IT Assignment (Cloud Environment)

[Galle]

Hello PepeHeads,

I’ve just completed my first year of school and was honored to be selected for a accelerated project.

As I begin this journey, I’m reaching out to connect with individuals who have experience in any of the areas listed below. Whether you’re a student, professional, or hobbyist, your insights and support would be incredibly valuable to me.

I’d love to hear from you!

Any tips and tricks are welcome, maybe even guidance on where to start? What would you begin with? What would you configure first? etc. etc.


This is the Project:

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Project Azure:

Intro:
You are going to create a project in Azure (Microsoft's cloud environment). You will receive an environment from us with a $100 credit. You can set up your environment in it. It is very important that you monitor the costs! Once your credit runs out, we can no longer access your VMs and cannot assess your work. We can give you a new environment, but you will have to rebuild everything from scratch.


Technical content:

• Azure
  • NSG (open and close necessary ports)

• DC
  • AD (come up with your own domain with users: Pietje, Kees, Jan, Henk, and yourself)
  • DNS

• Mail server (iRedMail)
  • Domain (at hostnet, a domain costs about 20 cents for the first year)
  • DNS records

• Nextcloud
  • SSL (can be done for free via certbot)
  • Domain
  • Office integration
  • LDAP (sync users from your AD)

• WS (VM on your own laptop)
  • Mail client (Thunderbird)

• General
  • Tailscale (mesh VPN only for management)

Delivery / Assessment:

• You may deliver a technical document (network diagram, configuration of the components you have set up)
• A presentation / demonstration

 

[SomeUser]

Hey so its been a WHILE since i done something like this so imma be a complete idiot looking at this but imma help where able, First of all syibus wise what exactly does it say, does it want you to do all these or just one.

 

[Galle]

Hey so its been a WHILE since i done something like this so imma be a complete idiot looking at this but imma help where able, First of all syibus wise what exactly does it say, does it want you to do all these or just one.

They want me to make one network that includes all the elements mentioned.

 

[SomeUser]

With asure if memory servers me right, you can have a linux VM and a windows one, I would recommend a linux VM for more control over what you want, however if you need a VM locally aswell I used to use virtualbox
(https://www.virtualbox.org)

Another good tool to use for the cyber security side of things - (https://osintframework.com) It containes a bunch of free tools and its handy to look at if you need something.

For the actual assignment - It asks for a VM using virtualbox install another linux VM (lightwight and moden one https://linuxmint.com but any other one works)
Azure im not entirely sure on as its been so long since i done anything with azure, but I remeber something about there being a email client option, you can then hook it via a local network.

Part of the asignment is this next cloud - https://nextcloud.com is the website however im not sure how it fits together

Im ngl thats the most I can do RN im afraid let me know if anything i have said helps

 

[Galle]

With asure if memory servers me right, you can have a linux VM and a windows one, I would recommend a linux VM for more control over what you want, however if you need a VM locally aswell I used to use virtualbox
(https://www.virtualbox.org)

Another good tool to use for the cyber security side of things - (https://osintframework.com) It containes a bunch of free tools and its handy to look at if you need something.

For the actual assignment - It asks for a VM using virtualbox install another linux VM (lightwight and moden one https://linuxmint.com but any other one works)
Azure im not entirely sure on as its been so long since i done anything with azure, but I remeber something about there being a email client option, you can then hook it via a local network.

Part of the asignment is this next cloud - https://nextcloud.com is the website however im not sure how it fits together

Im ngl thats the most I can do RN im afraid let me know if anything i have said helps

I forgot to mention that I currently use VMWare Workstation for my Virtual machines. I am gonna save this "https://osintframework.com/" for later in the future it looks pretty handy.

As for the assignment, everything needs to run through Azure except for the WS (WorkStation) This will run on a Virtual Machine on VMWare. I have never worked with NextCloud, iRedMail, Tailscale.

If you would have to make this Project, What would you start with? the NSG Ports, Domain Controller or the mail server? etc.

 

[SomeUser]

I would start with the mail server easiest thing to start with IMO

 

[Galle]

I would start with the mail server easiest thing to start with IMO

Will do! I will start on Friday. I'll use Ubuntu Server to run iRedMail, since we've been using the Ubuntu Linux version for most of the year now.

I'll come back to this thread to ask questions and share my progress.

 

[SomeUser]

No worries im not an expert but i will help where i can

 

[nako5]

I forgot to mention that I currently use VMWare Workstation for my Virtual machines. I am gonna save this "https://osintframework.com/" for later in the future it looks pretty handy.

As for the assignment, everything needs to run through Azure except for the WS (WorkStation) This will run on a Virtual Machine on VMWare. I have never worked with NextCloud, iRedMail, Tailscale.

If you would have to make this Project, What would you start with? the NSG Ports, Domain Controller or the mail server? etc.

I don't know iRedMail but setting up email with an all-in-one server is usually just a matter of setting DNS records https://docs.iredmail.org/setup.dns.html
Nextcloud is quite easy to setup in my experience and it's pretty easy to configure with its own admin panel

LDAP support in nextcloud is just another plugin to install within the settings iirc.

For tailscale, just read the docs, it's pretty simple to use from the command line
In my opinion, slap it all into a docker-compose.yml file and use Azure's docker support or install docker on a VPS in Azure (although, I am a stranger to Azure)

If Azure lets you set PTR records (reverse DNS) you should set it so your emails have less chance of getting marked as spam, although in my experience I am able to send emails to gmail accounts without them.

I'd recommend running nextcloud through https://caddyserver.com/ as a reverse proxy, which automatically sets up HTTPS

As for active directory I've no clue

My knowledge on this is limited but my discord is nako5 if you have any questions

 

[Riekelt]

Will do! I will start on Friday. I'll use Ubuntu Server to run iRedMail, since we've been using the Ubuntu Linux version for most of the year now.

I'll come back to this thread to ask questions and share my progress.

You may be about to demotivate yourself... mail servers can be a bitch. I'd start with Tailscale since it's the simplest thing to setup (https://tailscale.com/kb/1031/install-linux)

Go for Ubuntu 24.04 to make your life easier as it's the latest LTS version (using 24.10 or 25.04 may give you some issues with packages that haven't been updated yet.)

To save on spending you should be able to set all this up on a standard Azure instance (go for Standard B1ms or something similar.)

Looking at what you need to do I'd suggest this order: Tailscale -> AD (since you are going to want this set-up before you install iRedMail and NextCloud so their installers can configure it for you ) -> iRedMail -> Nextcloud.

If there are no other requirements to your AD other than it being, well, AD you could look into Azure's Entra ID which simplifies thing by a great deal.

If you have any questions about Azure feel free to send me a DM.

 

[SomeUser]

You may be about to demotivate yourself... mail servers can be a bitch. I'd start with Tailscale since it's the simplest thing to setup (https://tailscale.com/kb/1031/install-linux)

Go for Ubuntu 24.04 to make your life easier as it's the latest LTS version (using 24.10 or 25.04 may give you some issues with packages that haven't been updated yet.)

To save on spending you should be able to set all this up on a standard Azure instance (go for Standard B1ms or something similar.)

Looking at what you need to do I'd suggest this order: Tailscale -> AD (since you are going to want this set-up before you install iRedMail and NextCloud so their installers can configure it for you ) -> iRedMail -> Nextcloud.

If there are no other requirements to your AD other than it being, well, AD you could look into Azure's Entra ID which simplifies thing by a great deal.

If you have any questions about Azure feel free to send me a DM.

This guy sounds like he knows what he is on about being honest it been a while since i done anything like that so im rusty af, I would recommend what this person says!!