Security Tip: Build a virtual security lab on a shoestring

One of the most important aspects of running a good technical security program is giving your technical team members access to an environment where they can refine their skills, perform adequate testing and play with new technologies and applications. This usually meant spending significant money on hardware, systems, KVM devices, discreet network devices and all of the regular stuff that goes with building a lab.

Today, security teams can and should leverage several key technologies to lower these costs and hardware requirements. In fact, for less than a thousand dollars in many cases, you can build a multi-user virtual lab environment that will serve most needs of the security team in terms of testing and skills maintenance. Here is a look at the way we have been building prototype security labs on a shoestring (See chart below for breakdown).

The first need is one large desktop or server system. The faster the processor, the better. We have built labs to support 3 to 5 users and several virtual machines using mediocre desktop systems from fairly low-end manufacturers. Once you have a CPU, the next step is to load up on memory. Usually 1G-byte is the minimum but we usually shoot for 2 to 4G-byes to keep the virtual lab robust. We then add a large hard disk, the larger the better, with 200G-bytes being the bare minimum. Often, for keeping backups of virtual machines at the ready, we also pair the system with a USB2 or Firewire external drive. These make archives easy to create and handle and can even be moved with little effort between virtual lab systems as needed.

The next step is to take your new hardware and install a base operating system. We try to use the lowest footprint for the base operating system as possible, since the sole purpose of the base OS is to manage the VM environment of choice. We never use the base OS for anything other than management of the VM environment, and perhaps a FTP server or the like to serve files between the virtual machines in the virtual lab.

As for choosing a VM platform, there are many choices available today, each with their pros and cons. For a massive comparison matrix of a myriad of different options ranging in price from free to thousands of dollars, check out Wikipedia. With just a little Google time, and a few hours of playing with the different solutions in your short list, it should be easy to pick a winner. No matter which one you choose, flexibility and stability are the keys for picking the platform for your security lab.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine