# 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.