A L3 switch routes faster than a separate router with a firewall, but I guess you don’t have the firewall functionality. So if you are in need of speed regarding latency and throughput but don’t need traffic filtering, a L3 switch would be a good solution.
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Hey, I know that it’s been awhile since I’ve posted in this thread, but I ran into an odd problem due to what’s likely a misconfigured PFSense. So I noticed that my HomeLab would loose connectivity at seemingly random intervals. What I discovered in my investigation, however, is that my HomeLab’s MAC address would appear in my PFSense’s ARP table with a lease expiry showing up. However, I never turned on the DHCP server for that interface because I want the HomeLab to use a static IP. So, I theorized that every time the lease would expire is when my HomeLab would lose connectivity. As a workaround, I turned on the DHCP server and configured the DHCP server to assign a static IP to my HomeLab via its MAC address. I would still rather disable the DHCP server and give the HomeLab a true static IP, so how should I configure PFSense to do this properly?
If you have a static IP for WAN you would simply set that IP to the wan.
Oh. My homelab is connected to a LAN interface behind NAT.
If I were to buy a layer three switch, Switch Pro Max 16 PoE - Ubiquiti Store; and put it in in my network rack, should I connect it to my Fiber jack and my PFSense appliance to it; or should I connect the PFSense appliance to the WAN?
Also, you guys may be able to help me with another conundrum. At work, we use Cisco routing equipment and switches, so I would like to get some of those so that I can use my HomeLab as yet another productivity hack at work. The problem is that Cisco switches are usually loud and expensive: not great for a HomeLab that exists in a small space (~750 sqft). Anyone have any recommendations here?
I also need to figure out how to incorporate a K8s cluster in ye old HomeLab, and I think I know for what I can use one of those. I was thinking of using some old RPIs as the nodes. They’re poop hardware because they are old: Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, but I think they can perform the job simply because I am not going to be able to saturate them as a single user.
Technically both approaches would work. Since you specifically are talking about a L3 switch, I would want to avoid unwanted switch-routing from your ISP connection to any other internal network and therefore connect the pfSense WAN port to your ISP equipment and the pfSENSE LAN port to the L3 switch. I assume you want the switch to do the internal routing and not the pfSense.
I have zero personal experience with this but a friend is using Cisco equipment for switch–routing. He has a dedicated room for the equipment because it is loud. You can buy older equipment at a fair price, but you also have to think about licenses you need to run it, if you cannot get hands on licenses for free. Also think about power consumption of the Cisco equipment, which might be crazy if you go for 10G switches. My take-away from the discussion with my friend was that Cisco equipment is not the best choice for my network. They guy is a Cisco fiend and seriously loves to configure those. That’s not me. I use Unifi switches.
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