Month: December 2022

Azure Lab No1

December 21, 2022 / Tim Nott / 0 Comments

All images courtesy of Microsoft

For my first attempt at a virtual lab to simulate an enterprise environment I was tempted to install devices listed in a reddit post that inspired me to start this project:

Virtual security appliances – firewalls etc
Virtual switches
Domain controller
DNS server
DHCP Server
SIEM
IDS
Endpoints
Active Directory
Groups

Clearly this would be trying to run before I could walk so I asked ChatGPT for a simple network to virtualise in Azure:

Sure! Here is a basic network setup that you can try to implement in Azure:

Create a virtual network (VNet) in Azure. A VNet is a logically isolated section of Azure’s cloud network where you can create and manage your Azure resources.
Create a subnet within the VNet. A subnet is a range of IP addresses within a VNet that you can use to segment your network.
Create a network security group (NSG) and associate it with the subnet. An NSG is a firewall that controls inbound and outbound traffic to and from your resources.
Create an Azure virtual machine (VM) and associate it with the subnet. An Azure VM is a virtual machine that runs in the cloud and can be used to host applications and services.
Connect the VM to the Internet by creating a public IP address and associating it with the VM. A public IP address is an IP address that can be accessed from the Internet.
Configure the NSG to allow inbound and outbound traffic to and from the VM. You can do this by creating inbound and outbound rules that specify the source and destination of the traffic and the port number.
Test the network setup by connecting to the VM using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or SSH. You can use RDP to connect to a Windows VM, and you can use SSH to connect to a Linux VM.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

So going from this:

Project Details

Subscription = Primary_subscription
Resource group = Basic_resourcegroup
Virtual Network Name = Basic_vNW
Region = UK South

Subnet

Subnet = Basic_subnet
Starting Address = 10.0.1.0
Subnet size = /29 (8 addresses)
No Security
IP Address Space = 10.0.0.0 – 10.0.0.255 – No Gateway

Network Security Group

NSG = Basic_nsg

Virtual Machine

VM = BasicVM
Size = Standard_B2ms ($0.1 per hour)
Image = Win 10 Pro 21H2
Admin = Basic_admin
Password = *******************
Public inbound ports = RDP 3389

Connect VM to Internet

Public IP = *********

Configure NSG

Inbound rule: Allow MyIPAddress – Port 3389 – TCP – Source 51.199.159.108 – Dest Any – Allow
Inbound rule: AllowAnySSHInbound – Port 22 – TCP – Source Any – Dest Any – Allow
Outbound rule: AllowCidrBlockHTTPSOutbound – Port 443 – TCP – Source 10.0.1.0/29 – Dest Any – Allow

Testing

Testing the network by connecting via RDP does allow me to connect to the VM but I cannot ping it or connect via SSH at this time.

Conclusion

It seems that I managed to implement the virtual lab into Azure to a degree. There are still a lot of question marks about the virtual network and the network security group. The rules set in the NSG didn’t seem to have an effect on the VM so there’s work to be done there.

Git/GitHub – Basics

December 15, 2022 / Tim Nott / 0 Comments

What is git?

Open source and free Source Control Management – SCM. You can manage changes to files over time. Download for your system. Use gitbash to control. Other command line tools can be used.

Configure git

Specify name and email address – so git knows who is doing stuff

git config --global user.name “Your Name”

git config --global user.email <your email>

Specify default branch name – (this was done in the installation too)

git config –global init.default branch main

Initialise Repository

cd c:/<file location>

cd c:/users/BADASS/Onedrive/Documents/git_experiment (for example)

git init

there will now be a hidden file in the folder – .git

git Status

git status

All the files are untracked

Track a File

git add <filename>

git add word1.docx (for example)

git add –all

git add -A (another way of tracking all)

Unstage a file (stop tracking)

git rm --cached <filename>

git rm --cached word1.docx (for example)

Ignore files

create new text file called .ignore
insert files you want to ignore

Commit

Takes a snapshot of the repository

git commit -m “message”

Changes to files

If you change a file git will recognise this

git diff

To see the difference

Environments

Working Files
Staging
Commit

Add/remove modified file to ‘snapshot’

git add txt1.txt

Places this file into Staging where it will stay until we are ready to commit

git restore --staged txt1.txt

This will remove the file from Staging

Bypass Staging

git commit -a

Commits all

Restore a file

You could delete a file from the folder and then git status would show

We can then restore this file with

git restore txt1.txt

Change filename

Use mv

git mv “txt1.txt” “txt2.txt”

git Log

git log

git log --oneline

Amend Commit

git commit -m ”message” –amend

Reset to Previous Commit

git reset 1ea7a0a

Rebase

git rebase -I --root

Branches

A copy of your main branch which you can edit and then merge once you are satisfied with the changes
Used a lot in coding development

