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    I want to assemble a pfSense server and am seeking recommendations from expert friends.

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • S Offline
      SteveITS Rebel Alliance @bmeeks
      last edited by

      @bmeeks Speed wise yes but not with pfSense CE. :). I honestly do not know how far the 1100/2100 CPU is from a Pi? But I digress…

      Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
      When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
      Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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      • bmeeksB Offline
        bmeeks @SteveITS
        last edited by

        @SteveITS said in I want to assemble a pfSense server and am seeking recommendations from expert friends.:

        @bmeeks Speed wise yes but not with pfSense CE. :). I honestly do not know how far the 1100/2100 CPU is from a Pi? But I digress…

        I wasn't serious with the Pi thing -- just a joke. My point was that just about any hardware these days could handle basic routing fuctions if it only has to work with 12 megabits/sec of actual routed traffic.

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        • S Offline
          SteveITS Rebel Alliance @bmeeks
          last edited by

          @bmeeks oh I know, I was “yes and”-ing you.

          Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
          When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
          Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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          • stephenw10S Offline
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            I read that as more likely 12Mbps per user. Which is obviously more than the total available but may work. OP may want to try bandwidth sharing scheme with dynamic Limiters.

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            • mettoalM Offline
              mettoal @bmeeks
              last edited by

              @bmeeks 12 mbits per user, for 1 person :)

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              • bmeeksB Offline
                bmeeks @mettoal
                last edited by

                @mettoal said in I want to assemble a pfSense server and am seeking recommendations from expert friends.:

                @bmeeks 12 mbits per user, for 1 person :)

                ah- that is different. That was not immediately clear from the post (at least that's not how I interpreted it).

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                • S Offline
                  SteveITS Rebel Alliance @mettoal
                  last edited by

                  @mettoal what’s the actual total speed though..? That’s like 95% of your question.

                  Any packages? Captive portal?

                  Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                  When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
                  Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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                  • S Offline
                    SteveITS Rebel Alliance @mettoal
                    last edited by

                    @mettoal Let me say it another way… under 500 Mbps a 2100 is probably sufficient at least in terms of power.

                    For headroom/future expansion and I’d guess up to around 4-5 Gbps a 4200 should suffice. Get two 4200s or two of something with 3 NICs in it to use High Availability. 4 NICs if you want the hotel network isolated from guests. (Otherwise that could have its own router etc. Continue with other networks or PCI/credit card, etc)

                    4200: CPU: Intel Atom C1110 with AVX2, 4-core @ 2.1 GHz, and 4 total NICs

                    Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                    When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
                    Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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                    • mettoalM Offline
                      mettoal @SteveITS
                      last edited by

                      @SteveITS

                      Would the following hardware be sufficient? for 1500 users my backbone switch 25 gbe support already. ı am looking just server hardware
                      Processor: Xeon E5-2697A V4
                      RAM: 64 GB DDR4 2400 Mhz
                      NIC: Intel X710 Da2 10Gbe
                      SSD: 500 GB Samsung 980 Pro M2 NVMe

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                      • S Offline
                        SteveITS Rebel Alliance @mettoal
                        last edited by

                        @mettoal ok well 25 Gbps is the complete other end of the scale. :) Perhaps Steve can comment on the upper limits of pfSense related to that CPU but it’s why Netgate developed TNSR.

                        Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                        When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to reboot, or more depending on packages, and device or disk speed.
                        Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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                        • stephenw10S Offline
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          @mettoal said in I want to assemble a pfSense server and am seeking recommendations from expert friends.:

                          E5-2697A V4

                          Yeah you need something like that to pass 10G if that's what you need to do. 25G is really beyond pfSense for the most part.

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                          • P Offline
                            pwood999
                            last edited by

                            What's the existing load on the 1Gig connection at peak times ? If it's below 100%, then there's your required bandwidth. If it's often maxed out, then you need the 10G link before confirming PfSense hardware.

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