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A guide for starting the homelab journey, from purchasing to DevOps deployment


Have you ever wanted to simulate enterprise networks from the comfort of your home? Ever dream of executing malware in a safe, controlled environment? What about automating your deployments with industry-standard tools, all from the comfort of your home?

If so, this book can help you realize your homelab aspirations. Take advantage of Michael Taggart's years of experience studying, designing, and deploying diverse IT systems, with a focus on affordability and ease of deployment. Leverage open source software to build secure, reproducible environments for any lab scenario. From simple WordPress servers to entire Windows domains, In The Homelab Almanac, you'll find everything you need to begin.

This site-exclusive TTI Edition of the book comes with:

  1. DRM-Free EPUB and PDF Files for easy reading anywhere
  2. Static website version of the book with built-in search.

And for purchasing directly, you receive a discount over the price at online bookstores! Thank you for supporting TTI with your purchase, and happy homelabbing!


Table of Contents

  • About This Book
  • Prologue
Part 1: Planning
  • 0: Introduction
  • 1: Essential Questions
  • 2: Hardware Choices
  • 3: Purchasing
Part 2: Building the Lab
  • 0: Introduction
  • 1: Lab Server Setup
  • 2: Network Creation
  • 3: The Router
  • 4: The Jumpbox - Network Configuration
  • 5: The Jumpbox - Tools
  • 6: The Seclab Repository
  • 7: Asset Inventory
  • 8: Vault
  • 9: Packer
  • 10: Ubuntu Template
  • 11: Kali Template
  • 12: Windows Desktop Template
  • 13: Windows Server Template
  • 14: Windows 11/Server 2022
  • 15: Terraform
  • 16: Ansible
  • 17: Docker Host
  • 18: Attack Box
  • 19: Lab Firewall Config
  • 20: SIEM
  • 21: Wireguard
Part 3: Deployments
  • 0: Introduction
  • 1: Juice Shop
  • 2: WordPress
  • 3: Malware Lab
  • 4: Velociraptor
  • 5: Windows Domain
  • 6: Packet Capture

  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments

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