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VMTN_Admin
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X-M0n0wall

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

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

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brugh
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I've seen the same thing with centos and vmware server. It's one of the reasons i switched to ubuntu. The CPU usage of the VM's and their processes were significantly lower. I have no idea why this happens. Must be some Redhat/Centos specific kernelpatches but nobody I asked could explain why this happens.

If switching host OS isn't an option for you, you can try switching off the traffic shaper. That's a CPU eater. Everything else uses very low resources (<5% on my 2.4ghz system).

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JCvanDoorn
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I was also having issues where the appliance would just suddenly freeze and eat 100% of a CPU. I ran the appliance on ESX 3.0.0 at first. I upgraded the host to ESX 3.0.2 Update 1, but that had no effect. After a bit of digging around (with the help of "brugh") I found that my config file was incorrect. Because of the import to ESX, I was missing the "ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"" statements in my config file. This is because by default ESX will detect which nic to run with and than give that (the flexible adapter). I put the missing line into my config file (for all three NICs I use) and the FW has been stable ever since. You can easily spot if your config file is correct, cause when it is, you will have "vxn" adapters in your appliance. If your config file is incorrect, you will have "lnc" adapters in your appliance.

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brugh
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good to hear that worked out :smileyblush: i never ran into that problem myself because i import the harddisk into a new VM when i put the x-mono on esx. seems that converters don't create the network cards correctly. good to know :smileygrin:

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JCvanDoorn
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I also imported just the Hard-Disk and created a new VM in ESX (via the Wizard) and just pointed it towards the .vmdk.

I made sure that I chose the right number of NICs, the right type of SCSI controller and all, but figured that the flexible adapter would suffice to get the VMXnet functionality. Apparently it wasn't :smileyshocked:

I'm glad adding the vmxnet line fixed it, cause the firewall is running extremely smooth right now, using on average just under 150Hz and around 45MB of Memory :0:0:^0

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brugh
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Just a quick message to let you people know that there's a new version of monowall on http://m0n0.ch. I'll have the x-monowall updated to that version real soon and will let you know where to get it. (this is for everybody who's been mailing me to update x-mono Smiley Wink)

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brugh
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Check out for an update on the great x-monowall appliance! It's got some minor bugfixes.

Remember that if you import the appliance into server or workstation (not just unpack and run) you'll have to check the vmx file for ethernetX.virtualDev = 'VMXNET'. In ESX, be sure to check your ethernetX.deviceType = 'vmxnet'.

have fun!

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brugh
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This small update give x-mono the vmware scripts to decently shut it down. They've been missing since the start; there was a heartbeat but no remote control. But with this small update it finally behaves well when the host wants it to shutdown properly.

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brugh
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As it turns out I used a compressor that's not too compatible with the rest of the world. Thanks to everybody who've been pointing that out to me. I recompressed the appliance with a normal basic tar jcvf so everybody should be able to unpack it again.

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brugh
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Yes, another update. just a small update on ppp. the http://m0n0.ch version 1.233 is now applianized.

you can save your config file again, put this image in place and restore the image. BUT: i put the guest daemon back to it's default place in /usr/bin so you should change your shellcmd line from /sbin/vmware-guestd to /usr/bin/vmware-guestd. if you don't you wont be able to remotely shutdown the appliance so you'll know soon enough Smiley Wink

have fun!

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touimet
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I downloaded the tar file several times to two seperate PC. One with WinZip and the other with PowerArchiver. Neither PC can extract the tar.

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brugh
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try http://www.7-zip.org/. i think that can uncompress tar.bz2 files.

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RMRed
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I've tried your monowall appliance using VMWareServer 1.0.5, but it tell me that VMWare Tools are not installed.

What do I need to do in order to enabler/install VMWare tools?

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everlong81
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You do that in the VMWARE menu, go to VM -> Install VMware tools.

One question to Brugh, I downloaded the 1.233 v. I've imported the files through File -> Import. When i start the guest os i looks for 3 ip's and when that is finished it quotes Operation system not found. I'm just trying this on my laptop with one wlan card and one ethernet. What am i doing wrong? Can't this app be run by itselfe?

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brugh
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seems it doesn't recognize the harddisk. it has 3 NICs by default and will try to pxe boot them if harddisk boot fails.

try to edit the VM and remove the harddisk, then re-add it as an existing disk, pointing to the .vmdk file. what platform/virtualization are you using?

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brugh
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On the brink of the 1.3 release, there's another update on the 1.2 version. So I updated the appliance accordingly. Check out .

Have fun!

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martinwa
Contributor
Contributor

How can I use it on ESXi The new hypervisor?

It boots, but the netcards cannot be used...

Best regards

Martin

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brugh2
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Contributor

the easiest way is to use vmware converter to move it to esx3i. normally i'd advise to import the vmdk and create a new vm in esx. but i'm not aware of any import tools when using the remote console for 3i..

what type of network cards does mono report when you boot it? should say vxn0. if it says something else you may have to reassign network ports (option 1 on the console).

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martinwa
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Contributor

you are right, the networkcards had to be re-asigned. the new names was lnc0 lnc1 and lnc2.

Best regards

Martin

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martinwa
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Contributor

error

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martinwa
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Contributor

Hi,

For some reason the vmware-tools is not running.

I cannot monitor the heartbeat.

The "infrastructure client" tells me "not installed".

Do I have to do something to "reactivate" them?

Best regards

Martin

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