Building a Computer Network Test Lab

Setting up a home-lab for testing software, security, attacks, defenses in a computer network.

What you'll learn

Configure virtual machines, virtual machine network (training is using VMware vSphere but you can use any other virtualization technology)
Installing Windows operating systems – Win7, Win10, Win2016, Win2019, Active Directory, Group Policy Objects
Installing Linux operating systems – Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, CentOS8
Installing OPNsense firewall and configuring DHCP and basic firewall rules
Installing Kali Linux for attacking and penetration testing
Installing REMnux linux and FlareVM for forensics
Installing Splunk Free version for log collection and on-boarding Windows and Linux systems
Installing Security Onion and Alienvault OSSIM for intrusion detection
Configure time sync using NTP, backup
Getting installer images for all the tools presented in this training
Configure basic Active Directory and Group Policies

Requirements

Basic IT knowledge and minimal experience with at least one Virtualization technology
Only free, open source and free for personal/educational use software will be used which are publicly available (if we consider Microsoft products as such)
A virtualization technology is required. I will use Vmware vSphere, but is almost the same with VirtualBox or Vmware Workstation.
You can set up any one of these virtual machines by itself without the rest of the machines, recommended 16+GB RAM and 100+GB for 3 desktop/server VMs
Internet connection

Description

This course will help you building your own computer network testing environment, let it be a simple Active Directory, Splunk for log collection, Intrusion detection, Windows or Linux operating systems.

You can implement all or only a few of the systems we are going to discuss during the course depending on your needs and your resources available. I recommend using a local virtualization technology with 16GB RAM minimum, like vSphere, VMware Workstation, Virtualbox or similar.

The network set up will consist of two subnets, one being a "sandbox" where most systems will be installed. The second subnet will be the one for collecting logs and for forensics computers.

The training will cover:

1. installing different operating systems, like : Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Ubuntu Linux, CentOS Linux.
2. installing security appliances: Security Onion, AlienVault OSSIM.
3. installing and configuring OPNsense firewall by separating
4. installing and configuring services: Active Directory, Splunk SIEM, OPNsense firewall, time sync using NTP.

This will allow you to test out solutions without the risk of damaging a production environment.

The course is giving you directions how to set up these systems, and will show you one use-case at this time. I will continue adding more contents as I develop more, and update the contents based on feedback.

The training is not focusing on lexical knowledge and is not explaining what the different tools are doing in general. I assume that you either Google those or already have an idea about each solution. For example, I am not going to explain in detail what a SIEM is used for. We are going to set it up and use it.

This training is focusing on giving you the technical knowledge to be able to get systems up and running as quick as possible and work with each other in a network.

Who this course is for:

Anyone interested in setting up a computer lab with different operating systems for testing configurations, software, analyze network traffic, try hacking techniques or implement defense techniques
Always wanted to set up your own computer lab but you didn’t know how to start
Interested in learning how to install a basic Active Directory environment with custom Group Policy Objects applied to specific devices
Interested in setting up your own Vulnerability Scanner, Intrusion Detection System and SIEM/central log collector