Well all I can tell you is how easy networking is with esxi, since this where I have the most experience.  But yes in general networking should be simpler in type 1 With esxi you create virtual switches and then either connect those to physical interfaces or dont.  But any vms can be tied to any vswitch or number of virtual switches with virtual interfaces.  With esxi it is very simple to create port groups with vlan tagging or not, etc. http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Networking http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Network_Model So for example in my setup if you just look at internet access and my lan - leave out my other networking segments.  I have a physical nic connected to vswitch WAN, and physical nic connected to vswitch LAN. the wan vswitch is connected to my cable modem. the lan vswitch is connected to my physical lan switch. I create a vm, give it a virtual nic and that is connected to whatever vswitch I want.  If connected to my lan vswitch it is like any physical box on my network, has its own mac, and to my physical network it is no different than if the device was physically connected to a switch. Another option for you from opensource for type 1 would be smartos - someone was asking if anyone was interested in a guide on getting pfsense up and running on that, etc.  I don't think he saw enough interest to move forward with his guide though. To me a type 1 is much easier to work with and removes any sort of management of the host OS type 1 you have hardware - vmhost os - vms type 2 you have hardware - OS - vmhost os - vms With type 1 your working with an OS that really only thing to do is manage the vms use of the hardware - which is was designed to do.. Not provide all the features that a normal OS does, etc. Type 2 you have your OS that manages your vmhost OS use of the hardware, and then vms on top of that.  If anything outside of extra complexity, and management of that hardware OS lets call it.  You have reduced your vm's resources available since your running a full OS, however little those resources are - it takes away from what the vms can use. Since you mention your working with a limited sort of hardware, I would think anything that reduces overhead would be good.  Like removing the OS that your virtual software has to run on top of. Your solution can and does work - I just don't see the point of it, unless you plan on using the box your planing on doing this on as a normal workstation at the same time your running your VM(s) on it.

So not having the issue with tools showing running, or starting - but did have issue with esxi 5.5 saying running, but for version where it use to say 3rd party, it says not installed ;) So on the bottom of that linked install guide is a comment how to fix it I also experienced this strange behavior after upgrading to ESXi 5.5. I could fix it with the following steps: 1. Choose "Install VMware Tools" from the VM's console menu 2. Wait a few seconds, then choose "End VMware Tools install". 3. Wait a few seconds, refresh the VM view, and the status might eventuell change to "Installed". Now show correct in the client, just need to check vserver [image: running.png] [image: running.png_thumb]

fix for you: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,69595.0.html

Curious why your changing ports in your forward from 3395 to 3389?  You sure you actually told your rdp client to connect to port 3395? Here https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Port_Forward_Troubleshooting And also if still having issues - post up screens of your rules so we can see what your doing wrong.. Have source port set is common mistake. You sure its not just local firewall of where your trying to rdp too - this is another common mistake.  Your off that boxes local lan, so its firewall most likely is not going to have that open.  Unless you set it to be.

If you haven't seen it, check out http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,56565.msg364122.html#msg364122 for ISO images to install pfSense with Hyper-V support. YMMV. AFAIK, WSrv12-R2 doesn't include a new version of the Integration Services for BSD -and even if it did, I don't know how you'd go about installing them in a running pfSense install, it likely doesn't have all the required components-, so it is up to the FreeBSD on Hyper-V open source project to release updates. There likely have been improvements in this port (the source patch we're using in the build is over 1 year old). Maybe next month I'll try to see if I can incorporate those fixes in the build process. Meanwhile, you could try the current build to see if it works for you, and post your experiences in that thread.

I have the same issue in Vmware workstation 10.  It's just flaky.  It "should" work but not so much in practice.  Works great using Virtualbox.

@invader7: If you are familiar with making the basic pfsense setup to work , that means , assign public ip , assign lan ip , access pfsense , give virtual machines lan address etc.. then the only "problem" you are facing is how to access your virtuals using real ips. i think this is your answer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrBr0N0WrTY Thank you for the reply. I had actually seen this video before posting however it says how to assign public IPs to internal hosts (meaning that the internal servers have IPs of private range i.e 192.168.0.x). Yes this is easy, however this is NOT what I am trying to do here. I want to assign the public IPs DIRECTLY inside the servers so for example all server deamons are bound to a PUBLIC IP and not a private one (which would introduce NATing). At the same time (and IF this is possible) I would like to control (at the pfsense level) what ports are open on those public IPs and hence stop/drop everything else, otherwise I would have to install a software firewall inside the VMs. Is THIS possible? Thank you

Just solved the issue. Turned out to be bound to virtio drivers. Setting the NICs to e1000 solved the issue. Lost some settings in the switch, like NAT rules (but not their firewall rule) and DHCP scope, etc. While other settings remained intact.

I was able to get it working by using virtual guest tagging basically I'm using the 802.1q driver inside of Pfsense. Also by doing this I basically removed the vswitch from the picture. However, this weekend I plan on trying to make it work via virtual switch tagging.

Download the iso from one of the mirrors of pfsense official site for example this one http://pfsense.foofus.com:81/downloads/pfSense-LiveCD-2.1-RELEASE-i386.iso.gz Create a new virtual machine and give it the extracted iso as the installer disc , customize hardware and add 2 NICs the installation is dead-simple , take a look at youtube http://goo.gl/EWKMQK

Here is the solution i followed… http://serverfault.com/questions/353223/recommended-way-to-setup-a-secure-esxi-environment-with-a-publicly-accessible-ra/353242#353242 I followed steps 1-5 Here is how to configure openvp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odjviG-KDq8

@biggsy: Did you enable promiscuous mode on the vSwitch and permit forged transmits and MAC address changes? I haven't had the need to do it but I think that's what's needed. Please suggest me how to permit forged transmits and MAC address.

Input 3072 to that blank. My memory usage has decreased from 90% to 88%, so my settings are working.  It maxed at 90% before purging cache. 90% utilization is good enough for me. Because you have more ram than me, you may later need to adjust up or down slightly on the HDD cache.  Keep an eye on it.

I have resolve the issue. What happened is that, due to imperfection yet of technology, I had to totally detach the livecd, although it has been released already after the first installation. Had my PC reset and boom! It fixed it's own.

I have run 2.1 all through its development and after final in esxi 5.0 and 5.1 and never any issues.  Now even on 5.5 without one problem related to it being a VM. I have not updated anything from the default for time settings.. My esxi host runs ntp server that syncs to internet - and all my vms and physical use it to sync time. I don't believe the vmtools you have installed even work Open-VM-Tools-8.8.1, use the 8.7 version.

^ dude read the freaking thread!! before you post and make yourself look - too late ;)

pfSense 2.1 RELEASE under Hyper-V 2008R2 setting http://knowledge.zomers.eu/pfsense/Pages/Install-pfSense-on-Windows-2008-Hyper-V-server.aspx ifconfig de0 down ifconfig de0 up ifconfig de1 down ifconfig de1 up dhclient de0 script /usr/local/etc/rc.d/interfaces.sh executed at boot, but does not work, we have to start it manually … after obtain .... DHCPACK from (Gateway provider) bound to XX.XX.XX.XX (issued ip) -- renewal in 300 seconds every 5 min. is updated by DHCP from the ISP connection and falls off to re-launch /usr/local/etc/rc.d/interfaces.sh how to overcome it or remove renewal in 300 seconds? thank's a lot