My last spring break and I’m spending it doing a massive network refactor. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming.
For a long time the CV gateways have been custom managed OpenBSD machines. With the rest of the network now under full Ansible control with very nice setups for managing them, its time the OpenBSD network layer was given the same treatment.
About a year ago I started working on this thing called “SimpleGateway”. It was supposed to be a single Ansible role that would manage my home network. So it would be ‘simple’ right? Yeah its not simple anymore.
The SimpleGateway suite now has its own GitHub organization and comprises several Ansible roles for providing services ranging DHCP and PXE to CARP failover and high availability fabrics. I have enjoyed this project, though it was a grueling 5 day process to get here of finding the limits in Ansible, pushing them out and then reaching them again. This is some of the most dense code I’ve ever written and without the support of m_wynn and phy1729 this wouldn’t have happened. SimpleGateway now runs the CV network, the CSG lab segments, the LUG standing and portable fleets and a few other systems around UTD, not to mention various people’s home networks and labs.