My First Tiny Network

My First Tiny Network: Setting Up a Home Lab with Raspberry Pi, Firewalla Purple, and POE Switch

Welcome to our comprehensive guide for setting up your first tiny network, designed specifically for self-hosted environments and homelabs. This tutorial will walk you through the installation, configuration, and usage of a network that includes a Raspberry Pi 4B as a locally hosted website, Firewalla Purple as the gateway, and a POE managed switch.

Introduction

The challenge here is to create a functional, secure, and scalable mini-network for self-hosting services and websites. This network setup is perfect for those who want to learn network configuration, routing, and connectivity on a small scale. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to set up and maintain your very own tiny network.

Prerequisites

• Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB RAM), Firewalla Purple, POE managed switch
• Software: Raspberry Pi OS Lite (v32.x), Firewalla OS (latest stable version)
• Network Requirements: Dynamic IP or Static IP with a valid DNS entry
• Firewall Considerations: Allow traffic on necessary ports (HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, etc.)
• User Permissions: Access to SSH and terminal commands (root/sudo)

Installation & Setup

Raspberry Pi 4B

1. Download Raspberry Pi OS Lite: wget https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite_latest
2. Flash the image to an SD card using a tool like balenaEtcher
3. Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi, connect to a monitor and power it on
4. Configure SSH access: ssh pi@raspberrypi.local (default password: raspberry)
5. Update the system: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
6. Install Apache2 for web hosting: sudo apt-get install apache2 -y
7. Start and enable Apache2: systemctl start apache2; systemctl enable apache2
8. Verify the installation by opening a browser and navigating to the Raspberry Pi’s IP address (e.g., http://192.168.x.y)

Firewalla Purple

1. Follow the Firewalla Purple setup instructions to configure your device, and ensure it has a working internet connection.
2. Once connected, you can access the Firewalla dashboard by navigating to http://firewalla in your browser or by using the Firewalla app on your smartphone.

POE Switch

1. Connect all devices (Raspberry Pi and Firewalla) to the POE switch ports.
2. Power up the switch and ensure all connected devices are functioning properly.

Configuration

Configure your Raspberry Pi’s network settings in /etc/dhcpcd.conf:

interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.x.y/24
static routers=192.168.x.z
static domain_name_servers=8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

Replace x, y, and z with appropriate values for your network. Save and exit the file, then reboot the Raspberry Pi:

sudo reboot

Usage & Operations

• Common Operations: Monitoring, updating packages, and managing web content on the Raspberry Pi
• Monitoring: Use tools like top, df -h, and the Firewalla dashboard to monitor resource usage and network traffic.
• Backup and Recovery: Regularly backup critical data (e.g., website files) using tools like rsync or Duplicity
• Scaling Considerations: If more resources are needed, consider upgrading to a more powerful Raspberry Pi model or using multiple devices for load balancing and redundancy.

Troubleshooting

• Common Issues: Network connectivity problems, Apache2 errors, Firewalla malfunctions
• Debug Commands: journalctl -u apache2, tcpdump, ifconfig
• Log Analysis: Review logs in /var/log/syslog and /var/log/apache2/*

Conclusion

By following this guide, you’ve now successfully set up your first tiny network. This foundation will serve as a stepping stone for exploring more complex networking configurations in the future. For further learning, check out resources like the Raspberry Pi documentation and Firewalla’s user manual. Happy exploring!