Design Project 1
This milestone I chose to set up was inspired a bit by SYS-350 and I decided to create a virtual environment in which I would be able to test different applications and software. Along with this server brought a bit of trial and error learning the ProxMox interface, however, it was relatively straight forward and I have included a mini-build doc of the server I put together and my plans with it.
Before going into the build doc, I would like to state what the objectives of this project are:
- Research different tools, applications, services, etc. and begin a running database of this information
(Started but havent been able to test anything yet)
- Source Hardware and build the Physical PC that would be needed for the ProxMox Host
- Install and Manage the ProxMox server so that it would be operational for Virtualization
- Create a P2P VPN Tunnel so that it would be operational for Virtualization so that with my laptop I am able to access and work on the server remotely
- Create a working environment that can be utilized for sandboxing
I wanted this server to not only have enough storage to create a single desktop, but an entire virtual environment.
CPU: Intel i7-5820K RAM: 64 GB DDR4 GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080Ti Storage: 3x - 1 TB Hard Drives
The actual install for ProxMox was relatively simple. It was an ISO installation which needed to be turned into a bootable image, then used to boot the PC. Once it was booted and I was able to access it remotely, I was met with the following interface:
The first thing I did was initialize the disks so that they were able to be accessed by the system and then I ran a system update and it was ready to go for the most part.
Once the server was up and running, I had to set up a few background configurations and management, then I was able to create my first virtual machine. This was just a basic ubuntu server VM I used to test the abilities of the ProxMox. I had wanted to test out the host creation by making a mincraft server, as that was a simple project and had allowed me to work with forwarding ports through the server/firewall using NAT configurations within my router as well as local firewall rules on the machine. This had worked without any issues so I was able to move on to the VPN Tunnel.
This part I struggled with and had gone through a few different options:
- Windows built in VPN to a virtual machine installed on the plex -- This worked alright short-term, but was not near the ideal outcome and took much work for a sub-par outcome
- Wireguard P2P -- This was a possible option and one that was recommended by friends running a plex with this as their remote connection option. I had issues with this personally but believe with a bit more trial and error I could have made this work -OpenVPN P2P -- I had tried this as I am familiar with this interface and hoped it would be slightly better than the wireguard-install*
With this, I had decided on openvpn which was what the school was using for the exact same purpose, remote connection to campus internet. I was able to find a step-by-step of the process here. In this video, he walks through the creation of a container within ProxMox, as well as configuring it, and running the install-scripts. I followed this video pretty much exactly with a couple of minor tweaks and it had worked much more smoothly than the attempted wireguard install.
* A note: Early into looking into this, I found two scripts dedicated to easily installing and configuring both WireGuard and OpenVPN, and used them. This was also mentioned in the video but wanted to link them here as well.
The demonstration is going to be the most simple way to show off all of the objectives in one; Connect to the ProxMox Server from outside of my home network and create a desktop made for accessibility that can be the subject of following tests or projects.
Creating a Windows 10 machine was a bit more work than just booting the ISO and having it update. I had to include the additional media of the windows drivers (included in CD DRIVE ide0). These were necessary for installing the necessary drivers for the computer to function. Here is the source I used for installation.
Creating a Virtual Mac was quite a lot of work and was a lot of trial and error. Using this video and a legal copy of Mac Sonoma OS, I was able to get a desktop up and running.
