[awil95]

Hello fellow overclockers,

I am the Network Administrator of my small company (about 25-30ish users) and our president had recently came to me asking about upgrading our capabilities at the office; such as, VPN, Active Directory, File Sharing, etc. We are a Telecomunications Contractor so we install most of this stuff on a daily basis along with mostly structured data cabling. What i have proposed is to install a 2U custom built Untangle Firewall/Router along with a 3U custom built server running Windows 2012 R2. I will also be installing a D-Link Smart Layer 2 Switch I picked up from ADI. I have spent about the past week in the basement living next to the rack on the wall installing components. This wall had no rack on it earlier this week. First I will start with the router.

Untangle Firewall/Router

All the components have been ordered from Newegg as we have some good deals with them. We recently did the cabling for their new Indianapolis,IN warehouse location... anyway here is the specs for the Firewall/Router.

Components:
GIGABYTE GA-H97N-WIFI
Intel Pentium G3258
CORSAIR XMS 8GB
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 120GB
Rosewill RSV-Z2600 2U Chassis
Free Version of Untangle


I installed the blue Rosewill fans. Gotta make things look cool!

Gigabyte ITX board, G3258 and the 8GB of Corsair RAM. I love the XMS RAM, it's very reliable and i have use it to build many customer PCs.



There is so much space left over inside this 2U Chasis!

Yay for ITX boards.







Installation of the Untangle software is completed with a bootable flash drive. Untangle is much more user friendly compared to PfSense; however, PfSense is much more powerful. But I dont need this box to do much, most everything including DHCP will be done by the server.

Here is the state of the 25U Rack after the Router install. Top U is a 24Port Patch panel accompanied by a NeatPatch Organizer. Also I have installed a 2U Tripp Lite Smart 1500LCD UPS to keep those new boxes from shutting off unexpectedly.


Windows 2012 R2 Server

All components for the server were also ordered from Newegg. Got them overnighted for dirt cheap.

Components:
ARK IPC-3U380 3U Chassis
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O
Intel Xeon E3-1246 v3
Crucial 2x8GB ECC RAM
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD
2x WD Red 2TB HDDs (RAID1)
5x WD Red 3TB HDDs (RAID1E)
ICY DOCK 5in3 HotSwap Cage

I will be running RAID1 on the two drives for critical OS backups and Server configuration. The RAID1E is going to be for company and user files such as; quotes, invoices, quickbooks, etc. I am running RAID1E becuase of the software RAID provided by the LSI 2308 SAS controller built into the motherboard. Otherwise i would have probably done a hardware RAID5. Got all the Newegg boxes in today and built the server tonight... Well its operational and running 2012 R2 right now but i do not have the drive arrays setup the way i would like them. I ran into an issue with the internal 3.5in drive cages hitting the CPU Heatsink.

Newegg has to have the best packaging ever! Especialy on their hard drives I mean DANG! I could have dropped this drive off my roof and not even put a scratch on it! Kudos to Newegg.

Reason there is only 4 HDDs is becuase I had origionally planned on using the internal drive cages but you will see shortly that didn't work out.

Panorama Shot of my work are in the basement of the office.

CPU, and RAM installed

This Dynatron Cooler is a pretty sweet unit. Its in both the Server and the Router. Perfect for a 2U little small for a 3U but it still got in the way of my drives. In later pics you will noticed I had to flip the heatsink 180degrees and change the fan direction from push to pull.

Motherboard installed into the chassis. It allows for a ATX board but mine is only Micro ATX. With a full ATX board the bottom I/O would have been under the PSU.

Attempting to install hard drives. if the CPU socket would have been 1/2in closer to the I/O Sheild i could have fit atleast four 3.5in drives internally. All i can fit is two 3.5in drives and two 2.5in drives. I only have the one SSD currently, but I am thinking about grabbing a second one for sotrage for large CAD files or something.

You can see here how i flipped the CPU cooler...

Here is final placement of the two internal 3.5in drives. Under the left HDD is the boot SSD. The 5 sata cables neatly bundled together are going to be for the RAID Array that will sit in the three 5.25in Drive Bays.

SATA and Power now hooked up to the drives. I know those cables look hideous but those off color cables that came with the mobo are way too long so I will be ordering the same cables I used for the RAID array.

Got the box mounted on the rack and plugged in to install Server 2012 R2.

Had to grab a few cups of coffee while that install took forever.

Don't you just love it when a swing out type rack actual is able to swing out with the proper cable management!

OKAY guys thats all I have fro tonight. It's now 6am and I have been looking at computers for way to long today. LOL Here is the Raid Cage I have on the way from newegg. Got nextday shipping again but its friday.... well now saturday morning so it probably wont be in until monday. I will update soon with any details!

Thanks for your support in advanced guys!

 

[cones]

Nice build, are you planning to use the wireless built into the motherboard?

 

[coachmark2]

All of your part selection and design choices look solid. Well done on matching gear to the probable needs of your business.

Just curious, where did you buy 2012 R2 and how much did it cost? I assume you got a 2012 R2 Standard license?

 

[awil95]

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coachmark2

All of your part selection and design choices look solid. Well done on matching gear to the probable needs of your business.

Just curious, where did you buy 2012 R2 and how much did it cost? I assume you got a 2012 R2 Standard license?

I bought the server license from newegg. Is the Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials version. So there is no need for CALs. Thanks for awesome comments! It means alot when people appreciate your work.

EDIT: It was $399

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cones

Nice build, are you planning to use the wireless built into the motherboard?

