This is the first post of many detailing the scripts I use to backup devices in my home lab. This post details a Palo Alto configuration backup API script. Eventually i’ll move to using Ansible but for now some simple scripts work nicely. Almost all the the backups in my lab are now automated. The script
Here is an overview of the Home networking lab setup. You might ask why even have a home lab these days? You can build a fairly grown up enterprise grade topology using virtualization? Agreed, especially if you have high spec workstation or choose a cloud provider for the compute. Why I built a home lab
I’ve just completed a project for my home network / lab to automate the graceful shutdown of my VMware Esxi hosts. Project Configure APC Powerchute Network Shutdown (PCNS) objective was to solve a problem with accounting for input power failure to my UPS. We rarely experience utility power outages but we had an incident recently
Keeping relevant in this industry can be challenging. With the DevOps, SDN, public cloud and insert acronym here revolutions, everything is moving so quickly consuming information can feel like drinking from a fire hose. A strategy of mine is to listen to industry related podcast’s both security and data networking. Podcasts are a great way
[UPDATE] My home lab now runs Palo Alto VM100 virtual firewalls with a Unifi Security Gateway. I’ll leave this post up for anyone who may be interested in my experiences working with VyOS[/UPDATE] I’ve just completed a project implementing VyOS routers into the home lab. In this post I’ll detail why and how I use VyOS. VyOS
I’ve spent many years working in operational roles supporting complex architectures. Almost everyone one of them had a high degree of Technical debt. Network architectures that have been poorly designed, do not scale well or too complicated to support without an armada of highly trained and skilled engineers. This picture I came across on twitter
Solarwinds posted something on twitter recently, a picture of a T-Shirt which had printed “I find your lack of backups disturbing”. Being a star wars fan myself this did make me chuckle. I don’t have a great deal of experience with storage other than providing connectivity for storage platforms to the network. Since a recent
One of the objectives of a recent home network redesign was to incorporate IP Surveillance cameras. I’ve always had external cameras at home, I like the assurance I get from 24 hour visibility of my property. It’s reassuring to access the surveillance setup remotely and check up on the house. My old setup was a stand alone