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9
Caddyfile
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9
Caddyfile
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
|
|||||||
|
{
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||||||
|
default_sni web
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
https:// {
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||||||
|
tls /tls/tls.crt /tls/tls.key
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||||||
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root * /srv
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||||||
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file_server
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
16
Dockerfile
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16
Dockerfile
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
|
|||||||
|
# Package versions
|
||||||
|
ARG HUGO_VERSION="0.152.2"
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||||||
|
ARG CADDY_VERSION="2.10.2"
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||||||
|
|
||||||
|
# Stage 1: Build
|
||||||
|
FROM core.harbor.brds.ca/d-b.ca/hugo-builder:${HUGO_VERSION} AS builder
|
||||||
|
WORKDIR /project
|
||||||
|
COPY . .
|
||||||
|
RUN hugo --minify build
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
# Stage 2: Package
|
||||||
|
FROM docker.io/caddy:${CADDY_VERSION}
|
||||||
|
COPY Caddyfile /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
|
||||||
|
COPY --from=builder /project/public /srv
|
||||||
|
# tls.crt and tls.key should be mounted here at runtime.
|
||||||
|
VOLUME /tls
|
||||||
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
|
|||||||
# web
|
# Drew Bowering's Website
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
My personal website at https://www.d-b.ca/
|
My personal website at [https://www.d-b.ca/](https://www.d-b.ca/)
|
||||||
|
|||||||
@@ -16,13 +16,13 @@ title = "Drew Bowering"
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||
[params.author]
|
[params.author]
|
||||||
name = "Drew Bowering"
|
name = "Drew Bowering"
|
||||||
# email = "drew@d-b.ca"
|
email = "drew@d-b.ca"
|
||||||
image = "img/DrewBowering.jpg"
|
image = "img/DrewBowering.jpg"
|
||||||
# imageQuality = 96
|
# imageQuality = 96
|
||||||
headline = "IT Architect, Developer, Canoeist, Tubist"
|
headline = "IT Architect, Developer, Canoeist, Tubist"
|
||||||
# bio = "A little bit about me"
|
# bio = "A little bit about me"
|
||||||
links = [
|
links = [
|
||||||
# { email = "mailto:hello@your_domain.com" },
|
{ email = "mailto:drew@d-b.ca" },
|
||||||
# { link = "https://link-to-some-website.com/" },
|
# { link = "https://link-to-some-website.com/" },
|
||||||
# { amazon = "https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/wishlist-id" },
|
# { amazon = "https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/wishlist-id" },
|
||||||
# { apple = "https://www.apple.com" },
|
# { apple = "https://www.apple.com" },
|
||||||
|
|||||||
@@ -67,3 +67,7 @@
|
|||||||
# name = "Categories"
|
# name = "Categories"
|
||||||
# pageRef = "categories"
|
# pageRef = "categories"
|
||||||
# weight = 20
|
# weight = 20
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[[footer]]
|
||||||
|
name = "Privacy"
|
||||||
|
url = "https://comment.d-b.ca/web/privacy.html"
|
||||||
|
|||||||
@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ disableTextInHeader = false
|
|||||||
defaultBackgroundImage = "img/BG_Jasper.jpg" # used as default for background images
|
defaultBackgroundImage = "img/BG_Jasper.jpg" # used as default for background images
|
||||||
# defaultFeaturedImage = "IMAGE.jpg" # used as default for featured images in all articles
|
# defaultFeaturedImage = "IMAGE.jpg" # used as default for featured images in all articles
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
# highlightCurrentMenuArea = true
|
highlightCurrentMenuArea = true
|
||||||
# smartTOC = true
|
smartTOC = true
|
||||||
# smartTOCHideUnfocusedChildren = true
|
smartTOCHideUnfocusedChildren = false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
giteaDefaultServer = "https://git.fsfe.org"
|
giteaDefaultServer = "https://git.brds.ca"
|
||||||
forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
[header]
|
[header]
|
||||||
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
|||||||
[homepage]
|
[homepage]
|
||||||
layout = "background" # valid options: page, profile, hero, card, background, custom
|
layout = "background" # valid options: page, profile, hero, card, background, custom
|
||||||
#homepageImage = "IMAGE.jpg" # used in: hero, and card
|
#homepageImage = "IMAGE.jpg" # used in: hero, and card
|
||||||
showRecent = false
|
showRecent = true
|
||||||
showRecentItems = 5
|
showRecentItems = 5
|
||||||
showMoreLink = false
|
showMoreLink = false
|
||||||
showMoreLinkDest = "/posts/"
|
showMoreLinkDest = "/posts/"
|
||||||
@@ -56,12 +56,13 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
