VirtualBox + pfSense + Ubuntu - my experience

[jeanmarieclement]

Hi,

i've been trying quite a few days till I got pfSense work in VirtualBox the way I needed. Here my experience report:

my config:

• ubuntu 9.04

• virtual box 2.2.4 from the sun repository (see http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads )

my goals:

• have pfSense working in VirtualBox for test purposes

• thus, I wanted to be able to have a network connection from my host to the guest (pfSense)

configure a second ip address:
I wanted to be able to reach the guest machine (pfSense) from my host. So I added a second ip address to my adapter (thanks to Hartmut Funk for the tip): edit /etc/network/interfaces like:

  auto lo
  iface lo inet loopback

  auto eth0:1
  iface eth0:1 inet static
  address 192.168.1.10
  netmask 255.255.255.0

Prepare pfSense images

• download the http://files.pfsense.org/mirror/downloads/pfSense-1.2.2-LiveCD-Installer.iso from pfSense

• download the vmware image from here http://files.pfsense.org/vmware/pfSense-1.2.2-VM.zip

• unzip it (produces  pfSense-1.2.2-VM.vmdk)

• if qemu is not available on your machine, then sudo apt-get install qemu

• do: sudo qemu-img convert pfSense-1.2.2-VM/pfSense-1.2.2-VM.vmdk raw-file.bin

• do: VBoxManage convertdd raw-file.bin PfSense.vdi

Configure VirtualBox

• start VirtualBox

• in the Virtual Media Manager, add a new disk using the PfSense.vdi created above

• also add a new CD, pointing to the the LiveCD iso

• create a new machine, using the disk above, and mounting the cd above

• in the settings, configure the machine to use at least 2 network adapters, with the same config:

  • Adapter Type: PCNet-PCI II

  • Attached to: Bridged Adapter

  • Name: eth0

First startup

• start the machine. It should boot from CD

• say no to VLANs

• for LAN/WAN, give le0 and le1

• no optional interface

• when at the menu, choose 8 (Shell)

• do: fsck /dev/ad0s1a

• shutdown the machine

Second startup

• in Virtual Box, change the machine configuration so that it does no more mount the CD.

• start the machine; it should boot from drive.

• at some point, it stops and asks for boot device. enter ufs:/dev/ad0s1a

• redo the configuration steps for pfSense

• when at the pfSense menu, choose 8 again (Shell)

• edit /etc/fstab (with e.g. vi) and correct both lines from …da0s1a to ...ad0s1a.

• try to restart, it should work straight.

[mghong]

I am running a test also on Virtuabox..

But my host is a XP SP2 host , Guest (pfSense).

I create 2 NIC , 1 for bridge another 1 for host-only-network.

From Guest, i can ping my host Lan and Wireless IP only Host-ONly network is not working
But from Host , i can't even reach my guest ip for WAN and LAN(pfSense).

Will you have any idea ?

[santhony]

I tried Ubuntu Karmic64 9.10 + virtualbox + pfsense 2.0 RC3..  I had no problems getting the host to talk to the guest(pfsense).. Also I was able to recieve and IP, from pfsense DHCP.  I believe I used one of the PCNET adaptors in bridge mode..  I could also log into the pfsense console from the karmic host.

My only problem and I didn't have much of a chance to play around with it.. Was getting VLAN's to work.. I am doing this with only one NIC in the host.

Here's my attempted setup:
Pfsense Guest:
LAN = ln0
WAN = ln0_vlan99

I have this connected to a Dlink switch that supports 802.1q.

This setup worked right out of the box…