These are the list of resource, one will need to start a Penetration Testing Course..
Hello everyone, welcome to my Blog, This is Tchize Matias a confessed and Graduated Ethical Hacker turned into DevSecOps Engineer. If sort of thing even exist. I am writing this blog as mean to keep track of my journey into becoming a professional Ethical Hacker ..
This is an exciting experiment of mine as DevOps. As I am experimenting with the Tools available ... So, the quest is to "Vagrantfile which creates 3 instances of Centos 8 servers, each server shall be able to connect on the same network for easy communication"
Here is what we want to achieve:
- Build 3 servers to use Ansible
Jumped into via ChatGPT via Bing Copilot and created the following prompt.
"Hi Copilot, can you write a Vagrantfile which creates 3 instances of Centos 8 servers, each server shall be able to connect on the same network for easy communication, these instance serves are to be used as Ansible Lab environments comprised of one Ansible Tower and two deployments environments, please"
The output:
# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
# Define the base box
config.vm.box = "centos/8"
# Ansible Tower Server
config.vm.define "ansible_tower" do |ansible_tower|
ansible_tower.vm.hostname = "ansible-tower"
ansible_tower.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.10"
end
# Deployment Environment 1
config.vm.define "deploy_env1" do |deploy_env1|
deploy_env1.vm.hostname = "deploy-env1"
deploy_env1.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.11"
end
# Deployment Environment 2
config.vm.define "deploy_env2" do |deploy_env2|
deploy_env2.vm.hostname = "deploy-env2"
deploy_env2.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.12"
end
# Provisioning with Ansible (Optional)
# config.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
# ansible.playbook = "playbook.yml"
# end
end
Save the above code into a file named Vagrantfile.
Open a terminal and navigate to the directory containing the Vagrantfile.
Run vagrant up to create the VMs.
This Vagrantfile configures each CentOS 8 server with a static IP on a private network, allowing them to communicate with each other. You can uncomment and adjust the Ansible provisioning block to run your Ansible playbooks automatically.
You’ll have three CentOS 8 servers (server1, server2, and server3) along with an Ansible Tower instance (ansible-tower) for your lab environment. Adjust memory and CPU settings as needed based on your system resources.
Happy Ansible-ing! 🚀
Next -
To test the Ansible connection to the three CentOS 8 servers you've set up, you can use a simple Ansible playbook that employs the ping module. This module is specifically designed for connection testing and doesn't actually send ICMP pings but attempts an SSH connection and returns pong on success.
Here's an example playbook, test_connection.yml, that you can use:
Before running the playbook, ensure you have an inventory file (inventory.ini or your preferred name) that lists the IPs or hostnames of your servers under a group [servers] or individually. Here's an example:
This command will attempt to connect to each server listed in inventory.ini and report back whether the connection was successful. ....
Nice !! Now, let us push this code further .. I have tested the script on my machine and Made all 3 instances up and running. Further improved the code and stored in Github source code here
Vagrant streamlines the creation and management of virtual machines, making it a valuable tool for IT engineers. This guide walks you through building a customized Vagrant box, step-by-step, from creating the virtual machine to sharing it with others.
Basic Linux knowledge: Familiarity with the command line and basic Linux administration tasks is recommended.
Step 1: Setting Up the Virtual Machine
Create a new virtual machine: Open VirtualBox and click "New." Choose the desired operating system (e.g., Ubuntu) and version. Allocate memory (e.g., 2048 MB) and storage space (e.g., 40 GB) for the virtual machine.
Configure shared folder: Right-click on the newly created VM and select "Settings > Shared Folders." Add a shared folder, specifying the host path (e.g., your project directory) and the guest path (e.g., /vagrant).
Step 2: Provisioning the Virtual Machine with Vagrant
Initialize Vagrant: In your project directory (containing the shared folder), open a terminal and run vagrant init to initialize a Vagrantfile.
Configure the Vagrantfile: Open the Vagrantfile in a text editor and customize the following sections:
VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION: Specifies the Vagrantfile API version.
config.vm.box: Sets the base box image to use.
config.vm.synced_folder: Configures the shared folder between the host and guest machines.
config.vm.provision: Defines provisioning scripts to run inside the virtual machine.
Step 3: Building the Vagrant Box
Provision the VM: Run vagrant up in the terminal. This will download the base box, configure the virtual machine, and execute the provisioning scripts.
Install additional software: Inside the virtual machine (accessible using vagrant ssh), install any additional software you need for your specific use case.
Clean up the VM: Once the VM is configured, run sudo apt-get autoremove -y to remove unnecessary packages and free up disk space.
Package the VM: Run vagrant package to create a compressed .box file containing the customized virtual machine.
Step 4: Sharing the Vagrant Box (Optional)
Upload the .box file: Upload the .box file to a platform like Vagrant Cloud https://app.vagrantup.com/ or your private repository.
Share the Vagrantfile: Share the Vagrantfile along with the .box file for others to easily provision the virtual machine.
Congratulations! You've successfully built and packaged a customized Vagrant box, ready to be used for your development or testing needs.
By following these steps and customizing the configurations, you can create Vagrant boxes tailored to your specific requirements.