|||||||
showDate = true
|
showDate = true
|
||||||
showViews = false
|
showViews = false
|
||||||
showLikes = false
|
showLikes = false
|
||||||
|
showComments = true
|
||||||
showDateOnlyInArticle = false
|
showDateOnlyInArticle = false
|
||||||
showDateUpdated = false
|
showDateUpdated = false
|
||||||
showAuthor = true
|
showAuthor = true
|
||||||
# showAuthorBottom = false
|
# showAuthorBottom = false
|
||||||
showHero = false
|
showHero = true
|
||||||
# heroStyle = "basic" # valid options: basic, big, background, thumbAndBackground
|
heroStyle = "background" # valid options: basic, big, background, thumbAndBackground
|
||||||
layoutBackgroundBlur = true # only used when heroStyle equals background or thumbAndBackground
|
layoutBackgroundBlur = true # only used when heroStyle equals background or thumbAndBackground
|
||||||
layoutBackgroundHeaderSpace = true # only used when heroStyle equals background
|
layoutBackgroundHeaderSpace = true # only used when heroStyle equals background
|
||||||
showBreadcrumbs = false
|
showBreadcrumbs = false
|
||||||
@@ -74,7 +75,7 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
|||||||
showPagination = true
|
showPagination = true
|
||||||
invertPagination = false
|
invertPagination = false
|
||||||
showReadingTime = true
|
showReadingTime = true
|
||||||
showTableOfContents = false
|
showTableOfContents = true
|
||||||
# showRelatedContent = false
|
# showRelatedContent = false
|
||||||
# relatedContentLimit = 3
|
# relatedContentLimit = 3
|
||||||
showTaxonomies = false
|
showTaxonomies = false
|
||||||
@@ -84,12 +85,12 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
|||||||
showZenMode = false
|
showZenMode = false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
[list]
|
[list]
|
||||||
showHero = false
|
showHero = true
|
||||||
# heroStyle = "background" # valid options: basic, big, background, thumbAndBackground
|
heroStyle = "background" # valid options: basic, big, background, thumbAndBackground
|
||||||
layoutBackgroundBlur = true # only used when heroStyle equals background or thumbAndBackground
|
layoutBackgroundBlur = true # only used when heroStyle equals background or thumbAndBackground
|
||||||
layoutBackgroundHeaderSpace = true # only used when heroStyle equals background
|
layoutBackgroundHeaderSpace = true # only used when heroStyle equals background
|
||||||
showBreadcrumbs = false
|
showBreadcrumbs = false
|
||||||
showSummary = false
|
showSummary = true
|
||||||
showViews = false
|
showViews = false
|
||||||
showLikes = false
|
showLikes = false
|
||||||
showTableOfContents = false
|
showTableOfContents = false
|
||||||
@@ -156,7 +157,7 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
|||||||
# globalWidgetPosition = "Right"
|
# globalWidgetPosition = "Right"
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
[verification]
|
[verification]
|
||||||
# google = ""
|
google = "w3v6pJQgijQRPkhgVV6SIOJEPIpAR9ase26ri4tPkS8"
|
||||||
# bing = ""
|
# bing = ""
|
||||||
# pinterest = ""
|
# pinterest = ""
|
||||||
# yandex = ""
|
# yandex = ""
|
||||||
@@ -164,4 +165,10 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||
[rssnext]
|
[rssnext]
|
||||||
# feedId = ""
|
# feedId = ""
|
||||||
# userId = ""
|
# userId = ""
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[remark42]
|
||||||
|
enabled = true
|
||||||
|
host = "https://comment.d-b.ca"
|
||||||
|
site = "d-b.ca"
|
||||||
|
locale = "en"
|
||||||
|
|||||||
BIN
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/featured.jpg
Executable file
BIN
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/featured.jpg
Executable file
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After Width: | Height: | Size: 6.1 MiB |
4
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/first_net.svg
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4
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/first_net.svg
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File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long
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After Width: | Height: | Size: 349 KiB |
4
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/first_new_net.svg
Normal file
4
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/first_new_net.svg
Normal file
File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long
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After Width: | Height: | Size: 307 KiB |
241
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/index.md
Normal file
241
content/posts/new-homenet-architecture/index.md
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,241 @@
|
|||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: "New Home Network Architecture"
|
||||||
|
date: "2025-11-20T07:30:00-07:00"
|
||||||
|
description: "The architecture of my current home network"
|
||||||
|
summary: "I decided to rearchitect my home network, and this is the result."
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Almost two years ago, I decided to undertake another major overhaul of my home
|
||||||
|
network. It is the latest step in the long evolution of my personal systems,
|
||||||
|
and is now in a state that I'm fairly happy with.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## History
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I've been networking my computers together for decades. The first example that
|
||||||
|
could reasonably be called a network was around 1996, where I connected my
|
||||||
|
Amiga 1200 and Amiga 3000T together over a null-modem serial cable and ran IP
|
||||||
|
between them. I eventually got some Ethernet hardware and ran mostly simple
|
||||||
|
flat networks for a while.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Orthodoxy
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
After working professionally designing and building networks and IT systems, I
|
||||||
|
had learned a few rules. Networks in particular always consisted of several
|
||||||
|
key elements:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- **Three Tiers**. You needed Core, Distribution, and Access switches. This
|
||||||
|
helps to scale the network and keep things well balanced.
|
||||||
|
- **VLANs**. Every packet needs to go through a VLAN. VLANs keep the network
|
||||||
|
segregated for security, and allow for smaller broadcast domains.
|
||||||
|
- **Firewalls**. The network has to protect the vulnerable endpoints by
|
||||||
|
blocking packets that aren't permitted by policy.
|
||||||
|
- **Virtualization**. Virtualize everything to decouple the systems from the
|
||||||
|
underlying infrastructure, keeping them portable.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Naturally, I took these ideas home and built my personal networks accordingly.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Something's not right
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Eventually, I had built myself a network that looked something like the
|
||||||
|
diagram below. I kept to the principles I was familiar with, and this was the
|
||||||
|
result.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I had VLANs for everything coming from the VM hosts to the physical switches.
|
||||||
|
Traffic would loop through the tiers (in, out, and back in), routing
|
||||||
|
everything like it's supposed to, but this redundancy introduced unecessary
|
||||||
|
complexity. I had more VMs acting as routers than I had VMs doing productive
|
||||||
|
activity.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When I decided that I would like to start using IPv6 in my network, everything
|
||||||
|
doubled. I kept the IPv4 and IPv6 traffic on separate VLANs, and had separate
|
||||||
|
routers for everything, doubling what's in that diagram. It didn't take me
|
||||||
|
long to notice that this wasn't working out, and started to think about a new
|
||||||
|
approach.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## New Design
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When I started to think about what I really needed in my home network, I
|
||||||
|
came up with several principles:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- **IPv6 First**. Using IPv6 makes so many things simpler. No NAT. Subnets
|
||||||
|
don't run out of addresses. Link-local addressing that works, and is useful.
|
||||||
|
No DHCP. *No NAT!*
|
||||||
|
- **Zero Trust**. I'm a fan of zero-trust architectures. When you place the
|
||||||
|
responsibility for security on the network, it tends to get complicated. You
|
||||||
|
make physical design choices around isolating packets on the right segments
|
||||||
|
and getting them to the right firewalls, where the network should focus on
|
||||||
|
moving traffic through it as quickly as possible. This principle of simply
|
||||||
|
getting packets to where they need to be is how the Internet scales so well.
|
||||||
|
We can keep physical LANs simple and efficient like this, and leave the
|
||||||
|
security concerns to the endpoints. The endpoints need to be secure anyways,
|
||||||
|
and we now have more modern and effective tools to help us.
|
||||||
|
- **Network Fabric**. Rather than redoing the same 3-tier model I was used to,
|
||||||
|
I wanted to do something more efficient. I was inspired by an article
|
||||||
|
written at Facebook about their
|
||||||
|
["data center fabric"](https://engineering.fb.com/2014/11/14/production-engineering/introducing-data-center-fabric-the-next-generation-facebook-data-center-network/)
|
||||||
|
architecture. This is obviously much larger than what anyone needs in a home
|
||||||
|
network, but I thought that these were good ideas that I could use.
