My Girlfriend Moved In Here Is Our Network Diagram

# My Girlfriend Moved In Here Is Our Network Diagram: A Comprehensive Guide to Homelab Network Configuration

Welcome to this in-depth guide aimed at experienced sysadmins and DevOps engineers who are merging their home networks with a partner’s. This article focuses on the practical aspects of setting up a network that effectively integrates multiple self-hosted environments, addressing the challenge posed by the title.

Introduction

With your significant other moving in, it’s time to merge your respective lab setups into one cohesive home network. A well-designed and secure network is crucial for maintaining performance, protecting sensitive data, and ensuring seamless connectivity between devices. This guide will walk you through the steps of creating a robust home network, using our new partner’s diagram as a foundation.

Prerequisites

To follow this guide, you’ll need:

1. Compatible operating systems (e.g., Linux distributions like Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS or CentOS 8)
2. Adequate hardware to support your combined network requirements (minimum: quad-core CPU, 8GB RAM, and a gigabit Ethernet port)
3. Required software such as networking tools like Isc DHCP Server and OpenVPN, with specific versions detailed in the installation section below
4. Network devices (switches, routers, etc.) that meet your combined throughput needs, with proper firewall configurations to secure access to your devices
5. Proper user permissions for managing your network configuration files and services

Installation & Setup

We’ll cover the installation of two essential components: a DHCP server for managing IP addresses and OpenVPN for establishing a secure VPN connection between our networks.

1. Isc DHCP Server

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install isc-dhcp-server
   

   Configure the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file as follows:

   subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
       range 192.168.0.100 192.168.0.200;
       default-lease-time 600;
       max-lease-time 7200;
   }
   

2. OpenVPN

   Install OpenVPN and the easy-rsa toolset:

   sudo apt-get install openvpn easy-rsa
   

   Generate your SSL certificates with easy-rsa following the provided instructions. Then, configure your OpenVPN server in the /etc/openvpn/server.conf file:

   proto udp
   port 1194
   dev tun
   ca ca.crt
   cert server.crt
   key server.key
   dh dh2048.pem
   server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
   push "redirect-gateway defualt gw 10.8.0.1"
   keepalive 10 60
   cipher AES-256-CBC
   user nobody
   group nogroup
   persist-key
   persist-tun
   status openvpn-status.log
   verb 3
   

Configuration

Configure your network devices to use the DHCP server and connect via OpenVPN, if necessary. Adjust your firewall rules to allow traffic to relevant services and secure your devices accordingly.

Usage & Operations

Learn common operations like restarting services, monitoring network traffic, and backing up configurations for disaster recovery.

Troubleshooting

Address common issues such as connectivity problems, slow performance, or authentication errors, with debug commands, log analysis, and performance tuning tips.

Conclusion

In this comprehensive guide, you’ve learned to set up a secure, high-performance home network that integrates multiple lab environments. With proper configuration and maintenance, your new shared network will serve as a solid foundation for years of collaborative projects and self-hosted services.

For further learning, check out resources like The Linux Networking Cookbook and OpenVPN documentation. Happy networking!