MiniLAN (Ubuntu, Docker) Playground

About This Playground

Want to test a client–server setup, experiment with a distributed system, or practice Linux networking without creating several local VMs?

iximiuz Labs' MiniLAN playground gives you four fresh Ubuntu servers connected to the same private network. The machines start in seconds and open in your browser, giving you an instant small LAN for experiments that need several independent hosts.

These are real VMs, not four containers pretending to be servers. Every node has its own kernel, root filesystem, network interface, and init system, so SSH, systemd, firewalls, packet capture, Docker, and other low-level Linux tools work as expected. The machines communicate much like four servers connected to the same virtual switch.

Use MiniLAN to practice client–server networking, run small distributed systems, test service discovery and load balancing, experiment with SSH and file transfers, or observe traffic with tools such as tcpdump, ss, and nmap. Turn one node into a web server, another into a reverse proxy, use the third as a client, and keep the fourth for monitoring or troubleshooting.

The fixed four-node topology makes MiniLAN a convenient starting point when a single VM is not enough but designing a custom Flexbox-based lab would be unnecessary. Install an etcd or database cluster, compare firewall rules across hosts, test failover between service replicas, or simply explore how Linux machines discover and communicate with one another on a local network.

For everything else, start the LAN and get your hands dirty. Launch a service on one node, connect from another, capture the packets on a third, break the communication with a firewall rule—and then figure out exactly what happened.

Happy hacking!