X-M0n0wall

[VMTN_Admin]

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/150

all-in-one firewall package upgraded with VMXnet, heartbeat and MUI-control

[brugh]

why is this appliance not in the directory? it's only mentioned in the forums. and where can i rate it?

[brugh]

kewl, it's back

[Judge-Dredd]

What does the appliance do and what unique value does it provide to the intended audience:

Another firewall.

Innovative use of virtualization technology:

none.

Size of the appliance relative to functionality and performance:

Normal size for a firewall

Comments:

The description is very brief and doesn't really give enough detail to properly review it. The use of php & xml sound interesting to a developer but and end user won't care. I will be downloading this appliance to see how it works internally, but as an end user I would see no reason to select this appliance over any of the numerous other firewall appliances.

Note : This review is based only on the appliance description, not on the actual appliance

[flame_]

I get an errors on bootup;

"VMware Tools poweron script did not run successfully in this virtual machine."

When I try to login to the webGUI it asks for the username and password, but the page never loads (I'm using Firefox on Ubuntu).

[brugh]

first, it's better than the other monowall/firewalls because it has vmxnet, mui-control and heartbeat monitoring.

second, i wrote a document that i thought would be made available with the appliance in which i wrote in more depth how it works, and how it's setup.

if it doesn't work out of the box, be sure your host has the NICs connected correctly and the appliance LAN ip address is in range of your workstation at which you are trying to connect. it sometimes helps to connect only the first NIC of the appliance (which would connect to the LAN adapter)

[xAyiDe]

Anyway to start this in VMWare ESX 2.5.2 ?

I get an error-message saying "This diskimage was made with a newer version of vmware virtual disk format"

[brugh]

there's a way yes. works for most VMs:

1) import the diskfile into esx using vmkfstools -i

2) attach it to an existing VM

3) start that VM and it will ask you if it has to convert the disk, say yes

4) create a new VM using 3 NICs (vmxnet ofcourse), 1st connected to the LAN, 2nd to the WAN and 3rd to a DMZ (can be internal only), set it to use 64MB ram, no cd or floppy

5) attach the disk to this machine and you're all set

[xAyiDe]

This did the trick. Thanks...

[brugh]

no problemo don't forget to vote http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/vote/node/150/100?destination=node%2F150 if you like it!

[xAyiDe]

This thing crashed my whole ESX two times. It seems to loose the scsi for the VMFS. Still I would like to Vote good for this because I have waited for such a mod of m0n0wall. Hope the problem doesn't appear in 3.0 of ESX.

Still I can't find how to vote ,) Where do I click?

[brugh]

if you click on the link in the first entry on this list, you can click on the stars you'd appoint to this appliance on the very right side of the page, right under 'click to rate item'. the most right star would give the highest rating.

and if this appliance crashes your esx, you'd better file a bugreport. i never heard of a VM that could crash your ESX! i run it in esx 2.5 and 3, vmware server and workstation. all without any problems. behaves perfectly.

[ExCon]

Does anyone have the writeup on this appliance (or the id/password)? I've been trying to hit the page all morning, but keep getting Access Denied... This happened yesterday for a few hours too, so I don't know what's up at VMware...

[brugh]

it's user admin, pwd mono

[Iznobad]

Some say, "oh it's just another firewall", but I find that this one is unique, because it has traffic shaping / QoS built in, and has an easy to use wizard that'll let you make traffic shaping easily.

In many networks there is too much P2P traffic and it really limits the other users. In my appartment building we're trying to share an 8 mbit connection between 20 users and it's almost hopeless to get through. I'm going to suggest to the admins that we monowall instead of our current router.

[brugh]

i totally agree. and with the vmxnet driver built in this one eats less resources on your workstation (or preferably vmware server) too.. don't forget to vote 5 starts

[betasoftware]

1.23b is out (yeah only a beta).

Any chance of X-m0n0wall having 1.23b version? Thanks.

Also if you can update the descript, with explanation of what's the benefit of vmxnet drivers, MUI-Control and heartbeat monitoring, it might have advertise your version.

Thanks for the great work.

[brugh]

i wont update to a beta version but i'll update to the final release when it's out.

as for vmxnet, i thought everybody knew why you always want to use those whenever posible. they eat less memory and cpu which leaves more resources for other tasks.

[brugh]

due to popular demand; a quick howto on setting up this appliance can be found here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~brugh/appliance.pdf

[ExCon]

Well, I got it running for a little while -- routing, port forwarding, etc. but at some point it goes brain dead. Can still ping itself, but nothing else. Any reports of this, or is it just me?