Setting up Virtual Environment: VMWare In this document, we have chosen VMWare to be our virtual environment.

We can use this environment for multiple purposes such as running servers or workstations, testing exploit, capturing traffic, analyzing the packets, generating signature, analyzing the signature that we just created and much more What you will learn... Installing VMWare Configuring VMWare Settings

To create the environment, we need to first install VMWare on our system. Once that is done, we need to load an OS into the VMWare. Figure 1, shows the place where we can chose the NewVirtualMachine to create our virtual machine.

Figure 1. New Virtual Machine Installation Menu

Once we click on the Virtual Machine tab in the New section, we will see the welcome window for the new virtual machine wizard, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. New Virtual Machine Wizard

Click Next to continue with the configuration settings of the virtual machine. In this you will have two options as shown in Figure 3, typical and custom.

Figure 3. Setting up Configuration

In this case we chose Typical option, as it will create a new VM with the most common settings in terms of device and configuration options. This VM will not be compatible with the VMWare ESX server 2.x, GSX Server 3.x, ACE 1.x or Workstation 4.x. But this was the case in VMWare 5, which need not be the same in your case.

Figure 4. Choosing the OS

Once the configuration is set, we can choose the Operating System that is going to be installed in this VM. This doesnt install the OS, but just sets the environment compatible to install the OS that you have chosen from the list, as shown in Figure 4. Clicking Next would take it to the next window shown in Figure 5, where you choose the VM Name and the path where you would like this to be installed.

Figure 5. Choosing the path for installation

Once the OS path is set, we move on to Network Settings where we have four granular options. Setting the network type is most important when it comes to how you would like to use this VM later, though VMWare is created for ease of use and hence you could change the network settings at any point of time even after the installation is done.

Figure 6. Choosing the network

There are four modes of network types to choose as shown in Figure 6: Bridged mode NATted mode Host-only mode No Network Connection

Bridged Mode: In this mode, the guest operating system would have direct access to the external network of the host on which VMWare is running. The guest will have its own IP address on the external network.

NATted Mode: In this mode, the guest operating system would connect to the external network using the host IP address. Host-only Mode: In this mode, the guest operating system would connect to the virtual network within the VMWare, and hence this mode can be used for different VMs to connect with each other inside the virtual environment. No Network Connection: In this mode, as the name suggests there will be no network connection from this guest OS.

Once we are done with the network configuration, the VM Wizard takes us to the window where we allocate disk space for the VM that is being created, or in other words the size of the VMs disk. As seen in Figure 7, the user can set a Maximum capacity of the disk and by default this shows 8.0 GB. The user can then check the boxes that provide the options such as Allocate all disk space now and Split disk into 2GB files. By choosing the first option, user can enhance the performance of the VM that is being created right now. But since the disk space is created all at once, the time taken for this process will be proportional to it (that is, this is time consuming process) and of course for the VM Wizard to allocate the space, the host disk should have that space in reality. In the second option, the user can split the total space into 2GB slices.

Figure 7. Specifying disk capacity

Once the disk space is set according to the users requirements, clicking Finish would create a VM space for the user to then install the operating system of the users choice (in this case it is Win XP). The operating system disc can then be loaded and then start the VMWare profile created for this virtual machine. Once started the OS Autorun mode will start and the user can install the operating system of choice. Taking a snapshot of the VM is a good idea if you are using this virtual machine for a test bed. This would give the user a chance to revert back to the full working condition even if the VM breaks later due to some exploit or in the testing process. In the following section, we will be discussing more about VM settings. Setting up the virtual environment doesnt really stop once the profile or workspace is created. It is beyond the creation itself. It is about installing VM tools, using VM Settings to tune the performance based on your requirements, and much more. Figure 8 shows, Memory settings where the user can choose the Random Access Memory (RAM) size, where the user should enter a number that is a multiple of 4. VMWare suggests the minimum recommended size with a yellow arrow and it sets and displays the recommended memory size in the green arrow and the maximum recommended memory with a blue arrow. This helps the users to decide the memory size to be set in their system, based on local memory space and other factors.

Once all of the above steps are done few files are created. The .vmdk (VMWare Virtual Disk) file is the image that has been created with all the user specifications. In other words, this is the Virtual Environment itself and the other important file that is created is the configuration file, which is very small in size and is discussed later in the configuration section.

VM Settings

Figure 8. VMWare Memory Settings

In the hard disk settings, the user will be able to see the disk file that we created in the process explain in creation of VMWare, the capacity of the disk and the disk information. The user has an opportunity to defragment the virtual disk. This is as shown in Figure 9. In Figure 10, the user has options to change the CD-ROM settings where the user can choose an option to connect the drive at power ON, which is powering on of the virtual machine and not the host itself.

Figure 9. VMWare Hard Disk Settings

In the connection pane, the user can choose to use a physical drive or an ISO image of the disk. In the case of a physical drive, the user can choose to exclusively connect the device to this VM and legacy emulation. In the virtual device node pane, the user can choose the device that can be used for CD-ROM.

Figure 10. VMWare CD-ROM Settings

As mentioned in the VMWare installation section, the user can change the Ethernet settings of the VM at any point of time. As shown in Figure 11, the user has the option to connect the device at power ON of the VM, choose between the various network connections as explained before. In case of Custom: Specific virtual network, the user can pick a VMnet where the Virtual Machines can communicate.

Figure 11. VMWare Ethernet Settings

Figure 12 shows USB controller settings, where the user can choose to automatically connect to new USB devices to this VM when it has focus (similar to the way it is in the real host).

Figure 12. VMWare USB Controller Settings

In the audio settings (Figure 13), the user can set the audio to connect at power ON, or auto detect. The user also has options to use the default sound adapter of the host or to specify the host sound adaptor.

Figure 13. VMWare Audio Controller Settings

VMWare provides Virtual processor settings to the user as shown in Figure 14, where the user can choose the number of virtual processors. In order for the user to choose the option Two, there should be two processors in the host on which this VM is running. If that is not the case, this option cannot be chosen.

Figure 14. VMWare Virtual Processor Settings

Cloning a VM VM image can be cloned with a simple one-click option as shown in Figure 15. This will create the clone of the entire Virtual Environment that was just created in the process. Be aware that once this is clicked, you would require twice the space that was first required since the clone will almost be the same size as the virtual environment created in the process. The user can right-click on the Virtual environment that is to be cloned and choose the Clone option and this would take a few minutes, but at the end you would have another copy of the operating system installed within this virtual space. This would be useful in the case of backups, or if the user wishes to use one version of VM for attacker and the other for victim for testing exploits, or if the user is setting a network environment within VM and testing communication between two devices of the same type and much more.

Figure 15. Cloning a VM

VMWare Configuration Opening the VMWare configuration file for this operating system will show you the settings that you have set throughout the process described above. This also shows 2 important files that are created in the process, the .vmdk file and the .nvram file. Figure 16 shows a sample configuration file.

Figure 16. VMWare Configuration Settings

Conclusion: This document should help the users to create a virtual environment with their requirement using VMWare and user would also have understood the various VM settings and how to use them according to their need.

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