Hi Eugen,
what a great article. Many thanks for sharing this.
greetings
m.
2012/7/23 Eugen Leitl
>
>
> http://www.viktorious.nl/2012/04/22/vcloud-director-howto-load-balancing-with-free-pfsense-appliance/
>
> vCloud Director Howto: Load balancing with free pfSense
> Posted on April 22, 2012 by viktorious
>
> After reading this article, also check the follow-up: vCloud Director
> Howto: Load balancing with free pfSense – Cont’d
>
> After doing some testing with VMware’s vCloud Director, I wanted to
> configure a multi-cell vCD infrastructure with a network load balancer in
> front. Of course there are various commercial products (see Eric Sloof’s
> excellent article on configuring Kemp Load Master), I was actually looking
> for an open source alternative.
>
> pfSense is doing the trick! pfSense is a freeBSD based firewall solution,
> and the successor of m0n0wall (maybe you know that one). You can download
> pfSense at www.pfsense.org. I am using the 64 bit 2.0.1 version. You can
> download the ISO from the pfSense website.
>
> Note: This setup is intended for lab/home use :)
>
> The scenario we’re building consist of the following virtual machines:
>
> A pfSense based firewall and load balancer (in a virtual machine), one
> NIC connected to the internet, one nic connected to the management LAN.
> Two vCloud Director cells, both connected to the management LAN.
> A vCenter Server, also connected to the management LAN.
>
> First install pfSense in a virtual machine. My specs are: 1 vCPU, 256 MB
> RAM and 1 GB Disk, don’t forget to add two nics. The OS type is FreeBSD 64
> bit. Mount the pfSense CD and start the VM for the installation:
>
> Choose option 1, just boot pfSense
> After a short while, press I to install the software
> Choose defaults, when asked choose a Quick/Easy Install. Your disk
> will be wiped, but because you’ve just created a new VM, this shouldn’t be
> a problem. Choose the multi-processor kernel.
> After the installation has finished, reboot the virtual machine and
> disconnect the installation ISO.
> Now pfSense will boot with it’s default configuration.
>
> Now it’s time to create a basic configuration for pfSense through the
> command-line. After you’ve set the IP configuration, you will have a web
> interface available.
>
> pfSense will show you two nics: ‘em0′ and ‘em1′, which are the two nics of
> the virtual machine. You have to tell pfSense which interface is the WAN
> interface en which is the LAN interface:
>
> I prefer not to use the auto-detection feature, and just type em0 or em1
> depending on which NIC your WAN interface is. We don’t have an optional
> interface available, so just leave empty and press enter when asked. By
> default your WAN interface will search for a DHCP server, your LAN
> interface will be configured (by default) with IP address 192.168.1.1.
>
> After you have completed the basic configuration your pfSense VM startup
> screen will look like this:
>
> Ok, what’s next? Choose option 2 to configure the LAN and WAN interface
> according to your network settings. Keep mind that the LAN interface
> address, that’s the address your vCD cells will connect to, should be
> configured as the default gateway in your vCD cells. You can choose to use
> pfSense’s DHCP server if necessary. In my case the WAN interface is
> configured with 10.0.1.254/24, the LAN interface is configured with
> 192.168.1.254/24.
>
> Ok, now it’s time install vCD and create a basic configuration. Also
> install a second cell using the response.properties. More information about
> the vCD installation can be found in the “vCloud Director Installation and
> Configuration Guide”, available as PDF on the VMware website. The
> installation isn’t covered here, there are already enough resources
> available!
>
> After you have installed two vCD cells, you should be able to connect to
> both cells successfully. Because vCD is stateless, it shouldn’t matter
> which instance you’re connecting to. The properties of my two vCD cells are:
>
> vCD Cell 1:
>
> hostname: vcd1public.domain.local
> ip address for the vCD website: 192.168.1.237/24
> ip address for the vCD console proxy: 192.168.1.238/24
> dns: 192.168.1.253 (LAN side DNS server)
> gw: 192.168.1.254 (this is the LAN side IP address of pfSense!)
>
> vCD Cell 2:
>
> hostname: vcd1public.domain.local
> ip address for the vCD website: 192.168.1.231/24
> ip address for the vCD console proxy: 192.168.1.232/24
> dns: 192.168.1.253 (LAN side DNS server)
> gw: 192.168.1.254 (this is the LAN side IP address of pfSense!)
>
> Now the pfSense configuration, the configuration in this case will be:
>
> The pfSense firewall/load balancer has Public IP address 10.0.1.254
> vCD website traffic will be accessible through port 444, so
> https://10.0.1.254:444. (You can configure this alternative port in the
> vCD interface if necessary)
> Console proxy traffic will be acc
