Categories:
Ongoing, Projects

Home Lab: What’s in my Lab?

Home Labs are almost essential in this day and age of IT and Cyber Security. Having a playground where you can test tools and run services that you’d be interested in. While you could spend thousands of dollars on different hardware, you can also create your own lab for relatively cheap. Possibilities for hardware to run your lab can include, but aren’t limited to the following:

Current Hardware Stack:

  • 2x Mini Desktops – i5, 16GB Memory, 1TB Storage, Windows Server 2019 utilizing Hyper-V as a hypervisor
  • 1x Gaming Desktop – i7, 32GB Memory, 7TB Storage, 3080 GPU, Windows 10 Pro
  • Unifi AP, 24 Port Non-POE Switch, Cloud Key Gen 2, and Security Gateway
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (Currently not in use)

Future Hardware Additions:

Eventually, I’d like to completely separate my tools Home Lab from my current home network. While I do not currently run any vulnerable services that can talk out to the world, I’d like to have some more experience with networking, and separating my networks would help with this (being able to take down the lab network while not affecting home users, utilize tools such as the Wi-Fi Pineapple, or test out other configurations of hardware and software.

I’ll also soon be adding an Azure Free Training instance to my lab, in order to explore Azure more than I do now while I’m at work.

Current Set Up Servers:

Currently, I have virtual machines via Hyper-V that are for the following:

  • Windows Server as a Domain Controller with Active Directory
  • Windows Server as a File Server
  • Windows Server running an instance of Splunk
  • Ubuntu Server running Zabbix for Agent Monitoring an off-site server
  • Ubuntu Server running an instance of Redbot, the all-in-one custom Discord Bot
  • Ubuntu Server running HomeBridge, a bridge between Apple HomeKit and non-HomeKit Devices
  • Kali Linux (used for Nessus Scanning)

The best part about a home lab is you can run whatever you wish. You have the ability to spin up a virtual machine with the latest tools to try out, to learn a new skill, or to run leisure servers such as a video game server.