheme.

Main desk. Has monitors for my work laptop, personal PC, and the server that is in the cabinet.

I also just upgraded our living room a bit on the main floor, by purchasing a new couch and TV. I added a Sony 85″ X95k Google TV, which is just incredible. I originally got a new sound system (Samsung HW-Q750B) as well in an open-box deal, but it had connectivity issues with the rear speakers and subwoofer. So, I am just using a TCL system I had until I find something new that I like.