Completed in 6 Days, Not 6 Weeks Securing Additive Manufacturing Infrastructure for the Client The client powers leading additive manufacturers like Boeing, Ricoh, and Vast Aerospace with FLOWS, a digital platform for managing materials, operations, and compliance. Their enterprise clients demand infrastructure that is secure, compliant, and reliable from the ground up. To meet these expectations, the client expanded their offerings to include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and required the underlying system be fully hardened. The Challenge The client needed to move fast while meeting strict security benchmarks. The project scope included: Hardening RHEL to CIS Benchmark Level 1 Remediating CAT I and CAT II security findings Converting existing Ubuntu-based Ansible automation to support both RHEL and Ubuntu Automating all tasks using clean, testable playbooks Timeline: 7 days. Delivered: 6 days. How Space-Rocket Helped Michael executed the full RHEL Security Hardening and Automation Conversion project independently, with regular Slack check-ins mapped to milestone deliverables. RHEL Security Hardening Provisioned and configured RHEL instances Applied CIS Level 1 controls across system settings Hardened sshd_config and disabled root SSH access Configured SELinux for general workloads Removed unnecessary services and tightened default permissions Addressed all CAT I and CAT II findings via automated Ansible tasks Dual-Platform Ansible Automation Refactored playbooks originally built for Ubuntu Built platform-aware logic using Ansible conditionals Migrated package and service tasks from apt to yum/dnf Isolated OS-specific vars and templates Ensured parity with original behavior through functional tests on both platforms Tooling and Validation Developed an Ansible role to install Kubernetes components and verified install state Confirmed system integrity post-provisioning Validated all playbooks on fresh RHEL hosts Compliance and Documentation Delivered full Ansible codebase with RHEL and Ubuntu support Provided operational documentation and role-level descriptions Created setup instructions, testing notes, and hardening checklists Verified compliance with enterprise security expectations OSCAP scans to confirm CIS Benchmark compliance Outcome In just 6 days, the client received: A security-hardened RHEL environment A dual-platform Ansible automation framework Complete CIS Level 1 alignment and CAT I / II remediation All supporting documentation for handoff and continued use The client now runs on a hardened, maintainable infrastructure designed to meet the needs of their most security-conscious customers, delivered ahead of schedule and ready for production use.