Time to setup a lab

First Steps: Building a Home Lab for Growth

As a Cybersecurity student looking at the current job market, it’s clear that junior roles are scarce for graduates. While I’m currently on track for a 1st Class degree, I’ve realized that re-reading university notes only takes you so far. To truly master different security aspects, you have to build.

Today, I decided to bridge that gap by building a dedicated home lab.

The Hardware

I’m running the lab on a Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB RAM) equipped with a 500GB SSD for better performance and reliability over a standard SD card.

The Stack (Dockerized)

I chose Docker to keep my projects isolated and manageable. Here is the current lineup:

• Dockge: For YAML file editing and managing .env files.

• Portainer: For container health monitoring and user authorization.

• HastyBot: My Discord bot (currently in development).

• Webgame: A side project in the making.

• Main Site: This will eventually host bot stats and project information.

• phpMyAdmin: For easy web-based database management.

• MariaDB: The backend database for both HastyBot and the webgame.

• Watchtower: To ensure my container stacks stay up to date automatically.

What’s Next?

Building the lab is just the beginning. Next, I’ll be installing Wazuh on a separate laptop and deploying an agent to the Pi. This will allow me to dive into SIEM monitoring and endpoint security in a live environment.