[Guide] : How to virtualize untangle - Overclock.net

Dman · 12-19-08

Things you need to complete this are, a computer with a single core processor, 1ghz or greater, 20gigs or more hd space, 512MB of ram and 2 network cards.

Ok, so you want to run untangle as a custom router but you don't have an extra pc lying around, but you do have one beefy rig sitting in your house, what do you do? Virtualize it! Virtualization is where the server industry is heading, it allows companies to save electricity, and reduce hardware repair and maintenance costs significantly. Ok so the first thing you need to do is decide which nic is going to be your WAN interface (where the internet comes in) and which is going to be your LAN interface(for dhcp to give ip's to the machines on your local network) Then install vmware on your existing pc, and make sure when you first configure vmware you have both of your network cards configured as "bridged" in vmware. Next you need to make a create a virtual machine within vmware. You do this by going to virtual machines ----> create new virtual machines

Next step is to configure it, untangle needs 512mb of ram, 20gigs of hd space and 2 nics, so make sure you put at least those specs in for your virtual machine otherwise it won't install properly. You will only be able to add a single nic to the VM when you first create it, so after you have finished go back into the VM and add a 2nd nic. This is an example of what the vm should look like after the configuration wizard.

Ok once you have the vm configured, put your untangle cd in the drive (or mount the iso, whatever option you chose) Then select your VM from the side bar and push the play button or select start VM from the side bar, you should get a screen like this after you start the VM.

Tada! Untangle starts up in your VM just as if you were installing it on another real pc.

Ok when it asks you to configure untangle, you would do it the same way you would any old dlink or linksys router. E.g. if you have a cable connection you would select dhcp for your internet type and assign what ever private ip you want for the secondary nic e.g. if you use 192.168.1.1 for your LAN interface it will assign ips in the format 192.168.1.XXX. Once you are done it should work. Ok now to go into a little bit of depth into VM's and networking. The "Bridged" option in vmware basically makes your virtual nics "real" nics on your network, with their own mac addresses. So essentially your 2 nics have become 4 nics. Ok so how the virtual router works is the nic 1 your WAN nic on the VM is your primary nic, and the second virtual nic the LAN one dishes out ips. I drew this diagram to explain this better because its confusing if you don't.

{modem}---{virtual wan}--{virtual lan (dhcp)}--{real lan card}-------{other pcs}---

Kind of crude I know, but still easier to work with then paint. So what this illustrates is that the modem gives its ip the the virtual wan nic on untangle. The the virtual lan (dhcp) nic gives ip's to all other nics, even the real LAN nic on the pc, and it does this through the real LAN nic. Confusing right? So basically your fake dhcp nic gives ips to all the other pc's on the lan, including the nic its going through. After this you should be up and running, the 1st nic on the real machine you should need to give it an ip with no gateway, and not have it get its ip info from the untangle router, otherwise you will get a conflict because you have 2 connected nics on the same subnet going to the same machine. The machine will get its internet through the secondary nic. If you need info on how to setup untangle I believe DuckieHo posted it in this thread here http://www.overclock.net/networking-...ml#post5102005. As you can see virtualization uses very little resources, untangle is only using 442mhz out of 5000mhz and 228 megs out of 2gigs of ram.

If you feel this guide could use more info, please feel free to ask questions in this thread.

OverclockTheStock · 12-19-08

nice guide!

J.Harris · 12-19-08

So, if I can virtualize untangle, does this mean I can use this computer for freeNAS as well? I'm trying to keep from having to run 2 computers.

Dman · 12-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Harris

So, if I can virtualize untangle, does this mean I can use this computer for freeNAS as well? I'm trying to keep from having to run 2 computers.

You can virtualize any server/os in vmware. Networking in virtualization is the confusing part. Yes you could actually have untangle and freenas on the same machine, and have untangle assign an ip to the free nas part. Each virtual nic on a virtual machine has its own mac address. So when setting up FreeNas, make sure you pick the "bridged" option in vmware.

J.Harris · 12-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dman

You can virtualize any server/os in vmware. Networking in virtualization is the confusing part. Yes you could actually have untangle and freenas on the same machine, and have untangle assign an ip to the free nas part. Each virtual nic on a virtual machine has its own mac address. So when setting up FreeNas, make sure you pick the "bridged" option in vmware.

Ohh man, I can tell this will be complex.

Dman · 12-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Harris

Ohh man, I can tell this will be complex.

Not really, you just install free nas as you would if you were going to install it on a separate machine. Make the virtual nic "bridged" to the one on your real pc that is getting its ip from the router, then the virtual machine will get another ip address from the router and you will be able to access it via the network. You have to think of the virtual machine as a separate actual machine, it makes it easier to network.

gnomepunk · 12-19-08

I was thinking about trying this in VirtualBox the other day. I couldn't decided if it would work well or not. Glad to see that you got it working. I'm off to try this in VB now!

J.Harris · 12-19-08

So tell me, what OS do I need to install first? I'm really confused about how to get started.

Dman · 12-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Harris

So tell me, what OS do I need to install first? I'm really confused about how to get started.

First you need to answer me this, how many computers do you have, and one OS is on the one you want to install vmware on?

DuckieHo · 12-20-08

Could you throw up some screenshots of assign IPs to the virtual and real NICs? This is where I get confused.... thanks!

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[Guide] : How to virtualize untangle

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