Summary

In this lab we configured a ESXI host on a physical server and got VMs interconnected & on the internet.

Starting from scratch

Step 1: Find ISO file for ESXI host, we got ours on the cyber.local file share.

Step 2: Using RUFUS, create a USB installer stick with the ISO file. Install ESXi8 just as you would install Windows 11 on a new computer by plugging the USB in and booting off of it. Then continue with the installation process

Step 3: Go to the IP address of the server, go to Remote Control > iKVM5 > Power Control > Set Power Reset to restart the system.

Step 4: Boot from UEFI or similar sounding USB device.

Step 5: Press Continue > Choose biggest drive > "OK" > Enter root password > Continue > Enter (to reboot)

Step 6: ESXi should be installed. Browse to Network Adapters and press enter, choose the vmnic that says "connected" next to it. Select that one. Press Y to restart network

Step 7: Configure Management Network and choose the proper IPv4 address assigned to you for accessing the ESXi UI. Choose 192.168.4.4 and 192.168.4.5 for DNS servers, choose 192.168.3.250 for the upstream gateway.

Using the ESXi UI

Step 1: Create a datastore on the machine, this will allow us to upload ISOs

Step 2: Grab xubuntu, vyos and windows server ISO files and upload them to datastore

Step 3: Create VMs with proper hardware and choose "thin provisioned" for the hard disk settings

Vyos Setup

DNS
set service dns forwarding listen-address 10.0.17.2
set service dns forwarding name-server 192.168.4.4
set service dns forwarding name-server 192.168.4.5
set service dns forwarding allow-from 0.0.0.0/0
set system name-server 192.168.4.4
set system name-server 192.168.4.5

Static route:

set protocols static route 0.0.0.0/0 next-hop 192.168.3.250

interfaces:

set interfaces ethernet eth0 address 10.0.17.2/24
set interfaces ethernet eth1 address 192.168.3.29/24

NAT:

set nat source rule 10 outbound-interface eth1
set nat source rule 10 source address 10.0.17.0/24
set nat source rule 10 translation address masquerade

zones:

set firewall zone lan interface eth0
set firewall zone lan from wan firewall name wan-to-lan
set firewall zone wan interface eth1
set firewall zone wan from lan firewall name lan-to-wan

set firewall interface eth0 local name lan-local
set firewall interface eth1 local name wan-local

set firewall name lan-to-wan default-action accept
set firewall name wan-to-lan default-action accept

set firewall name LAN-LOCAL default-action accept
set firewall interface eth0 local name LAN-LOCAL

set firewall name WAN-LOCAL default-action accept
set firewall interface eth1 local name WAN-LOCAL