Environment Setup

Summary:

This entry will be focused on the first lab for my Sysadmin & Net Services I (SYS-255) class. In this lab, I worked with two VMs on a vSphere host. The first step was configuring the VMs to be on the right virtual network. the first VM, fw01, had two virtual NICs. One to simulate a WAN connection and the other for a LAN connection. I ensured these were connected to the appropriate virtual network. Next, I went into the fw01 VM and configured the interface IPs. After that, I began working with the second VM, the windows 10 box, wks01. I created a new admin user and then configured the ethernet adapter option so I would be on the right subnet since the pfsense box didn't have an active DHCP server. Once the two devices could communicate I completed some configuration of the pfsense box via the web GUI through the windows VM.

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VMware:

Description: VMware has multiple virtualization software. VMware workstation runs on a workstation computer and is not an operating system. VMware ESXi is a server operating system that is used in enterprise environments (or if you're like me in your home lab). When you use VMware ESXi you can connect multiple hosts into one web interface using vSphere. vSphere is managed through a vCenter server (can be a VM or on bare metal).

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pfSense:

What is it? “pfSense is an open-source firewall/router computer software distribution based on FreeBSD. It is installed on a physical computer or a virtual machine to make a dedicated firewall/router for a network.”

default creds:

• User: admin
• Password: pfsense

Note: I used pfSense as a firewall/router for my home network. I ran it on bare metal using my r210 and had a VM for testing settings out. I replaced pfSense with my edge router x.

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Windows:

Commands Used:

• whoami: Displays user and group information for the current user.
• hostname: Displays the hostname of a system.
• ping: verifies ip level connectivity to another TCP/IP computer using an ICMP echo request.
• ipconfig: Displays all the current TCP/IP network configurations.

How to add a new user or modify local users and groups: To create a new local user type “lusrmgr.msc” into the windows search bar. From there go to the user's folder. Next right click and select new user. To modify an existing user just double-click on them. If you go to the member of tab you can add and remove users from a group (You can also do this by double-clicking on the group in the group section).

How to change network adapter settings: Open control panel. Select network and internet. Then network and sharing center. from there choose change adapter settings. Double-click on the adapter you want to modify, then select properties. Finally, select the protocol you want to edit (ipv4 or ipv6). From there you can edit the network settings for that adapter.