Tag: proxmox

PROXMOX HomeLab: Running 4 O/S

O/S Installations Complete

Now that the installation of the FOUR operating systems is complete, I can move on to adding, configuring, and setting up passthrough for all the peripheral devices. I’ll be adding a BLE transceiver (Bluetooth), WiFi transceiver, and a HackRF Pro transceiver for penetration testing.

Datacenter View

Here we can see the Proxmox Datacenter Overview. This view shows us the installed VM’s, their individual resource usage statistics, and the uptime for each VM. As shown here, the Proxmox O/S has access to 40 cpu’s (threads), 160 GB RAM and 6.6TB of RAID50 storage. The resource usage stats indicate that the resources are fairly evenly distributed between the VM’s, with Windows 11 O/S being the largest ‘consumer’ of resources thus far. At the moment this photo was taken, the server was not under load. I may need to redistribute some memory once I have an idea of the resource usage once the server is under load.

DataCenter View: Uptime 15 Days and counting. Four O/S running.

Ubuntu Desktop

VM100: Ubuntu O/S v22.04.5 LTS

Ubuntu Stats: 4 cpu’s and 32GB RAM

Windows 11 Pro Desktop

VM 101: Windows 11 Pro

Windows 11 Stats: 8 cpu’s and 64GB RAM

KALI Linux Desktop

VM 102: KALI Linux (Rolling)

KALI Linux Stats: 8cpu’s and 32GB RAM

Dragon O/S Desktop

VM103: Dragon Linux O/S

Dragon Linux O/S Stats: 4 cpu’s and 32 GB RAM

In addition to its penetration testing platform, the server will also host an Apache2 webserver, and a media streaming server. I am currently researching the streaming options available. Thus far, I’m leaning toward the “Plex” media server, as it was included in the initial Ubuntu setup.

Thanks to my fellow members of the Reddit HomeLab sub for sharing their experience with the ML350P, and to “ChatGPT” for providing some very valuable guidance during the install and configuration of Proxmox.

Apple iOS not ready for Proxmox v9.2.3

After unsuccessfully hacking at it for several days, I have decided to put the MacOS VM installation on the back burner. It’s become apparent that the MacOS tools currently available for installing iOS under Proxmox are not ready for primetime. While some of the install scripts claim to work under Proxmox v9, in reality, they do not work properly yet and only provide a broken VM at this point.

Next Up for Proxmox: HackRF Pro SDR…

Stay tuned!

UNBOXING: HackRF Pro

New SDR for Dragon O/S PenTest Platform

I’m adding some serious RF support to my Dragon O/S penetration testing platform. The plan is to install this SDR (Software Defined Radio) hardware into the HP ML350P Gen8 server. To do so, I need to configure PCIe passthrough to the Dragon O/S Proxmox VM (Virtual Machine).

PCIe Passthrough Configuration

My ‘pre-purchase’ research has revealed that not just any USB expansion card can be used (reliably) in the HP ProLiant server. Most USB chipsets used in todays consumer level plug & play expansion cards lack the required firmware specifications for reliable use in a PCIe passthrough configuration. Due to the huge bandwidth requirements of the HackRF Pro and the ALFA AWUS036NHA Wifi adapter, it is recommended to use PCIe passthrough as opposed to USB passthrough.

AI Overview: PCIe Passthrough

PCIe USB 3.0 expansion cards utilizing the Renesas/NEC µPD720201 (4-port) or µPD720202 (2-port) chipsets are excellent choices for reliable SuperSpeed 5Gbps data transfers. They are widely used for legacy desktop upgrades and dedicated hardware passthrough configurations.

For virtualization and IOMMU hardware passthrough (such as on Proxmox, ESXi, TrueNAS, or unRAID), PCIe cards using the Renesas/NEC µPD720201 or µPD720202 chipsets are the gold standard. They are heavily favored over ASMedia or VIA controllers because they isolate cleanly into their own IOMMU groups, reset properly without hung-VM kernel panics, and do not require proprietary drivers in the host or guest OS.

HackRF Pro: The latest addition to my LTE pentesting platform

Break Out the Docs!

I’ll be spending time the next couple of evenings with the HackRF Pro documentation. There’s a lot to take in as far as its capabilities, operation, and application to LTE auditing. The Dragon O/S is specifically designed for exactly this type of research. I expect the HackRF to integrate seamlessly with the server hardware. I plan to have the radio on the air as soon as the Fovore USB expansion card arrives.

The “Business End” of the HackRF Pro

Available from AliExpress $12.00 USD