Create New Branch

git branch fixbug

creates new branch

git branch

shows branches

git switch fixbug

switches to this branch

Merge branches

git merge -m “merge fixbug with main” fixbug

Delete Branch

git branch -d fixbug

Merge Conflicts

if you change the main branch whilst the fixbug branch is also edited you encounter a conflict when you try and merge them

Set Up github Account

https://github.com/
Sign up – usual process

Create Cloud Repo

Create a new repository
Give it a name
Public/Private – depends on who you are working with
Create repository

Push Existing Repo

We already have a repository on our local computer. github gives it the commands for pushing it to the cloud.

git remote add origin https://github.com/ChronikDog/Repo_1.git

git branch -M main

git push -u origin main

go to github and see the files synced to the cloud.

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Planning a Virtualisation Lab – The Infrastructure

December 13, 2022 / Tim Nott / 0 Comments

Brief

I want to gain experience of creating and managing an enterprise level IT network. So far I have studied and gained CompTIA A+, N+ and am in the process of getting my S+ but apart from managing the LAN at home I have no experience of commercial networks and IT infrastructure.

I am not interested in the cost and hassle of buying and setting up old/legacy networking equipment that has been discarded by enterprise. Surely a very inefficient way of learning in this day and age.

So the decision moving forward comes down to new modern workstation capable of virtualising an enterprise network set up or moving to a cloud environment.

Options

A virtualisation workstation for my home office and building VMs and virtual networks. Although this is appealing in that it’s always nice to buy new equipment and it’s something tangible and lasting to show for the money spent, is it really the best option?
Wouldn’t it be wiser to do all of this in the cloud? For a start it would create much less of an impact on my energy bills. On top of that it would be cheaper in the short term and most importantly it will give valuable experience in the cloud.

Cost

Virtualisation Workstation – with 150w power draw @35p per kWh

Intel Core i9 – £350
Motherboard – £175
Ram (64GB) – £185
Case – £120
PSU (650W) – £120
SSD (M.2 2TB) – £220
Liquid cooler – £120
Windows 11 – £120
Total – £1410

Cloud – usage per day – 1p per VM per hr. Enterprise set up ~ 7p per hr. Maybe 50p per day, £2.50 a week, £10 per month. £120 per year. (This is a very generous provision of cloud compute. An instance on Linode can be $0.05 per hour.)

Thin Client – £300 A new thin client would make sense in that it would be far more energy efficient and it would run Windows 11. (This option can be taken up at any time).
Power draw from a device like this is a fraction of a workstation. This is very hard to assess accurately but an Intel i9 will be using around 250W when it’s operating 5 or more VMs. A thin client could be using 20 to 30W as it’s only controlling and monitoring the cloud VMs. At 5 hours a day and 5 days a week that compares as 37.5 kWh to 187.5 kWh for the whole year.
At current UK prices that is £13 compared with £100.

So roughly speaking you are looking at 10 years of VM usage compared with buying a workstation.

Pros and Cons

Physical		Virtual
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Will last for a long time	High initial cost	Experience in Cloud	Nothing to show for it at the end of the day
Nice thing to have	High energy usage	Much cheaper in the long run	No modern PC for everyday usage
Modern PC for all work	Noisy?	Can be accessed anywhere/device	Overspend possible
Experience in building	Impact on environment	On demand, elastic.	Supporting huge corporation. (Linode?)
Experience in using	Stuck with config once bought	Low impact on environment	Requires decent connection
		Clearly the way of the future	Not as direct and ‘snappy’ as physical system
		Will ‘last’ forever	Cost of modern thin client

Conclusion

While both options are appealing the deciding factors in favour of the cloud are manifold:

Cheaper
Far more flexible
Experience in the future of IT
The workstation option can always be taken up if the cloud isn’t working out

Expanding on the last point – I will be needing a modern Windows 11 machine in my office at some point and knowledge and experience gained from the cloud will point me in the right direction for what sort of machine that needs to be.

Website Under Attack

Intel i350 T4

Month: December 2022

Azure Lab No1

Git/GitHub – Basics

Planning a Virtualisation Lab – The Infrastructure

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