Cloud Computing

Juan Martinez

CPMT 2433

4-1-18
The Project assigned was cloud computing, what I was meant to do in this project was make a

virtual server and run it in a physical server. I needed create 3 Virtual machines with the OS’s of

Windows XP, Ubuntu, and fedora, and 3 virtual machines one with floppy firewall and the other

with vSphere’s Esxi 6.5 and one for tinycore. The Goal of the project was to use floppy firewall

as a dhcp range reserve and give one for each of the virtual machines. Tinycore is meant to be

used within the actual server as the gateway to the OS’s through esxi.

The first thing I needed to do was understand what hypervisor type 1 and type 2 are, and

how to work tinycore, esxi and floppyfw work together with the three OS’s. According to the

website SearchServerVirtualization hypervisor is a low-level program that allows multiple OS’s

to run at the same time on a single pc (SearchServerVirtualization, 2010). The editors of

SearchServerVirtualization say that hypervisor type 1 runs into the system hardware meaning

that the user will work with physical hardware, while for type 2 runs on host operating system in

which that mean all its virtual (SearchServerVirtualization, 2010). According to the to the

specifications given for the project I will have to work with both types of hypervisors. The first

type would be the creation of the virtual machines and arranging them to work and communicate

between them. As for the type 2 it will be when I would migrate all the virtual machines into a

physical server and access them through it.

The next thing I needed to research was how does esxi works. The esxi is a virtual server

which means that is classified as a hypervisor type 1 server that was developed by VMware as

bare metal embedded hypervisor (Techopeida, 2018). There are a lot of advantages of having

virtual servers, some of the advantages are that it is all virtualized meaning that there is less need

for physical servers which can be damaged by many different factors, but it is also not

completely invulnerable. The way we the students are tasked to use esxi is as a manager for the
OS’s when I would migrate them into the physical server and act as a wall to those who would

want to access them without permission. Since figuring that out the next thing to do was on how

to get tinycore to work and communicate with the other virtual machines and how to work with

esxi as well.

Tinycore is a linux base OS that has a small footprint. The creators of tinycore wanted it

to be a nomadic ultra-small graphical desktop that could be booted from just about anything

(Shingledecker, 2008). Tinycore is small OS that smaller that 20 megabytes, it is having

minimal software, usually stored in the ram due to its small size and is very minimalistic due to

its size. The way to use tinycore in this project is as the gateway desktop that would

communicate with the esxi which would be the manager for the OS’s when they were migrated

to the physical server. When communicating with the esxi you would sent the request for the OS

you would want to access and sends it to the tinycore to open the virtual machines OS.

The next thing to do after figuring out how to work in tinycore was floppyfw and use it as

a dhcp range. Floppy firewall is a firewall small enough to fit on a floppy hence the name for it.

It is a linux based router with firewall capabilities (Lundquist, 2015). What floppyfw was meant

to do in the project was similar to pfsense in which was used in the last project. Floppyfw was

going to assign ipaddress to the all the virtual machines through the virtual machines lan

segment. After figuring all of the things I needed it was then time to start on the project.

The first thing of the project that I focused on was the configuring of the floppyfw. To

begin the configuration of the floppyfw first it was needed to have winImage which is a program

that allows the user to access an image’s files for configuration, and notepad++ to be able to

configure the files properly. The first thing needed to be done was to open winImage and insert

the floppyfw image. When the floppyfw image is loaded the next thing to do is extract two files
which are the config and host files from the image. The files will be extracted to a temp folder.

