DIP
A rebuildable cyber-response infrastructure platform that uses Proxmox or VMware-oriented deployment tracks to stand up networking, collaboration, case management, storage, and security tooling under time pressure.
Problem
Incident response infrastructure is frequently assembled service by service while the clock is already running. DIP treats the response enclave itself as deployable infrastructure so teams can recreate a known environment instead of improvising one during every event.
Constraints
- Support limited-connectivity and offline operation with local package and configuration assets where needed.
- Coordinate hypervisor, routing, switching, collaboration, storage, issue tracking, and monitoring as one operational workflow.
- Keep destructive teardown operations explicit and separate from deployment actions.
- Allow the platform concept to span both Proxmox VE and VMware ESXi deployment tracks.
Architecture
- 01
An interactive shell controller discovers or prepares infrastructure, establishes access, produces inventory, and invokes Ansible workflows.
- 02
The Proxmox track deploys infrastructure services such as OPNsense, Nextcloud, Mattermost, Redmine, and Security Onion through ordered playbooks.
- 03
Supporting configuration covers PXE/iPXE, DNS/DHCP, nginx, package repositories, terminal tooling, and other enclave plumbing.
- 04
Matching teardown playbooks make environment destruction a designed workflow rather than an undocumented cleanup exercise.
Failures / lessons
- Response speed improves when infrastructure is rehearsed as code rather than remembered as a sequence of GUI operations.
- Teardown deserves first-class automation because temporary environments accumulate risk when nobody owns their end state.
- Offline capability changes architecture early: packages, inventories, credentials, and bootstrap assumptions must all be explicit.