Please help me create a VM lab

[KaplanZTV]

Hi all,

I've been tasked with creating a VM lab for pentesting but definitely need some help. Can someone please help me put together a list of sorts of everything I will need? I was asked to create a list of any costs (virtual box licensing, a wireless adapter, etc.) we might incur, though from my experience there aren't many?

So far I have:

- Virtual Box License (cost?)
- Kali ISO's (Free)
- Wireless adapter; Any recommendations? ($15-$30)
- Obviously my PC (free)

Am I missing anything beside the obvious?

Thanks!

 

[asoroka]

First up, if this is for commercial use, then you will need to get a licensed copy of Virtual Box or ESXi.

If this is not for commercial use, then you don't need to licence the virtualisation software.

You first decision point is whether you want a bare metal hypervisor (ESXi) or a software hypervisor (VMWare Player or Oracle Virtual Box, or Windows Hyper-V).

Your PC specs will determine what is practical, you will need lots of memory, Disk and CPU threads.

Is this PC needed to use other work, or will it be dedicated to a VM lab only. If it is dedicated to yiur VM lab then I would investigate ESXi in preference to the other options.

 

[KaplanZTV]

First up, if this is for commercial use, then you will need to get a licensed copy of Virtual Box or ESXi.

If this is not for commercial use, then you don't need to licence the virtualisation software.

You first decision point is whether you want a bare metal hypervisor (ESXi) or a software hypervisor (VMWare Player or Oracle Virtual Box, or Windows Hyper-V).

Your PC specs will determine what is practical, you will need lots of memory, Disk and CPU threads.

Is this PC needed to use other work, or will it be dedicated to a VM lab only. If it is dedicated to yiur VM lab then I would investigate ESXi in preference to the other options.

Hi there,

Thank you for the reply. Sorry for the late response.

This is for commercial use, so yes I will need a Virtual Box license. I would prefer Virtual Box. My specs will be mediocre, but for this thread we can ignore my PC. The PC will be used for other work but later down the road would like to have a separate PC for the lab.

 

[asoroka]

So unless you are really needing virtual box, I would recommend VMware Player (or workstation pro). I find it easier to use and better performing.
If you decide on VB then check out the oracle site for pricing.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ
https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/virtualbox/index.html


As you already have a PC, you will be constrained by what you have.

You will need to have 8GB of RAM for your host plus at least another 4GB per concurrent VM.
You should allow for about 60GB disk space per VM

You will need to have at least a quad core CPU.



Later you can look at setting up a dedicated server with ESXi (vSphere Hypervisor).

The specs for what you will need will depend on how many concurrent VMs you will need to run. If it is less than 4, then any decent desktop computer will do the job. Otherwise you will need a dedicated server grade machine.