When finished with the extraction of the files the next thing was to open notepad++ and load the

config and hosts files. When loaded change the language from notepad++ to python, that will

allow you to make the changes to the files. In the host file all I needed to do was change the

second line to the ip address I chose which was 192.168.25.10. and add my name to signify that

that was my server. In the config file I needed to go to the line 287 and change the host name for

the floppyfw to my own and then go the lines 158 through 166. In these lines I would add my ip

address and my dhcp range. The ip address is the same as the one in host which was

192.168.25.10 and for the dhcp range I gave for the start was 192.168.25.15 and for the end it

was 192.168.25.30. When done configuring the files I saved both, and from there it was back to

winImage to import or as winImage calls it Inject the files back into floppyfw image to register

the changes done to it. To inject the files back I needed to go the image tab and scroll down to

the inject setting and click it, afterwards a pop up came out saying if you wanted to inject the

files in to which the answer is yes. When finished injecting the files save the image and exit

winImage. After that create the virtual machine for the floppyfw. The process of creating the

virtual machine for the floppyfw requires that the installation of the OS will be done later and the

settings for the system to be linux and the version to be linux kernel 3.0, if not floppyfw will run

into problems. Give floppyfw all default settings except when in customizing hardware add the

floppy drive and change the network adapter to lan segment and add a new lan segment. In the

floppy drive is where the floppy image will be stored instead of the cd/ide, while the lan segment

will be what connects all the virtual machines together, so they are able to communicate with

each other. When done click finish and run the virtual machine, which should work without a

problem.
 After finishing the floppyfw virtual machine the next one in line was the esxi virtual

machine. The installation of the Esxi is straight forward the first thing you do is install the iso

and VMware will instantly recognize the iso as the esxi, after that give the esxi the defaults and

when reaching the customize hardware portion go in and change the network adapter to lan

segment and choose the lan that was created previously so that both floppyfw and esxi can

communicate with each other. When finished run the virtual machine and go through the

installation process. When done with the installation press F2 so that the ipv4 address can be

manually updated to the dhcp range chosen.

The next ones were the operating systems which are fedora, ubuntu, and Windows XP to

give them virtual machines. The same process is for all three. First install the iso in which

VMware should be able to pick up which type of operating system each one is, give them all the

default settings except when reaching customize hardware in where the network adapter will be

changed to the same lan segment as the esxi and the floppyfw. When done run the OS to install

them and go through the installation process for all three. When all three OS’s finished installing

I then entered the desktop for each of the OS’s and went into their network settings and manually

gave each one a corresponding ipv4 address and made them static so that there would be no

interference when closing and opening them and ipv4 addresses don’t match. When I finished

with all the tinkering I did with the OS’s then it was time to move on to the last virtual machine

which was tinycore.

For tinycore the steps were to install the OS and choose for the system and version as

other. Give tinycore all the default settings and change network adapter to lan segment when

arriving to the customize hardware part of the virtual machine creation. When finished run the

virtual and when the installation screen appears choose boot tinycore and it will install and boot
straight into tinycore. For a while I was lost in what to do in tinycore since it had little to almost

nothing. I opened the terminal to see if it had an ip address in which there was none. Once I

found out that tinycore did not have a ip address I then realized that I needed to add one. What I

found out was that through the control panel there was a network tab that when pressed allowed

me to be able to input the ipv4 address. Once I implemented the ipv4 address for tinycore I was

completed with the first part of the project and on to the second part.

The second part required me to migrate all the OS’s to a physical sever and access them

through it, sadly I ran out of time and was not able to go into the second part of the project. What

I learned from this project was that I need to do more research on both types of servers if I want

to succeed in my future workplace due to almost all medium or big companies having either type

1 or 2 for servers.
 Work Cited

Lundquist, T. (2015, June 6). Floppyfw. Retrieved from floppyfw:

https://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/

SearchServerVirtualization. (2010, August). What's the difference between Type 1 and Type 2

hypervisors? Retrieved from SearchServerVirtualization:

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/feature/Whats-the-difference-between-

Type-1-and-Type-2-hypervisors

Shingledecker, R. (2008, December 1). Tinycore. Retrieved from Tinycore:

http://tinycorelinux.net/welcome.html

Techopeida. (2018). techopedia. Retrieved from VMware ESXI server:

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/25979/vmware-esxi-server