Home Lab Upgrades, Network Standardization

A quick update here for May 2015:

Yesterday I upgraded from a 24 Port NetGear GS724Tv3 Switch to a 48 Port Netgear GS748Tv3 switch. Along with the switch upgrade I completely re-cabled everything with new CAT6 cables. They are now color coded based on function for my new network design. I really like the idea of knowing what might be plugged into the other end just based on visual inspection, despite having all cables labeled at each end.

I’ve added a new LED lighting system to the rack. I normally use one fixed color at a time but for the video I had it cycling through for demonstration, otherwise it’s a bit too much like having a night club in the house. Replaced many power cables with shorter length cables 1ft / 3ft to reduce excess cable mess. Not everything needs to have a 6ft power cable!

Took me about 3 hours all said and done. My home lab needed a good cleaning anyway so it was a good opportunity to fix some things. The recent addition of NAS3 left me in a scramble for ports. Previously I had it temporarily running on a single link, yet it was my main VM storage. It is now setup properly in a LACP port channel.

Video above shows a quick tour of the changes.