My Homelab currently consists of 3 Mini PC’s and will eventually be put in a 10" rack
They are all just plugged into the router my ISP provided, I’d like to get a new router that runs open-source software and create a new network from it. I have no idea where to begin.
What hardware would you recommend?
Bonus: If possible I’d like to in the future attach a sim card to my network as a backup for the occasion that the ISP connection drops. (just a nice to have)
Opnsense on basically anything. That’s what I’d recommend as a platform, so see if they have recommended hardware for cell network support.
Or if you’re okay with commercial products, cradlepoint makes good cell network hardware. But you should still have a separate firewall/router and just use the cradlepoint as a modem.
Yeah. Would be my recommendation, too. For the size of the lab a Zimba seems a good choice if something new is what OP wants, otherwise a MiniPC.
I’m running it virtualized in proxmox, mostly for the challenge. And boy was it a challenge. Runs great now though!
I don’t really recommend virtualizing network infrastructure. If you break proxmox, you will probably lose Internet access entirely.
Oh you do and I have.
My network actually ran better when my OpnSense was virtualized on a Proxmox server running atop a Dell Optiplex 790 MT from like 2013, than it is currently on a bare metal Sophos SG-135v2.
But that is because the sophos has 8 ports. And all 8 are a separate interface, so to use them as a switch requires bridging 7 of the 8.
And that slows things down tremendously. I really just need an 8 port switch in there, I guess.
The upshot is, the sophos came with rack mounts.