Adventures in Home Labing, part 2: The Rack, rack cases and mounting it all.

In the previous post, I described how I got into home Labing, my start on old desktop hardware, using open source tools and software to it all. Well, this post will a evolution of that phase, with the addition of a server rack, rack mount cases and rack mounted equipment. Still the same hardware, mind you, just now in a proper rack setting.

The adventure in proper "home labing" continues with the introduction of "The Rack". The Rack was the to be the central location for all core networking, services and IT, in general. But now, with a Dell PowerConnect 2724 Gigbit switch and "proper" rack mountable case for the "Server". Now when I say "server" in quotes like that, it basically means... I put a computer that serves up services in a rack mount cases... That thing at the bottom, that's a "Server" with a Dell Optiplex 32bit Pfsense box running on top.

Now, as far as what that "server" was running, I honestly don't remember. Most likely it was Proxmox, with a few VM, like Zentyal, perhaps a samba file server, I don't remember at this point in time. I do remember that it was the most powerful system I'd built up to that time. It had a rocking Core i7 960, 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM and a HDD I don't remember... It was a baller or a machine.... Course, my current prod servers dwarf that in all aspects, but I did spend quite a bit more on those... XD...

All and all, this was the true start of my production ready home lab.... Little did I know what I was in store for... Speaking of which... Next up (a little taste), my first true introduction to enterprise grade gear... A.K.A... The space heater...