Designing and Managing a Cybersecurity Homelab
Project Overview
For my project showcase, I chose to cover my personal cybersecurity homelab that I have been working on outside of my coursework in my free time. I originally started this project because I wanted to gain more hands-on experience with things like networking, virtualization, and system administration. And while I already had worked with some of these concepts in a few labs during my undergraduate studies. I wanted to create an environment where I could experiment with different technologies without having to worry about affecting my main computer or home network.
To start, my homelab uses Proxmox virtual environment, which allows me to run multiple virtual machines and length containers on physical hardware. I have also implemented pfSense as a virtual firewall and router, along with different services that allow me to experiment with networking and server management.
This project connects to several of the topics that we covered in this course, particularly infrastructure security, network security, cloud and virtualization security, and security monitoring.
Hardware and Technologies
My homelab consists of two HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini computers, a NETGEAR GS108E managed switch, and my existing Verizon CR1000A home router. I chose these systems because they allow me to experiment with different network configurations and services without needing expensive enterprise hardware.
One of the main technologies I use is Proxmox, which is an open-source virtualization platform that supports virtual machines and Linux containers. Through Proxmox, I can create and manage different operating systems and services from a web-based interface.
My current Proxmox environment includes two nodes named pve and pve-laptop. On the pve node, I have a pfSense virtual machine and an Xubuntu virtual machine. On the pve-laptop node, I have a Linux container running Navidrome, which is a self-hosted music streaming service.
These systems allow me to experiment with virtualization while also understanding how different services depend on the physical hardware and network infrastructure.
Network Security and Configuration
One of the more challenging parts of building my homelab has been understanding how the different networking components communicate with one another. Since pfSense runs as a virtual machine, I needed to configure the network interfaces in Proxmox so that traffic could be directed between the firewall, my home router, and the local network.
This involved many components like working with virtual network bridges, physical network interfaces, and different IP address configurations. I also had to understand the difference between WAN and LAN connections and how the firewall interacts with the devices connected to the network
Something I learned throughout this process is that network security involves more than just having a firewall installed. The firewall must also be properly configured, and network administrators need to understand how traffic moves between different parts of the network (National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST], 2024).
This connects directly to the network and infrastructure security concepts covered in CYSE 600 because proper network design can help reduce unnecessary exposure and limit unauthorized access.
Virtualization and Security Considerations
Another major part of this project was learning how virtualization can be used in order to create a separate environment for different services. Rather than installing everything directly onto a single operating system, I can use virtual machines and containers to organize my applications and services.
One benefit I found with this approach was that it makes testing and troubleshooting a whole lot easier. For example, if I want to experiment with an unfamiliar operating system or configuration, I can do so in a separate virtual machine without having to directly change the operating system on my personal computer.
Even though things are virtualized now, that does not automatically guarantee the security of the machines. The physical host, virtualization platform, network configuration, and individual virtual machines all need to be managed properly in order to ensure that the system is secure (Ciampa, 2025).
Challenges and Lessons Learned
One of the biggest challenges that I faced while building my homelab was configuring the network between Proxmox and pfSense. Understanding how the physical network interfaces connected to the virtual bridges was confusing at first because there were multiple layers of networking involved.
Having to troubleshoot these configurations required me to research and look more closely at IP addressing, routing, and how network traffic moves between different devices. And while this process took time, it allowed me to better understand the relationship between virtualization and networking
Another important lesson that I learned while creating my homelab was the importance of planning a network before making changes. Even if the configuration had a small mistake, it prevented systems from communicating correctly and even caused services to become unavailable to me.
Final Reflection
After all of this, working on my homelab has been one of the most useful and fun ways for me to apply what I’ve learned about cybersecurity. Rather than only reading about the different security technologies and theories used in cybersecurity, I have been able to work with them directly which allowed me to better understand how they function.
This course helps connect these experiences to broader cybersecurity principles, particularly network security, virtualization, and infrastructure management.
As I continue building on to my homelab, I plan to look at additional security controls that I can implement such as network segmentation, and monitoring tools. I believe that these experiences will help me prepare for future cybersecurity courses and provide useful practical knowledge that I can apply in my professional career.