|
||||||
|
- **Routing Protocols**. I've traditionally used [OSPF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Shortest_Path_First)
|
||||||
|
in the networks I've operated. When I decided to implement IPv6 in the
|
||||||
|
network, I was using [Quagga](https://www.nongnu.org/quagga/) for the
|
||||||
|
routing software. It doesn't support OSPF areas in OSPFv3 for IPv6, which
|
||||||
|
made me reconsider. I settled on [IS-IS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS-IS),
|
||||||
|
as it supports both IPv4 and IPv6 at the same time, and could do everything
|
||||||
|
that I needed it to do.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Refresh, Version 1
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
My first refreshed network design looked like this:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I did away with all of the traditional complexity, and established two network
|
||||||
|
"fabrics" that all of the traffic would pass through. The fabrics do not
|
||||||
|
connect directly at layer 2, each side is separate. Each fabric is a single
|
||||||
|
flat network, there are no VLANs.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
These were the key design decisions:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- **Routing over switching**. Every physical device connecting into the fabric
|
||||||
|
switches would conform to a basic set of requirements:
|
||||||
|
1. It will act as a router, running IS-IS to communicate with every other
|
||||||
|
device on the fabric switches.
|
||||||
|
2. Each endpoint uses a single loopback address as its network identity. It
|
||||||
|
advertises this address to the other nodes, as well as the subnets that
|
||||||
|
it can route to.
|
||||||
|
3. Routes are advertised over both fabrics, enabling [ECMP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-cost_multi-path_routing)
|
||||||
|
for higher availability and bandwidth.
|
||||||
|
- **IPv6 first**. The access routers and Wifi routers only had IPv6 subnets
|
||||||
|
available for client devices. This allowed me to do away with DHCP services
|
||||||
|
on the network, only using [SLAAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_address#Stateless_address_autoconfiguration_(SLAAC)).
|
||||||
|
Access to IPv4-only resources was through the use of
|
||||||
|
[DNS64 and the NAT64 gateway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_transition_mechanism#NAT64).
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Next Generation
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
At this point, I was fairly happy with the result. The network was efficient
|
||||||
|
and much easier to maintain. It was faster, thanks to ECMP and having fewer
|
||||||
|
hops. As I was using it however, I started to think about the next set of
|
||||||
|
improvements.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- **Single point routers**. I had only single devices acting as my edge,
|
||||||
|
access, and Wifi routers. I wanted some redundancy in case one failed, and
|
||||||
|
to make maintenance more transparent with the ability to fail over.
|
||||||
|
- **Virtual Machines**. Most of my workloads were set up as virtual machines.
|
||||||
|
I wanted to migrate to [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/) as everything
|
||||||
|
I was running could be run there, along with many other benefits.
|
||||||
|
- **NAT64**. Here I was running IPv6 to get away from needing NAT, but I still
|
||||||
|
needed NAT. This setup was mostly working fine, but there were a few small
|
||||||
|
irritations:
|
||||||
|
- There are not very many NAT64 implementations. I was using [JooL](https://jool.mx/);
|
||||||
|
it's a non-standard Linux kernel module, and it's not really actively
|
||||||
|
developed anymore.
|
||||||
|
- The path from the NAT64 gateway out the Edge router is still IPv4, and I
|
||||||
|
still need to do NAT for IPv4 at the edge.
|
||||||
|
- Applications connecting directly to an IPv4 address weren't able to do so.
|
||||||
|
I could use [464XLAT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_transition_mechanism#464XLAT)
|
||||||
|
on endpoints that supported it, but it's yet another thing to set up.
|
||||||
|
- There's the occasional device that still doesn't support IPv6, or doesn't
|
||||||
|
support it properly.
|
||||||
|
- **BGP**. I was purely using IS-IS throughout the network, but Kubernetes
|
||||||
|
CNIs that work on bare metal systems like mine rely on BGP to advertise
|
||||||
|
routes into the network. I'd have to work out how to incorporate this.
|
||||||
|
- **Easier WiFi**. I was using a WiFi router running [OpenWRT](https://openwrt.org/),
|
||||||
|
connecting to both fabrics and running IS-IS just like everything else.
|
||||||
|
OpenWRT is great, but it is challenging to keep devices up-to-date.
|
||||||
|
- **Load Balancing**. I didn't have any solution for establishing network
|
||||||
|
load balancing for scale and availability.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Refresh, Version 2
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Incorporating the improvements I wanted to make, here is the resulting network
|
||||||
|
architecture:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The key changes are:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- **Redundant Routers**. I doubled up the edge and access routers. They can
|
||||||
|
effectively divide the load and fail over when needed.
