Virtual box lab set up??

chutestrate

I am using a mac, but have access to licenses for server and workstation builds. I'm using Virtual box since this works well on my mac. How do I set up the lab for my studying? No, is it possible to configure a lab environment that can be separate from my work and home networks with internet access?

And how would I do this? I'm getting lost in the documentation for virtual box.

Without internet access I think I'm ok. I install server/s, add roles, assign static ip, and dhcp, install worktation/s, etc.

Could anybody share their how to with good instructions?

DoubleNNs

You essentially just need to know how to connect your VirtualBox hosts to the internet?
I'm not sure I understand your question.

chutestrate

I think that is what i'm asking. My goal is to create a lab environment that will not interact with my networks at home and work, but allow my machine to access the web.

EV42TMAN

virtual box has the ability to act as a router for your VMs, so yes it is possible. take a look the manual for how you set it up
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html

Another thing you could do if you wanted a little bit more control is create a VM that is running a linux router OS like ClearOS or pfsense then give it 2 ethernet ports one to connect to your network and the other that connects to your virtual network. I did that on my ESXi box to separate out my production and test network. But that was also out of lazyiness because i could have just created a separate VLAN or something on my Cisco router and switch.

chutestrate

Yeah, that's where my eyes rolled up inside my skull. It says it can, but not how. Any suggestions?

EV42TMAN

Well here is a quick way to do it. I'm sure there is a better way to do it but oh well. Download ClearOS Community 6.x(whatever they are at now) When you create the virtual machine assign the VM 2 NICs. Have the first nic be set on Bridged Adapter on your Mac's NIC. Click on the advanced section and select the Intel Desktop NIC. Then on the second NIC select internal network and the same Intel NIC for that one. Run through the installer and set the first NIC as the WAN port and leave it as DHCP. Then on the second NIC that will be your internal port, set up your lab networking set up on this side. During the install/first run set up make sure to allow external traffic to get into the management web page so you can easily manage it from your macs web browser. ClearOS was designed to be a firewall/router or a linux version of SBS so for this set up just do a basic firewall/router set up. Once this VM is all set up go to any existing Server VMs you have and change the network adapter to the internal network. I attached a couple of pics of how the settings look in ESXi i know its not the same as virtualbox but the general idea is the same.



ClearOS runs on minimal resources so you don't have to worry about assigning it a ton of resources. I highly recommend in investing in a Home ESXi/Hyper-V set up if you're going to go after a lot of certifications it will make your life easier in the long run. Personally i prefer ESXi, but i know Hyper-V is tested in the Microsoft server certs.