Enterprise network for the price of hardware.

just though i'd share one of my current projects, bringing all the functionality of a enterprise network to your home for the price of the hardware to put the software on.
I've learned alot in the past couple months in my new position and love the functionality and all the tools that i get to use that make that new position so easy, so i got to thinking, what if i could bring all that home with all the software being free!
the thing i want to do is to bring it all together with all the instructions on how to do it so anyone can use it.

the base system will be Linux Ubuntu server with VMware server on top of it, everything will be installed into individual virtual machines. this allows you to control how much of the physical machines resources you give to each VM based on were the most load is at.

the virtual machines will be:

PFSense: this is a physical firewall lots of options to play with, will require two NIC cards ( one for incoming traffic one for out bound)

FOG Server: this is a cloning program but i use it as a backup. functions over LAN but only works with pc's that can boot from Ethernet. also acts as a DHCP server. can also run remotely with out ever entering the O/S: antivirus, HDD wipe, Memtest and much more.

Free NAS: one i just started working with, Networked attached storage, easy backups

all in all this system would give you network storage, better security with more functionality and a easy deployment back up system that not only back ups your files but does a complete image of the your hard drive.
the project is still in its infancy, i still need to get some hardware to run it on.

thats all for now, more updates to come.

huh ?

I want to know more about it.

Has my attention

OOOOO Nice!!! Can't wait for more updates!

That's pretty cool

update,
got some gear for free, i'm amazed on the price of servers on ebay right now, but some of this stuff came from my cousin's work for free!



top shelf: KVM switch, 2- 350VA UPS
middle shelf: 2- 10/100base-t 24 port switches, NAS server (p4 3.4ghz, 2GB ram, to many HDD to count.)
Bottom shelf: IBM x-series 345, duel Xeon @ 2.4GHZ, 1GB ram,2 - SCSI 35GB HDD

found a quad opteron server filled with duel cores at 2.6GHZ and 16GB of ram with redundant PSU for $180 on ebay that i may nab as well.

added some more


top: 16" monitor, KVM
2nd shelf: 5-port gigabit switch, 8-port gigabit switch, 24-port 10/100 3com switch, p4 server with 2gb ram running pfsense
bottom shelf: duel opteron server (4gb ram 3- 2TB HDD in Z-RAID) running FREENAS, Duel quad core Xeon server 1u 8g ram running VMWARE ESXi (DNS, FOG, monitoring tools), Duel Xeon Server 2u 8gb ram running windows XP (game server)

total expense so far: $437.43
and it heats my room since my parents wont turn the heat on.

Nice!!

I was just wondering.. What is all of that for? What do you plan on doing with it?

take over the world?

Ok I will start at the 2nd shelf of the cart.
The black server will be acting as a super router (similar to a Linksys router but with more features, power and security) this is where all my Wan and Lan connections meet. The reason behind is so I can better secure my home network, and set up VPN’s to the rest of my family’s homes so I can perform maintenance on their pc and help them if they need it without leaving my chair and using up $40 in gas.

On the bottom shelf that top server is my NAS or Network attached storage. This carries a duplicate copy of my HDD and a windows backup for all the pcs in the house. I also use this one to store media files and programs so I don’t use up space on my own pc. And compared to a store bought this thing cost me a total of $120 which includes the hard drives. Compared to $170 for the cheapest NAS at microcenter and that doesn’t even have a redundant array of drives.

Next box down is a HP proliant DL140, this is a virtualization server, meaning I run multiple virtual machines on it at once. This thing I use for development and testing as well as it runs my DNS server and a few others.

Bottom machines is one I got for free, this is the only windows machine in the bunch (all others are linux based.) this machine is used solely for game servers and teamspeak.

All though my primary focus when I started this has changed a bit, I’m still going to have instructions on how to set this up so you to can have control of your network and others from your pc

nice to see rack mount gear. You should get some rails and tighten up the cab.
http://www.rackmounts.com/Raxxess-RKRL-RX1131.html

i'm just going to get a full 18U rack, this stand i have it on right now is not really taking well to all the weight, about 250lbs

i'm bringing this back from the dead.

i'm getting away from those power hungry servers that i have for something a bit more energy efficient. my virtual server is a tiny i3 system running Xenserver. this system only pulls 50 watts under normal use, much better then the 250 watt system at idle!
i currently have 3 virtual machines running, Web server which using the LAMP stack, a Mail Server which is running Zimbra, and a VOIP system which is running Mumble and OpenFire.
i'll have more later.