|
||||||
|
- **Anycast for Load Balancing**. I've standardized on making use of
|
||||||
|
[Anycast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anycast) addressing for creating
|
||||||
|
load balanced and redundant network services. I'm using this a few ways:
|
||||||
|
- The API server for my Kubernetes cluster is on an anycast address. This
|
||||||
|
address is advertised from the three control plane nodes.
|
||||||
|
- Kubernetes `LoadBalancer` type services allocate an address from a pool
|
||||||
|
and advertise it out from any node that can accept traffic for the
|
||||||
|
service.
|
||||||
|
- My recursive DNS servers providing DNS lookups for the network are on two
|
||||||
|
anycast addresses. Each edge router runs an instance and advertises one of
|
||||||
|
the addresses; this is so I can "bootstrap" the network from the edge
|
||||||
|
routers. I also run the DNS service under Kubernetes, which advertises the
|
||||||
|
same anycast addresses using ordinary `LoadBalancer` services.
|
||||||
|
- **IS-IS and BGP**. I took a few passes at getting this right. I first tried
|
||||||
|
to move fully from IS-IS to BGP only. This meant setting up peering
|
||||||
|
using IPv6 link local addresses, which worked, but it was a bit flaky under
|
||||||
|
[FRR](https://frrouting.org/). I settled on using IS-IS on the fabric
|
||||||
|
interfaces only to exchange the IPv6 loopback addresses of each node. I use
|
||||||
|
the globally routable loopback addresses for the BGP peering, which is much
|
||||||
|
easier in practice. All of the other routes (access subnets, Kubernetes
|
||||||
|
networks, anycast addresses, defaults from the edge routers) are exchanged
|
||||||
|
using BGP.
|
||||||
|
- **No NAT64**. I decided to do away with NAT64 and provide dual-stack
|
||||||
|
connectivity to the access networks. I set up [Kea](https://www.isc.org/kea/)
|
||||||
|
as a cluster on the two access routers, which is thankfully rather low
|
||||||
|
maintenance.
|
||||||
|
- **BGP Extended-Nexthop**. An added bonus to using BGP the way that I am is
|
||||||
|
that I could make use of the [BGP extended-nexthop](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8950)
|
||||||
|
capability. The old network with only IS-IS still required me to define IPv4
|
||||||
|
subnets on the switching fabrics, nodes used IPv4 addresses as the next hop
|
||||||
|
gateway addresses for IPv4 routes. With the extended-nexthop capability in
|
||||||
|
BGP, it uses the IPv6 link-local addresses for the next hop under both IPv4
|
||||||
|
and IPv6.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### High Availability
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To migrate from single routers to redundant pairs, I needed to figure out a
|
||||||
|
few things.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
#### Default Routes
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
With a single edge router, this was easy. With two, it's a bit of a puzzle. My
|
||||||
|
ISP doesn't actually provide fully routed IPv6 connectivity with my class of
|
||||||
|
service. I do get static IPv4 addresses, however. I've been using Hurricane
|
||||||
|
Electric's [tunnel broker](https://tunnelbroker.net/) service to get a routed
|
||||||
|
`/48` IPv6 subnet.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
With a pair of edge routers, I've set them up with four static IPv4 addresses
|
||||||
|
on their Internet-facing interfaces. Each router gets one address. I then have
|
||||||
|
two [VRRP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Router_Redundancy_Protocol)
|
||||||
|
interfaces, one that I use to terminate the IPv6 tunnel, and the other I use
|
||||||
|
for all IPv4 traffic. When both routers are up and running, one will have the
|
||||||
|
IPv6 tunnel and the other will have the IPv4 interface. Each one advertises a
|
||||||
|
default route for the address family it's taking care of. If one goes down,
|
||||||
|
the interface will fail over and everything reconverges rather quickly. IPv6
|
||||||
|
connections are unaffected, as the routing is stateless and traffic continues
|
||||||
|
to flow normally. IPv4 connections may get interrupted as the NAT state is
|
||||||
|
lost.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
#### Access Routers
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The interfaces facing the client machines provide connectivity for both IPv4
|
||||||
|
and IPv6.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The IPv6 configuration is much simpler. FRR can be configured to send router
|
||||||
|
advertisements to the subnets. Both routers are configured to advertise their
|
||||||
|
presence, as well as the subnet prefixes and DNS information. Client machines
|
||||||
|
will pick these up, and then have both routers as their default gateways.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
While IPv6 configuration is seamless, IPv4 relies on VRRP to share a `".1"`
|
||||||
|
default gateway address, which, though functional, lacks the elegance of
|
||||||
|
IPv6's stateless design.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## It Works
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
After I got this all in place, it was finally possible to build myself a
|
||||||
|
working Kubernetes cluster and migrate all of my old services over to it. The
|
||||||
|
transition to Kubernetes not only streamlined service management but also laid
|
||||||
|
the foundation for future scalability and automation. I'll get into that
|
||||||
|
adventure in the next series of articles.
