SaltLAN

Single-server LAN party

What

The goal of SaltLAN's network and server infrastructure was designed to be small, single-system, and cheap, while meeting all of our requirements: Caching, Game servers, monitoring, and 100Mb/s to the client.

I wanted to build SaltLAN after attending a LAN party in May, 2016. While the LAN was a lot of fun and it featured a great giveaway, awesome unlimited drinks and cool people, however, there were some massive networking problems.

1. No dedicated LAN servers for games like TF2. People had to try and host local games, but nobody could see/connect to the game.
2. Bad switches/using home routers instead of an unmanaged switch with distribution switches. Nobody could talk to each other.
3. Slow internet (20Mbps max). Not everybody had certain games, and the day of the LAN, there was a massive TF2 update. It killed the network several times.

Configuration

Server

//side note: For anyone who's wondering why I'm releasing so much information on the setup and the possibility that this information might lead to a breach of network security:

1. I am moderately confident in our network security and IDS.
2. ALL of the network information is readily available to anyone who runs a basic nmap scan at the event.
3. I want this information to be public. I spent a lot of time piecing pieces of information together from tons of sites and I want it to be available to anybody who looks.

Component	Hardware
CPU	Xeon E3 1220v5
RAM	32GB DDR4
Storage	512GB Samsung EVO SSD
3TB WD BLACK HDD
Networking	3x 1Gbps NICS
1x 1Gbps NIC for WAN
2x 1Gbps NICs bonded for 2Gbps into LAN

Network

Component	Hardware
Core switch	1x Cisco SLM 2048 48 port Gigabit switch
Disribution switches	6+x Netgear Prosafe 24 port 10/100 switch with 2x 1Gbps uplink

Software

Component	Software
OS	Ubuntu server 16.04
DHCP	Dnsmasq
DNS	Dnsmasq
Caching	Docker
Game servers	Linux Game Server Manager
Usage monitoring	Grafana
Usage storage	InfluxDB
Usage collection	Telegraf

Address definition

IP Address	Hostname	Port	Interface	Service	Comments
10.0.0.1	router.saltlan.org	N/A	eno2	Router	Basic NAT and IPv4 forwarding
10.0.0.1	dns.saltlan.org	53	eno2	Dnsmasq	DNS
10.0.0.1	dhcp.saltlan.org	N/A	eno2	Dnsmasq	DHCP
10.0.0.2	steam.cache.saltlan.org	80	eno2:2	Docker	Steam cache
10.0.0.3	blizzard.cache.saltlan.org	80	eno2:3	Docker	Battle.net cache
10.0.0.4	origin.cache.saltlan.org	80	eno2:4	Docker	Origin cache
10.0.0.5	uplay.cache.saltlan.org	80	eno2:5	Docker	Uplay cache
10.0.0.6	ps4.cache.saltlan.org	80	eno2:6	Docker	Sony (PS4)
10.0.0.7	microsoft.cache.saltlan.org	80	eno2:7	Docker	Microsoft
10.0.0.8 - 9	Reserved	N/A	N/A	N/A
10.0.0.10	csgo.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:10	LGSM	CS:GO server
10.0.0.11	tf2.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:11	LGSM	TF2 server
10.0.0.12	q3.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:12	LGSM	Quake 3 server
10.0.0.13	insurgency.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:13	LGSM	Insurgency server
10.0.0.14	ss3.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:14	LGSM	Serious Sam 3 server
10.0.0.15	chiv.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:15	LGSM	Chivalry server
10.0.0.16	starbound.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:16	LGSM	Starbound server
10.0.0.17	factorio.server.saltlan.org	27015	eno2:17	LGSM	Factorio server
10.0.0.18 - 19	Reserved	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
10.0.0.20 - 250	DHCP Range	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
10.0.0.251 - 253	Reserved	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
10.0.0.254	core.network.saltlan.org	80/443	N/A	Cisco	SLM2048 core switch
10.0.0.255	Broadcast	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Netmap