Lumu Virtual Appliance (VA) is a virtualized machine that provides you with all the elements required to collect network metadata to provide you with maximum visibility when it comes to identifying compromised network endpoints within your infrastructure. This guide provides instructions on configuring Lumu VA inVMware Workstation.

To ensure the Lumu VA works correctly, you must use supported virtualization platforms’ versions. These are the minimum requirements and supported versions for deploying Lumu VA in VMware Workstation:

1. VMware Workstation 15+.
   

Note: For deploying Lumu on a VMware ESXi, consult this document.

Virtual Appliance Setup

Now that you have created and downloaded a pre-configured image of Lumu Virtual Appliance for VMware, it is time to set up and start the VA.

1. Import the VA into the VMware

You can import the VA file (.ova extension) to VMware using the graphical interface (GUI) or using the command line.

Using GUI

1. From the VMware panel, select the option to import. The Import wizard is displayed in a new window. Click to select the file you downloaded from the Lumu Portal.

Importing the VA into the VMware Workstation

1. After importing the appliance file, you can check and edit the settings:
   

Review our  sizing guidelines to evaluate our recommended virtual hardware requirements.

VA settings on VMware Workstation

Using the command line

1. This is how to import the appliance using command line (Headless) Mode Ubuntu 18 LTS:
   

Initialize the Virtual Appliance

The initialization process consists of downloading the latest version of the Virtual Appliance software and performing pre-configuration tasks.

Before starting up the virtual machine, please make sure that the  network where the Virtual Appliance operates is connected to the internet. The Virtual Appliance is an integrated device and needs an internet connection to pull its components as well as to upload the DNS resolution information to our cloud platform.

Using GUI

1. Select the newly created virtual machine, select the option to power on, and the machine will initialize.
   

VA start process on VMware Workstation

Using the command line

1. First, edit the VA .vmx (virtual machine configuration) file, add RemoteDisplay.vnc.enabled = “TRUE”, and save it. This will modify the virtual machine to allow connection over VNC, while running the Virtual Appliance for the first time in headless mode.
   

The following is an example of starting an appliance using the command line (Headless) mode on Ubuntu 18 LTS:

You can host more than one headless Virtual Appliance in one physical machine. In order to connect to any given headless virtual appliance, edit the.vmx file, set a different port in the RemoteDisplay.vnc.port property, and connect to the given port accordingly. Remember, the default value for the VNC port is 5900. When connecting to a headless virtual appliance using VNC, the vncviewer application could request a password, you should specify a blank password as this is a temporary connection that will be disabled afterward.

Activate and Configure the Virtual Appliance

Once you have installed the Lumu Virtual Appliance, you are ready to activate and explore the VA general settings. See Lumu VA configuration guide for guidance.