|
||||||
File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 234 KiB |
BIN
content/posts/new-website/featured.png
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content/posts/new-website/featured.png
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Binary file not shown.
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 1022 KiB |
198
content/posts/new-website/index.md
Normal file
198
content/posts/new-website/index.md
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,198 @@
|
|||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: "New Website"
|
||||||
|
date: "2025-06-12T08:00:00-06:00"
|
||||||
|
description: "There's finally a new website at d-b.ca."
|
||||||
|
summary: "I've published my personal website. A brief history of some past endeavours, and some details on the technology behind the new site."
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I've finally published a proper website at [https://d-b.ca/](https://d-b.ca/).
|
||||||
|
The last time I had anything live on this domain was over 20 years ago,
|
||||||
|
according to the [Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/). What took so
|
||||||
|
long? The truth is, my interests have shifted over the years, and I've been
|
||||||
|
learning a lot. This site, while useful in its own right, is really a
|
||||||
|
culmination of a personal platform I've developed over time.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## History
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
My first personal website was developed while I was a student at the
|
||||||
|
[University of Alberta](https://ualberta.ca), near the end of the previous
|
||||||
|
century. The web was still in its early stages, but the university provided
|
||||||
|
students with the means to publish web content. It was mostly a novelty at the
|
||||||
|
time and didn't last beyond my time at school, but it sparked my interest in
|
||||||
|
Internet technologies and their applications.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That early site included one interesting feature. I developed a mechanism to
|
||||||
|
automatically update a page every time I logged into one of the school's
|
||||||
|
computers, so my friends could find me if they wanted to. At the time,
|
||||||
|
dynamically updating websites was a tricky thing. The most common way was
|
||||||
|
using [CGI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface), which is
|
||||||
|
like having a tiny program run every time someone requested a page. The
|
||||||
|
university did not allow student sites to use it. So, I wrote some shell
|
||||||
|
scripts that were called as part of my login and logout scripts that would
|
||||||
|
generate the static HTML file and write it to my web content directory. It
|
||||||
|
needed to handle cases like multiple logins, and the logout script didn't
|
||||||
|
always get triggered, so I'd have to keep an eye on it for stale entries.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Self-Hosting
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I've always been an avid self-hoster. Learning by getting a system up and
|
||||||
|
running works well for me. I also value the privacy and control that it
|
||||||
|
provides. Plus, it's much cheaper for me in the long run!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It really began when I was working at a local Internet service provider. I was
|
||||||
|
able to get a special deal on a good broadband connection at home, which
|
||||||
|
included a small network block (a `/28`, consisting of 16 IP addresses) that I
|
||||||
|
could use. I dedicated my largest machine as my server and developed several
|
||||||
|
services, including a new website.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
My website at that time wasn't fancy, and was geared primarily towards
|
||||||
|
experimentation. I developed a simple content management system from scratch
|
||||||
|
in PHP, which I used to publish a blog. It also integrated with mailing
|
||||||
|
lists, another area I was exploring at the time.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### D-B.CA
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I hadn't registered a domain name of my own in those early days, so everything
|
||||||
|
resided under a friend's domain. In late 2002, I decided to finally register
|
||||||
|
one of my own, primarily so I could have a stable email address. I wanted to
|
||||||
|
incorporate the initials in my name, so I came up with `d-b.ca`. This was a
|
||||||
|
compromise because someone was squatting on `db.ca` at the time, and, to my
|
||||||
|
knowledge, they still are.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Early on, I focused mostly on operating my email services and other
|
||||||
|
experiments, with little attention paid to a website. There were a few test
|
||||||
|
pages at times, but nothing substantial.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Modern Technology
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
One of the projects I've been following is [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/). I've
|
||||||
|
seen and worked with various web content management systems in the past, and
|
||||||
|
they often feel cumbersome and present security concerns. Hugo is an example
|
||||||
|
of a "Static Site Generator." Think of it like this: instead of creating web
|
||||||
|
pages on the fly every time someone visits, Hugo takes all the raw content and
|
||||||
|
turns it into a set of ready-to-serve files, much like a compiler turns code
|
||||||
|
into an executable program. The resulting static resources can be served as
|
||||||
|
regular files from any web service, without the need for dynamically
|
||||||
|
generating content upon request from a database, as traditional CMS systems
|
||||||
|
do.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Using Hugo is much easier with a solid base template. There are
|
||||||
|
[many to choose from](https://themes.gohugo.io/), including the one I've
|
||||||
|
