Building a virtual lab for Security. Where do i start?

I have been listening to professor messier podcast a lot lately and he keeps talking about setting up a virtual lab in your computer. I am new to this and wanted to consolidate all my questions in one post. Any advise is appreciated!

1) What are the online simulator labs available for Security+ and CISSP
2) What are some simulator software that can be run on my machine?
3) Do i need to partition windows and run a instance of Linux or can all this be done online?

Thank you!

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View Boot Camps

Comments

JoJoCal19

You're in luck! I actually just came across this presentation from SANS' Jeff McJunkin last week, How to Build Your Own Kickass Home Lab https://files.sans.org/summit/pen_test_hackfest_2016/PDFs/Building-Your-Own-Kickass-Home-Lab-Jeff-McJunkin.pdf

Info_Sec_Wannabe

rs23 wrote: »

1) What are the online simulator labs available for Security+ and CISSP
2) What are some simulator software that can be run on my machine?
3) Do i need to partition windows and run a instance of Linux or can all this be done online?

1. Not sure if you need a virtual lab for Sec+ and/or CISSP as these are mostly theory-based exams. While it will somehow help you, setting a lab to simulate all of the technical stuff in the review materials may be difficult (at least IMHO).
2. Using VMWare Player and Virtual Box although there may be others. I only know of these as both are free. However, you need to have an ISO or VM image to really simulate stuff.
3. Still familiarizing myself with Linux-based systems so I'm running it virtually through 2.

DZA_

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

You're in luck! I actually just came across this presentation from SANS' Jeff McJunkin last week, How to Build Your Own Kickass Home Lab https://files.sans.org/summit/pen_test_hackfest_2016/PDFs/Building-Your-Own-Kickass-Home-Lab-Jeff-McJunkin.pdf

Thanks for the post JoJoCal19!

Cheers,
D

rs23

Thanks for your suggestions!

tedjames

There are lots of good tutorials on YouTube. Essentially, you'll install Oracle VM VirtualBox (or VMWare if you prefer) on your PC and then install Kali Linux. This guy has posted some great tutorials that have helped me:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVy16RS5eEDh8anP8j94G2A