PfSense on virtual machine inside windows
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Hi,
I was wondering if some on ecan help me how should I set up pfSense on a virtual machine inside windows, the windows machine is also a virtual machine. Let say pfSense in virtual box on windows machine, windows machine is also a virtual machine on vmware.
Thanks
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Huh? Why?
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Indeed, why?
Why not just run pfSense as a VM in VMware?Steve
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Why not just run pfSense as a VM in VMware?
Maybe its some form of "hosted" service and he has administrative access to the Windows VM but not to VMware.
VirtualBox on Windows? (I run VirtualBox on Linux but not Windows).
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VirtualBox on Windows? (I run VirtualBox on Linux but not Windows).
It can run on Windows, though I've never tried it.
@https://www.virtualbox.org:
Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts
Good point about host machine access.
Steve
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Isn't one of the 'rules' of VMs is that you can't VM on another VM?
I tried installing VMware workstation on a hosted VPS but it wouldnt work.
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I think it's just an English issue. I assume he has two VMs, one pfSense, and another Windows.
If that's the case, you need to give the pfSense two NICs, one is bridged, and one is on a vnet. Give the windows machine a single NIC, and joint it to the same vnet you joined the pfSense to.
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I don't think so. He specifically states two vm hosts, vmware and virtual box, and says one is running inside the other.
Anyway this is old so he probably worked it out by now.Steve
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Isn't one of the 'rules' of VMs is that you can't VM on another VM?
I tried installing VMware workstation on a hosted VPS but it wouldnt work.
Nope, at least not a hard rule. There are some instances where it can cause problems, but there have actually been competitions to see how many levels of abstraction one can attain, bonus points for emulating non-similar hardware. I think I remember seeing someone got something like 24 distinct OS's a long time ago, the last being a Commodore 64, if I recall correctly. Oh, and that C64 was slow, even by C64 standards. That might have even been well previous to modern virtualization, possibly more in the emulation era. I couldn't find it on a quick google search.
Back to helpful information, it's pretty common for demos of ESXi to run on top of VMWare workstation to have a "cluster in a box" for demo purposes. It's pretty entertaining, actually, to see 2 ESXi hosts as VMs and a FreeNAS VM emulate a "Fault Tolerant" cluster within a single laptop.
On the other hand, I've had someone try to run a particular HyperV VM (SQL 2012 preview, if I recall correctly) on top of an ESXi 4.0 VM running Windows Server 2008 and have it lock up enough physical CPUs through repeated blue screens to effectively lock up the host. While annoyed at the downtime, I was impressed that it was able to affect the Host in that way.
So, yes, it can be done, but your mileage may vary.
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Hi All,
Thanks all on your comments and efforts to help me, My specific issue was to create a router with pfSense and to set it up as a virtual machine inside a windows machine, windows machine is also virtual , A nested virtual machine. The system I have established is for testing an application.
Finally I decided to install pfsense on a stand alone machine of course virtual , So I set up my pfSense machine as a router between two virtual switches inside ESxi.Now my next challenge is how to set up different NAT types…(asymmetric, Port-restricted)....
Any suggestions?Thanks In Advanced.
