Welcome to the Building a Classroom Cyber Range series! This project is a collaborative effort between myself, Tim Rosenberg, and a powerful AI assistant, designed to share the journey of designing, deploying, and refining a cyber range for educational use. Together, we aim to document every step, challenge, and solution, providing valuable resources for educators, technologists, and cybersecurity enthusiasts worldwide.

Whenever you see the word “we,” it reflects the collaboration between myself and my AI assistant, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can significantly enhance productivity and creativity in complex projects like this one.

What is a Cyber Range?

A cyber range is a controlled, interactive environment used to simulate real-world cybersecurity scenarios. In a classroom, it’s a hands-on platform for students to:

• Learn networking and security concepts.
• Practice defending and attacking systems in a safe environment.
• Gain experience with industry-standard tools and techniques.

The Goal

This series is more than just a technical guide; it’s a blueprint for educators and organizations to build their own cyber ranges. By sharing our process, challenges, and resources, we hope to:

1. Demystify the Process: Show how a complex project like this can be broken into manageable steps.
2. Provide Resources: Share open-source tools, scripts, and configurations to make this accessible to others.
3. Encourage Collaboration: Inspire others to adopt, adapt, and improve upon our work.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Core Servers

• Overview of the key servers that form the backbone of the cyber range.
• The importance of a single user store for seamless integration.
• Leveraging xAPI and an LRS for advanced player tracking and reporting.