selected here called ["Blowfish"](https://blowfish.page/). I like how it
|
||||||
|
looks, and it supports the style of site that this is very well.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Another benefit of a static site generator is that all the sources for the
|
||||||
|
site can be treated like software code, making it simple to use development
|
||||||
|
tools like [Git](https://git-scm.com/) for version control. I keep the sources
|
||||||
|
for this site in a public repository on my own Git server. Feel free to take a
|
||||||
|
look:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/web" >}}
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### CI/CD
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I've also set up a CI/CD pipeline to build and deploy the site whenever
|
||||||
|
changes are made to the source repository. What does this mean?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**CI** = *Continuous Integration*
|
||||||
|
> This is the practice of frequently integrating changes into a source
|
||||||
|
> repository. The changes are checked, assembled, and packaged through
|
||||||
|
> automated processes. [More information](https://martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**CD** = *Continuous Delivery*
|
||||||
|
> This is the capability of being able to take new changes (such as the
|
||||||
|
> outputs of the CI process) and getting them deployed and running
|
||||||
|
> automatically. [More information](https://continuousdelivery.com/)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The CI portion is triggered by a push to the
|
||||||
|
[`web`](https://git.brds.ca/d-b.ca/web) repository. It runs an automated
|
||||||
|
workflow that builds the site and packages the resulting artifacts into a
|
||||||
|
container image based on the [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/) web server.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
A container image is like a pre-packaged software environment that ensures the
|
||||||
|
website runs consistently regardless of the underlying infrastructure. The
|
||||||
|
resulting image contains everything the website needs to operate and can run
|
||||||
|
on any infrastructure that can support it, such as my own laptop or my server
|
||||||
|
cluster.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The build container with Hugo is another image that is only used to create the
|
||||||
|
website container. I maintain it in this repository:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/hugo-builder" >}}
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
After the workflow has built the container image for running the website, it
|
||||||
|
updates the CD GitOps repository to deploy this new version immediately to a
|
||||||
|
private staging site. Another definition:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> **GitOps** refers to the practice of managing infrastructure automation by
|
||||||
|
> keeping machine-readable descriptions of the intended infrastructure in a
|
||||||
|
> version-controlled Git repository. A CD system will monitor the repository
|
||||||
|
> for changes, immediately adding, modifying, or removing infrastructure to
|
||||||
|
> bring the state of the operational system into alignment with the source
|
||||||
|
> description.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
There are many benefits to managing infrastructure this way. Changes are
|
||||||
|
automatically tracked because everything is stored in an existing code
|
||||||
|
repository system that's specifically designed for managing and tracking
|
||||||
|
change. Problematic changes can be reverted easily by reverting the change in
|
||||||
|
the repository. Automation keeps things in sync at all times - any changes
|
||||||
|
made manually outside of this system are immediately spotted and removed.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When I want to publish the new version as the production website, I use my
|
||||||
|
regular private production GitOps repository to update the image version tag,
|
||||||
|
and the rest happens automatically. The CD repository for the staging site is
|
||||||
|
public, you're welcome to check it out here:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/db-cd" >}}
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
#### Pipeline Diagram
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{{< mermaid >}}
|
||||||
|
flowchart TB
|
||||||
|
subgraph GIT [Git Repository]
|
||||||
|
WR[(Web)]
|
||||||
|
CDR[(CD)]
|
||||||
|
end
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
WP(Push Web Updates)-->WR
|
||||||
|
WP ~~~ HBI
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
subgraph CI [CI Workflow]
|
||||||
|
CIP[Pull Source
|
||||||
|
Repository]-->BWI[Build Web
|
||||||
|
Image]
|
||||||
|
BWI-->PWI[Push Web
|
||||||
|
Image]
|
||||||
|
PWI-->UCD[Update CD
|
||||||
|
Repository]
|
||||||
|
end
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
PWI-->WI
|
||||||
|
WR-->CIP
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
subgraph DOCKER [Image Repository]
|
||||||
|
HBI((Hugo
|
||||||
|
Build))
|
||||||
|
WI((Web))
|
||||||
|
end
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
HBI-->BWI
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
UCD-->CDP(Push Image
|
||||||
|
Update)
|
||||||
|
CDP-->CDR
|
||||||
|
CDR-->CDPull
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
subgraph CD [CD Process]
|
||||||
|
CDPull[Pull Source Repository]-->DWI[Deploy Web Image]
|
||||||
|
end
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
WI-->DWI
|
||||||
|
{{< /mermaid >}}
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Underlying Platform
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
In future articles, I'll describe the evolution of the physical network and
|
||||||
|
systems this site is running on, and how they enabled me to build a
|
||||||
|
[Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/) cluster to scale this site and run other
|
||||||
|
services, all on hardware I assembled myself!