Yes. I was origionally planning on using the 802.11AC Adapter built into the Gigabyte board. That was when i was experimenting with PfSense. it allows for use of the Wireless adapter just like a standard home router. However; I was having issues getting OpenVPN to work with PfSense. I was able to connect to the box but was stuck inside the tunnel network and could not reach the LAN. I tried to figure this out for weeks and eventually gave up. One of our Customers (Angie's List) Network Administrators suggested I try the Untangle Firewall software and I did. Setup of the VPN was as simple as a few clicks. Now that i have got the server installed I am thinking about running the VPN or anywhere access on the Server as it can handle it, as well as make use of the Active Directory. If i can get Anywhere Access to work then I will switch the router software back to PfSense and make use of that Wireless adapter. Right now I am using a Ruckus AP as we are a Ruckus Wireless Dealer and we have many of them laying around.

 

[cones]

Your issue with Pfsense was most likely firewall rules, most everything defaults to be blocked. I run it with OpenVPN and it works great until you forget to add the firewall rules to allow access to the LAN and you only have access through VPN and the webui is also blocked

Pfsense can be hard to setup. I was not sure if the wireless signal would be that good where the rack is so i was curious if you planned to use it or just because the board already had it.

 

[awil95]

Just realized I never posted a pic of the RAID Cage that i ordered! Here it is:

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cones

Your issue with Pfsense was most likely firewall rules, most everything defaults to be blocked. I run it with OpenVPN and it works great until you forget to add the firewall rules to allow access to the LAN and you only have access through VPN and the webui is also blocked

Pfsense can be hard to setup. I was not sure if the wireless signal would be that good where the rack is so i was curious if you planned to use it or just because the board already had it.

I agree completely that it can be hard to setup. I do not have a lot of network programming knowledge other than the 2 out of the 4 CISCO CCNA prep courses I took in high school. I found multiple guides on setting up OpenVPN on pfsense both for a TAP or a TUN interface. Still no luck. I even tried setting it up as a TAP inteface and just bridging that interface with the LAN and still no prevail. Maybe I will try it again on a fresh install and see how it goes, becuase i would much rather use PfSense.

EDIT: Also the office is maybe 1500 sq. ft. so i think two 5dbi antennas will work just fine. The rack is located in the basement. We used to use a old motorola router setup as just an AP and that provided plenty of coverage.

 

[cones]

If you need the help with VPN PM me since I did it recently enough I may be able to help. I figured the space was much larger.

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cones

If you need the help with VPN PM me since I did it recently enough I may be able to help. I figured the space was much larger.

Awesome yeah I will definately hit you up. I was thinking about going back to the office tomorrow to install PfSense back on the router.

 

[coachmark2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by awil95

Awesome yeah I will definately hit you up. I was thinking about going back to the office tomorrow to install PfSense back on the router.

I've done alot of work with PFSense. I can help with that as well.

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coachmark2

I've done alot of work with PFSense. I can help with that as well.

Awesome Thanks for the support guys. Im going to head up to the office tomorrow and have another go with PfSense!

 

[awil95]

Apparently PfSense does not like one of my NICs. My Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI inside the router has dual NICs. One is a Intel i217V the other is a Atheros 8161B. It will not load the Atheros NIC at all! only shows the intel NIC. I have a Dual NIC card at home that i have used with PfSense before so I am going to try and install it then try to reload PfSense again.

 

[cones]

2.2 may have support for it, it is a much newer version of freebsd. 2.1.5 is 8.3 and it looks like the most recent freebsd in 10.1, not sure what 2.2 actually runs.

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cones

2.2 may have support for it, it is a much newer version of freebsd. 2.1.5 is 8.3 and it looks like the most recent freebsd in 10.1, not sure what 2.2 actually runs.

Yeah i'm trying to install 2.1.5. Just booted back up after installing my NIC card and i now show 2x RealTek 8168/8111 and a single Intel Pro/1000. Should I used the Intel NIC as my WAN Interface? or will it make a difference. I have a 100mbps down and a 25mbps upload connection.

 

[cones]

Personally i would use the Intel for the LAN, usually they are a little more stable. I rather have my LAN be more stable then my WAN but the difference is so little it really does not matter.

 

[coachmark2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by awil95

Yeah i'm trying to install 2.1.5. Just booted back up after installing my NIC card and i now show 2x RealTek 8168/8111 and a single Intel Pro/1000. Should I used the Intel NIC as my WAN Interface? or will it make a difference. I have a 100mbps down and a 25mbps upload connection.

Intel NICs are definitely the best. Realtek generally sucks, but it's not likely to matter of you're not pushing gigabit.

I would suggest one of these if you have the PCIe slot available

http://m.ebay.com/itm/171631309258?nav=SEARCH

They're stupid cheap and work wonderfully

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cones

Personally i would use the Intel for the LAN, usually they are a little more stable. I rather have my LAN be more stable then my WAN but the difference is so little it really does not matter.

Good point. I just made that change. Ran into a problem. I totally forgot what my static IP is. Just sent off a email to my receptionist to look for it in her email. Hopefully she will reply back soon.

Oh i also found some nice antennas for the Intel WiFi hopefully i can get that to work properly also.

 

[awil95]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coachmark2

Intel NICs are definitely the best. Realtek generally sucks, but it's not likely to matter of you're not pushing gigabit.

I would suggest one of these if you have the PCIe slot available

http://m.ebay.com/itm/171631309258?nav=SEARCH

They're stupid cheap and work wonderfully

Agreed. This is the card i just added that i had laying around at home. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166096

EDIT: Those Pro/1000 Cards are badss! And that's super cheap! I would run one of those if it was half-height... The router is only a 2U Chassis.