Since making the How To: Setup a Garage LAN (tekrp.com) after a suggestion from a classmate in my A+ class, there has been much time for reflection on what the current goal is. This is actually normal and should be done frequently to assess the path you’re on, how things are going and if it might be best to make a few changes or just totally throw out the book and start over. There aren’t any ideas or feelings that there should be a refresh to what the goal is or even a rewrite, but there are areas that could be made different and other areas that could be made better.
The SBA’s (Small Business Administration) subsidiary SCORE, suggests a “pivot”. Top pivot means you change course or take what you have and try something else that would still use what you have. There aren’t any strong suggestions in my mind that there needs to be a pivot but there could be some adjustments made.
For example, instead of sitting around and dreaming about starting another “Garage LAN” but bigger and in a retail environment, the other aspects could be built now like, the website supporting website for the LAN. The name has already been chosen and reserved. There are enough enterprise servers here in my possession that there could be a real website made as a LAMP but with separate servers for the web, database and storage. There is a learning curve for SQL and JS for creating logins and profiles but that can’t be that hard. As far as the network goes, setting up VLAN’s, multiple firewalls, MSTP, bridging the gateway to the switch (Netgear Prosafe L2+) and setting up NAT 1:1 through one of the Meraki’s specifically for the game hosting and use the standard Netgear router for the home network. Establishing SSL’s isn’t complicated but there might be an advantage to setting all of this within a domain as well. The just means that instead of using Certbot for SSL’s a Domain Controller will have to be setup with Active Directory with Certificate Authority to attain the proper SSL’s. Luckily there are enough copies of Windows Server 2019 Essentials laying around (12) that it can be done while creating a forest. If this ends up being reality, then it could be done through one of the hypervisors to virtualize all the MS Server instances which would also make it easier to add more firewalls, just need to add more NIC’s to the hypervisors for more firewalls.
High availability failovers could come after all that is setup, clusters, fancy setups to build out redundancies, but because the resources are limited at this time, the RAID 5 of 32TB on the Type 1 hypervisor running VMWare 6.7 and powered by a Xeon Silver 4116 will just have to suffice. There were questions about this hypervisor having enough memory at 128GB but since there is another 1TB in the Dual Xeon Gold Type 1 hypervisor not doing anything, swapping it over won’t be an issue. There will just need to be a pencil eraser standing by just in case. (People from my class will get this inside joke).
To better focus on going forward, there had to be a reassessment made of the immediate surroundings and start the process of purging again. There isn’t much left, but the question really is, how much is being held onto that should be let go of to better focus on the future instead of living in what has been. Microsoft’s new AP they just announced gives a unique opportunity to reduce myself down even more which is good.
Reducing down has to happen for me to be able to focus, that is just how things work with me. For example, my schooling is 100% online, I’m a Senior and working on my Major classes for a Bachelors. My music collection of CD’s has been digitized now and on a thumb drive, DVD’s are available on Microsoft’s Movies & TV ap, Books from my bookshelf are all on an iPad, the file cabinet of legal documents and tax records and all my pictures have been scanned and on the thumb drive as well. Fancy tables and desks have been given away and now I use folding wooden banquet tables from 5′ to 8′ wide. After talking with some people, I’m currently down to one pot, one pan, two spatulas, 4 bowls, 4 small plates, and 4 sets of silverware. Nightstands have been exchanged for folding tables and the shelves all folding as well. Having 3 PC’s setup and one laptop, there is no reason to keep the decade’s worth of collected cables and adapters, the tools and troubleshooting gear will be kept though.
Already living a digital life as it is, the new Microsoft ap might just be an answer to tying all digital things together for me. To become more lightweight making it be easier for travel, especially in today’s world where if you want a good paying job then you have to go to it. Making these move(s) to new jobs to establish additional income on top of my already income for use in building the LAN is going to be crucial.
Selling the rest of the things will happen and determining the best course of action to turn the Jeep into a truck and travel trailer will be an interesting time. Maybe a toy hauler would be best to get what’s left of my household goods in to take to the next location where the job would be. Then it could be used to transport the PC’s, Chairs, ect. to conventions and festivals like Dreamhack and PAX. This would actually solve a lot of logistical questions with moving to the new location as there would be living quarters to live out of while getting established in the area. Seriously reducing stress to get relocating done as fast as possible and would allow for more time to look for land to purchase and build the LAN on.
There is no problem with any of this. A life has been lived for others and now it’s time to chase dreams again, maybe even leave a mark in the world that is positive and filled with so much darkness.
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