I went through a lot of articles and finalised the following setup for my VMware HomeLab
Being a vExpert has its perks of trying out all the VMware products and various other tools that come in for free. Where do we run them? In out HomeLab
Goals I wanted to Achieve:
- VPN server to access my home server from anywhere
- Hardware that would support dynamic upgrade in the future
- Cloud file share to host my data and ability to share the files with anyone
- RDP access to any 1 Windows box, connect to this if VPN fails
- A print Server / Home Nas as a local filestore
- Keep it under the budget of 75000 INR
VPN Server Setup
I had 2 raspberry pi’s lying around ( 3b+ & a 2B). Made use of them
Model 3B+ used as a print server (Cups) + Cloud File Share (NextCloud)
Constraints:
- Running with a dynamic IP is the first hurdle I have to cross. I Have a domain hosted with GoDaddy
- License for the vSphere environment and Windows Server
- I used Cloudflare as my provider (free account) and used a custom script in my Pi to update the IP address to Cloudflare account.
Steps to be performed
- Create a DNS entry in Cloudflare
- Obtain API Key from Cloudflare
- Create a script in Raspberry Pi to get your public IP
- Push your IP to Cloudflare
- Run a cronjob to repeat the process
This made my HomeLab accessible over the internet
Here is the article I followed
I created an individual DNS entry for VPN, RDP and FileShare. Port Mapping and forwarding was easier this way.
Few articles to Follow:
- VPN Setup
- Hardware selection for ESXi Compute
- Print and Cloud FileShare
- Storage considerations