|
||||||
4
go.mod
4
go.mod
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
|
|||||||
module git.brds.ca/drew/web
|
module git.brds.ca/drew/web
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
go 1.24.2
|
go 1.25.4
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
require github.com/nunocoracao/blowfish/v2 v2.85.1 // indirect
|
require github.com/nunocoracao/blowfish/v2 v2.92.0 // indirect
|
||||||
|
|||||||
4
go.sum
4
go.sum
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
|
|||||||
github.com/nunocoracao/blowfish/v2 v2.85.1 h1:+wdHZ6kozmybTprY8RHFdumeg4lB8r5xmRy2FfQcweo=
|
github.com/nunocoracao/blowfish/v2 v2.92.0 h1:1EgHMRaY6VI438TIAN/5luNx16lg1e0Lrbi+6kDxpdA=
|
||||||
github.com/nunocoracao/blowfish/v2 v2.85.1/go.mod h1:4SkMc+Ht8gpQCwArqiHMBDP3soxi2OWuAhVney+cuyk=
|
github.com/nunocoracao/blowfish/v2 v2.92.0/go.mod h1:4SkMc+Ht8gpQCwArqiHMBDP3soxi2OWuAhVney+cuyk=
|
||||||
|
|||||||
28
layouts/partials/comments.html
Normal file
28
layouts/partials/comments.html
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
|
|||||||
|
{{- with .Site.Params.remark42 -}}
|
||||||
|
<hr>
|
||||||
|
<p><b>Comments and questions are welcome!</b> <i>You can use your email address to Sign In (your email address is not publicly displayed), or you can use your Google or GitHub account. All comment data is hosted locally by d-b.ca and is not tracked. Please refer to the <a href='https://remark42.com' target="_blank"><b>Remark42</b></a> <a href='https://remark42.com/privacy/' target="_blank">Privacy Policy</a> for more information.</i></p>
|
||||||
|
<div id="remark42"></div>
|
||||||
|
<script>
|
||||||
|
var remark_config = {
|
||||||
|
host: '{{ .host }}',
|
||||||
|
site_id: '{{ .site }}',
|
||||||
|
components: ['embed'],
|
||||||
|
url: '{{ $.Permalink }}',
|
||||||
|
theme: document.documentElement.classList.contains("dark") ? 'dark' : 'light',
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
document.getElementById("appearance-switcher").addEventListener('click', event => {
|
||||||
|
window.REMARK42.changeTheme(document.documentElement.classList.contains("dark") ? 'light' : 'dark');
|
||||||
|
});
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
!function(e, n) {
|
||||||
|
for (var o = 0; o < e.length; o++) {
|
||||||
|
var r = n.createElement('script'),
|
||||||
|
c = '.js',
|
||||||
|
d = n.head || n.body;
|
||||||
|
'noModule' in r ? (r.type = 'module', c = '.mjs') : r.async = !0, r.defer = !0, r.src = remark_config.host + '/web/' + e[o] + c, d.appendChild(r)
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
}(remark_config.components || ['embed'], document);
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</script>
|
||||||
|
{{- end -}}
|
||||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user