Introduction

In this lab we installed ESXi on our in class servers and laid the groundwork for our virtual environments. Below find each of the steps used to complete this lab. Pictures are included where I felt they were needed.

• Create a bootable ESXI USB
• Installing EXSi
• Network Setup
• Creating Datastores
• Creating a VSwitch

Create a bootable ESXi USB

1. Download and install Rufus
2. Run Rufus and select your blank USB
3. Select the ISO you want (In this case ESXi)
4. Leave all the defaults
5. Run it and if it asks anything select yes

This is what the download section of the page looks like:

I did not actually do this part myself so I do not have any pictures of the process itself, just the webpage where you download Rufus

Install ESXi on the super

1. Plug in the USB and restart the server ("Set Power Reset" in the KVMI/HTML5 interface)
2. Spam F11 to reach the boot menu
3. Select UEFI: USB 2.0 option (I forgot to get a picture of this but I think this is what it is called)
4. Select the smallest disk - DO NOT Install to the USB, that would definitely cause problems

5. Set a root password - Remember this root password because if you forget you will have to restart the whole class

After installation is complete it should reboot automatically

Network Setup

Configure the applicable IP addresses and subnets

Plug in the interface and turn it on in the network management settings

Creating a new Datastore

Go to the "storage" tab and create a new datastore. Use the default options and name the new one "datastore2-super5"

Browse the new datastore and create a new directory called isos, then upload pfsense and ubuntu isos to the directory

Create VSwitch

Networking > Add a standard virtual switch

Internal portgroup

pfsense

The pfsense setup was pretty standard, I had to create a new virtual machine with the following settings:

• EXSi6.5 Compatability
• Other, FreeBSD (64-bit)
• Put it in datastore2
• 2GB RAM
• THIN Provision on the disk
• 2 network cards - 1 on VM Network, 2 on 350-Internal (One of these will need to be added)
• CD points to pfSense ISO file

Install pfSense

Use all the defaults, and make sure to select the disk by pressing space when it comes up

Before reboot:

• Power off
• disconnect cd by changing to "host device"
• Take a snapshot called base

Configure the Firewall

Go through the prompts and set the correct IP addresses, then go to 10.0.17.2 to finish setting up the firewall. Default username and password are "admin" and "pfsense"

mgmt1

Xubuntu VM

New VM, Linux distro and Ubuntu (x64). Used these settings for it:

• 5GB RAM
• 2 CPU
• 30 GB THIN disk
• Put it on VMNetwork for installation
• Point it to the xubuntu ISO

Installing Xubuntu

Minimal installation, and make the useraccount generic, like Champuser. Then wait for it to install

Final Check

Ping a couple different things to make sure internet connectivity is working

Reflection

Most tips and tricks are interwoven into the rest of the entry, but I think most of the learning curve for this milestone was learning how to use the ESXi UI to do everything we needed to do. The VM Creation is very similar to the settings I've seen on the VMs we've used for past classes, so that made sense to me. Most of the installations used the default options, and I didn't run into any problems with installation, firewall setup, or mgmt setup.