Adding redundancy to my homelab network

Networking & Firewalls
1

I’m planning to expand services in my homelab network - to add a TrueNAS deployment with a bunch of VMs on top of Proxmox/Ceph. VMs will include a MongoDB 3-node replica set, Graylog, Grafana, Home Assistant, whole nine yards :slight_smile:

To survive an occasional firmware update for Unifi switches and a possible network hardware failure, I plan to add redundancy to the network prior to introducing services. For the simplicity let’s assume that the budget isn’t an issue at all.

Including two pictures below - the current state and the redundant state. At the moment I’m not sure how to configure PFsense for dual LAN NICs and TrueNAS for the same - appreciate any suggestions there.

For the simplicity, Unifi Protect install isn’t shown - NVR is connected to the 24-port switch with 10 cameras scattered across all 3 existing switches (aggregated throughout is around 55MBps)

Current state:

Current Unifi network
Current Unifi network981×656 27.5 KB

Redundant state + TrueNAS + Proxmox/Ceph cluster:

Redundant Unifi Network
Redundant Unifi Network981×656 39 KB

2

All I would say is avoid daisy-chaining the USW Enterprise 8 POE switches. I see in the redundant version the living room switch has redundancy. The closet switch could keep the original link from the USW Enterprise 24 POE main switch. Looks great tho!

3

If you are running new lines I would run a pair to each location / switch in a LACP LAGG, that will give you some redundancy too. Plus it’s a one time effort, it’s much more hassle if you need to do this later for some reason.