Article

Homelab Progress: Identity and Remote Access Baseline

Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, OPNsense routing, and WireGuard VPN are now online in the ElliottSecurity enterprise cybersecurity homelab.

Author
Logan Elliott
Category
Homelab
Published
July 27, 2026
Updated
July 27, 2026
Reading Time
6 min read

Overview

This progress update covers the latest milestone in the ElliottSecurity Enterprise Homelab: bringing identity services and remote access online.

The work completes the identity and remote-access baseline on top of the earlier Proxmox and networking foundation. With Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, OPNsense routing, and WireGuard VPN operational, the lab is ready for Elastic monitoring and detection-engineering workloads.

Live tracker: Lab Progress · Homelab project: Enterprise Cybersecurity Homelab.

What Was Completed

Active Directory

A Windows Server 2025 domain controller (ES-DC-01) now hosts Active Directory Domain Services for lab.elliottsecurity.net.

This establishes the identity plane the rest of the lab will join: endpoints, servers, and future security tooling.

DNS and DHCP

DNS and DHCP were configured on the domain controller so lab hosts can resolve and obtain addressing consistently from the identity plane.

OPNsense is no longer acting as the lab DNS resolver, keeping name resolution authoritative on the domain controller.

OPNsense

OPNsense setup was completed as the lab firewall and router, including routing fixes across the WiFi edge bridge path and firmware updates.

Dynamic DNS client support was added so remote-access endpoints can remain reachable as upstream addressing changes.

WireGuard VPN

WireGuard was enabled on OPNsense and verified from multiple client networks, including home Wi-Fi and a mobile hotspot.

That validation matters: remote administration now works even when the operator is not on the same local wireless network as the lab edge bridge.

Connectivity and Management Networking

Lab Internet connectivity was verified from the domain controller.

Proxmox management networking was improved so hypervisor administration aligns with the same lab path used by VPN clients—reducing friction when managing the environment remotely.

Why This Milestone Matters

Before this milestone, the lab had a hardened hypervisor and edge networking foundation, but no durable identity or remote-access control plane.

After this milestone:

  • Identity is centralized under Active Directory
  • Name resolution and addressing are controlled by the domain controller
  • Remote engineers can reach the lab securely over WireGuard
  • The environment is ready for Elastic and detection-engineering deployment

What Comes Next

  • Expand Fleet coverage and validate detections (DCP-005 in progress — telemetry writeup)
  • Group Policy baselines and privileged access patterns
  • Detection engineering validation loops against live lab telemetry

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