Advanced Virtual Infrastructures for IT Education: An Integrated Proxmox and EVE-NG Approach

The rapid evolution of information technology demands practical, hands-on training environments that traditional classrooms often cannot provide. This paper presents an integrated virtual laboratory architecture combining Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) as the core hypervisor with EVE-NG (Emulated Virtual Environment - Next Generation) for advanced network emulation. Unlike many of the existing studies that address these technologies in isolation, our approach consolidates virtualization, network emulation, monitoring (Nagios), security (pfSense), and automated backup into a unified ecosystem tailored for IT education. The proposed platform enables students to design, configure, and troubleshoot complex infrastructures without requiring costly physical hardware, while maintaining enterprise-grade functionality and resilience. A pilot implementation with academic students demonstrated improved understanding of networking concepts, greater confidence in applying skills, and higher engagement compared to traditional teaching methods. Consolidating resources on a single server boosts efficiency and simplifies management, making it ideal for educational settings. For effective system oversight, we transitioned to Nagios for advanced monitoring. Centralized network management is achieved via a virtualized firewall/router (pfSense). Finally, a robust backup strategy using scheduled backups is paramount for protecting student work and configurations. By strategically combining these elements, this integrated platform creates an exceptionally powerful, efficient, and resilient virtual laboratory, providing an ideal hands-on environment for students to deeply engage with and master advanced IT technologies. Thus, this work contributes a scalable and reproducible blueprint for universities seeking to modernize IT curricula through accessible, cost-efficient, and pedagogically effective virtual infrastructures, integrating key components to simulate real-world IT scenarios and enhancing the learning experience.