Lab environment which relays on the class workstations as the main computing power for the lab simulations, each student gets a stand alone version of the lab environment, installed on his class workstation. Access to class materials is through the corresponding student CD-ROM (i.e. SeeD) accompanying the course literature.
SeeVLab - Virtual Lab Environment
See-Security had created a unique “Hands-On” fully customizable lab environment for the company’s top IT Security classes. This new approach to technical exercises will allow each student to experience real Hacking Scenarios against real Networks with real Operating Systems. Our lab environment has the needed diversity to imitate Real Life scenes. Running on various operating systems: Windows 2000/3, NT 4.0, Linux RH and Windows XP and with various degrees of patching and hardening (Service Packs, Patches, Encryption services and so on…) our lab network will interact with the students actions and allow them to really stretch their knowledge and technical skills.
Lab Environment Explained:
The Lab environment is made out of powerful server hardware running services in virtual machines spread across numerous Virtual PCs each configured individually with differentiating operating systems and hardening levels.
Lab administrators can set the initial configurations for the differing Virtual PCs and customize the lab environment to suite specific course needs. A default configuration of up to 15 users each with his own 5 Virtual PCs (amounting to 75 individually configured Virtual PC’s) is supplied by See-Security for its Authorized Centers.
Figure1. SeeVLab Environment (Class Pre-Configuration)
Students Select from the pre-configuration stated by the lab admin and can build their own simulation tests. Access to the virtual platform is via a specially configured web interface allowing the student access to the Central Lab Server where the lab exercises are described and followed through. The Central Lab Server holds additional information and reference links supporting the different Hack Scenarios - all available through the web interface.
Using this flexible and easy to manage technology See-Security has formed a Dynamic Lab Environment named: SeeVLab. Offering Authorized Centers a centrally managed, customizable lab solution on the one hand and a rich “Real-Life” lab environment for Students to explore on the other.
Figure 2. SeeVLab Environment - Hosted windows XP system running in a VM
Lab Architecture:
See-Security is relaying on the powerful virtual machine software VMware Workstation 4 for running the SeeVLab environment.
VMWare allows you to run a "guest" Operating System inside a "host" operating system. Once this guest operating system is running you can install Applications and run services that the Guest OS supports. For example, if your host OS is Linux you can run Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 9x and you will be able to run applications for Windows inside of that environment and vice versa.
What Is VMware Workstation?
VMware Workstation is powerful virtual machine software for developers and system administrators who want to revolutionize software development, testing and deployment in their enterprise. Shipping for more than five years and winner of over a dozen major product awards, VMware Workstation enables software developers to develop and test the most complex networked server-class applications running on Microsoft Windows, Linux or NetWare all on a single desktop. Essential features such as virtual networking, live snapshots, drag and drop and shared folders, and PXE support make VMware Workstation the most powerful and indispensable tool for enterprise IT developers and system administrators.
How Does VMware Workstation Work?
VMware Workstation works by enabling multiple operating systems and their applications to run concurrently on a single physical machine. These operating systems and applications are isolated in secure virtual machines that co-exist on a single piece of hardware. The VMware virtualization layer maps the physical hardware resources to the virtual machine's resources, so each virtual machine has its own CPU, memory, disks, I/O devices, etc. Virtual machines are the full equivalent of a standard x86 machine.
SeeD – Client Based Lab Environment
Lab environment which relays on the class workstations as the main computing power for the lab simulations, each student gets a stand alone version of the lab environment, installed on his class workstation. Access to class materials is through the corresponding student CD-ROM (i.e. SeeD) accompanying the course literature.
