In order to boot the Network Security Toolkit ISO image from within a VMware virtual machine, we recommend that you follow these steps:
Install VMware Server (or VMware Player) onto your host system.
Next download and unzip the
"nst-vm-2.11.0.zip" file onto your
host system. This ZIP file is included
with each Network Security Toolkit distribution starting with release
1.4.1 and is located in directory:
"/usr/local/utilities/vmware". A special
"Utilities" button on the main NST WUI Home
Page can be used to quickly access this file. When
this file is unzipped it will create a
"nst-2.11.0" directory containing the
necessary files to boot the Network Security Toolkit ISO
image.
Next download a ISO image of the Network Security Toolkit from http://www.networksecuritytoolkit.org/. One could also download an ISO image from a running Network Security Toolkit system using the "Get CD/Device Image" link on the main NST WUI index page.
Make sure the Network Security Toolkit ISO image is uncompressed (see http://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/ if you don't know how to uncompress .gz files).
Copy (or move) the uncompressed ISO
image into the "nst-2.11.0" directory
created by the extraction of the
"nst-vm-2.11.0.zip" file and rename
it to: "nst-2.11.0.iso" or if using the
SMP ISO distribution then rename it to:
"nst-2.11.0smp.iso".
Start the VMware Server (or
VMware Player) for Windows users by double clicking
on the "nst-vm-windows-2.11.0.vmx" icon
(Windows User's may not see the ".vmx"
extension). For Linux users, one can start the
VMware Player on the command line using the
following:
[root@striker ~]#vmplayer nst-vm-linux2.11.0.vmx &... Your VMware Player will start up a NST Virtual Machine ...
If you are using VMware Server, you may need
to start the "VMware Server
Console" and then open the appropriate
"vmx" file.
By default, the Network Security Toolkit will boot to console mode (and use minimal resources). You can quickly switch it to a graphical desktop mode by using the following command:
[root@probe ~]#nstvmware -m setup --xdm... Takes a little bit of time to copy files and switch to a graphical login screen ...
If you intend to use the Network Security Toolkit for a extended period of
time, we recommend that you use the install
mode of the nstvmware script to install the
distribution into the virtual disk. By doing a hard disk install
in this manner, your changes will be kept permanently between
reboots (you won't need to set the password every time your boot
the system).
[root@probe ~]#nstvmware -m install -a toolkit -v... Takes awhile and a lot of output is produced as NST is installed from the virtual ISO image to the virtual hard disk image ...[root@probe ~]#poweroff... System shuts down and the VMware Player terminates ...
You should only use the "install"
function of the nstvmware script after a fresh boot. It
will fail if it sees that the virtual disk is already being
used.
This will give your toolkit permanent storage and cause it to boot up directly into a graphical desktop login (you may delete the ISO image after installing to the virtual disk).
If you do not remove the ISO image, you may need to adjust the "virtual BIOS" settings. To adjust the "virtual BIOS" settings, you'll need to press the "F2" key at the appropriate time - watch the boot screen closely.
After a hard disk install, the password will be reset to
the default value of nst2003 (for NST
distributions prior to 1.4.2 the default
value is nst@2003).