Hi, I’m Steven - Networking and Cloud enthusiast

and I’ve been navigating the exciting world of IT and networking since 2011. This blog is my space to share insights, technical challenges, and solutions that I test and explore hands-on in my very own homelab.

What started with a humble HP Microserver has grown into a robust environment, now hosting enterprise-level solutions like NSX and Tanzu. My homelab isn’t just a hobby—it’s a proving ground for cutting-edge technologies and a reflection of my passion for continuous learning.

I am proud to be part of the vExpert community, and I hold several certifications, including CCNP Enterprise, VCIX-NV, and many others. Professionally, I specialize in networking, with a strong focus on SDN, Cloud solutions, and VMware by Broadcom technologies.

Through this blog, I aim to share my experiences, troubleshoot real-world challenges, and help others who are also striving to push the boundaries of technology. Whether you’re building your first homelab or fine-tuning complex SDN deployments, I hope you’ll find valuable insights and inspiration here.

Thanks for stopping by—let’s learn and grow together!

Work

I began my career in 2011 with an apprenticeship as a Fachinformatiker Systemintegration while simultaneously pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Informatics. Early in my career, I gained valuable experience working with technologies like Cisco, Juniper, and Citrix Netscaler within a data center environment, building strong foundational networking skills.

After leaving my first employer, I shifted focus to Docker and cloud solutions like AWS while also delving into Software-Defined Networking (SDN). This experience sparked my passion for SDN, leading me to join evoila in 2018 as the first member of a newly established SDN team, which I helped build from the ground up.

At evoila, I specialized in VMware solutions such as NSX and VCF. Over time, I combined my foundational networking knowledge, cloud expertise, and advanced SDN skills to grow professionally. This well-rounded background culminated in my promotion to Cloud Architect in 2024.

Today, I leverage the breadth of experience gained throughout my career—from networking basics and cloud solutions to advanced VMware technologies—enabling me to architect modern, robust cloud solutions.

Homelab

My homelab started 2011 with a single HP 40NL Microserver where I deployed Ubuntu as operating system. I used the Ubuntu system to build my own fileshare based on SMB and NFS, further I deployed Owncloud as a public available cloud solution which is storing my data at home. After a while I got familiar with Docker and was really excited to use it at home to increase the efficiency and isloation between my applications. Further I implemented a samll 100 Mbit/s ASA firewall to create a DMZ and further increase the security. So I started migration from my existing Ubuntu 32 bit operating system to a 64 bit version of Ubuntu, since Docker had the requirement of a 64 bit operating system. After the migration of the base operating system I started to rebuild my Owncloud deployment within docker and finally migarted all my Owncloud content into a conatiner based Owncloud deployment. If you are interested in my Owncloud or today Nextcloud docker/ k8s code, feel free to check my git repos ( https://github.com/sschramm1991/ ).

After a long journey and many years of using docker as my main plattform for my IT services at home, I updated my main physical server to a Intel Nuc Extreme (NUC11BTMi7). I used the newly gained resources to move forward and migrate my IT services from docker to K8s including Ingress controller, cert manager and automated SSL certificate lifecycle based on letsencrypt. I already used letsencrypt before, but it was not implemeted with some self created bash scripts. What is petty funny: I am still using my HP NL40 microserver as a storage for some static data, which does not require high performance. Further some other less performance critical services like Unifi controller and PiHole are still running there within Docker. But for the future I might migrate them to my new K8s setup. What I already migareted is my Nextcloud (previously Owncloud) deployment, to increase the performance. Further I added more services like Netbox and keycloak to implement Single sign on for my services like Nextcloud and Immich as a new photo backup solution. If we are speaking about performance I also got rid of the ASA firewall, which is limited to 100 Mbit/s and replaced it by a virtual PFsense, which is also used to implement GeoIP based firewall rules.

In addition I extended my lab by a Intel Nuc Pro (NUC11TNHv7) to create a VMware based homelab with vSphere, vCenter,NSX, AVI and Tanzu on a single NUC with memory tiering enabled. I will tell you more about my VMware based home lab in upomming posts on my blog to share my knowledge build with all the interesting configurations I tested and will test in future.

Impressum

Die folgenden Angaben basieren auf den Vorgaben in § 5 TMG:

Steven Schramm

Am Hipperich 72

55120 Mainz

Kontakt:

E-Mail: steven@schramm-mainz.de

Telefon: 06131/9716444

Haftung für und Überprüfung von Inhalten:

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