Network

Here we present a little of our gear. If you would like to get involved, please drop by or send an email to support@ramnet.de

We use software and hardware from:

  • Dell- und Intel-Server (R740/R720)
  • Core: Arista DCS-7050S-64 (48x10G SFP+ & 4x 40G)
  • For 10G copper: Arista DCS-7050TX-64 (48x10GBase-T & 4x 40G)
  • 10 Ubiquiti UniFi Enterprise 48 PoE Switche: 2.5Gbit per room
  • ~140 Ubiquiti UniFi Access Points (WiFi 5/6/6e/7)
  • Synology Storage Solutions
  • Proxmox with KVM and LXC
  • Zabbix
  • Kea DHCP
  • FreeRadius
  • Ubuntu Server and pfSense

The club currently has a connection to the IT-Center (Rechenzentrum) of the RWTH. The network covers the entire area of the six buildings. We have a core cluster of Arista switches. These are interconnected at 40 Gbit/s and provide us with everything from 100 Mbit/s to 40 Gbit/s that we could possibly want to connect.

All houses are equipped with Ubiquiti UniFi PoE switches, which are each connected to our core switch via 2x10Gbit/s (fiber). In 2024, we started to upgrade the rooms from 1Gbit/s to 2.5Gbit/s. We have already completed this in 150, 150a, 152, 152a and 152b. 150b will follow soon.

All services run virtualized. Except for the primary firewall node. This runs “raw” on an Intel compute node so that we can also provide you with multi-gigabit NATs. The failover firewall node runs virtualized and can also be moved in the cluster without downtime. If a server actually explodes and the storage also fails, we have additional virtual redundancy for the database, DNS, DHCP, RADIUS (WiFi and LAN login). A failure therefore goes unnoticed here too, as all machines run in failover and switch over without downtime as soon as one is no longer available.

With the exception of some older connections, the apartments are connected to the respective switch with a CAT7 cable at 1 or 2.5 Gbit/s. Higher speeds can be realized by arrangement. Various security protocols run on our switches, which protect against misconfiguration by members.

Our virtualization cluster relies on Proxmox - open source and free of charge. Virtual machines can thus run with high availability and be moved to other nodes (machines) if necessary.

2025 new AC
AC outside
For Christmas
100G toy
Rack conversion

Deploying 2,5Gbit/s in 152B

Before
All cables out
Hard at work
2,5Gbit here we go

Images from before the switch to 10G in the core in 2019

Dell and Synology
Cisco C4500 with HP 2848
Our houses with SFP
4x 1G for the cloud
LACP is your friend
Trunking-Hell

Modernizing 2015

Cisco C4500 Series
Everything still on 1G