Setting up PFsense as a high throughput firewall.

EvoIX_MR2006 · Mar 7, 2009, 1:30 AM

We will be taking a gigabit drop from our datacenter here in a week or so, and I was struggling to see an easy way to do what we'd like to do.

We'll be putting several servers behind this and using the firewall functionality as well as the traffic shaping functionality to limit our outbound throughput for a while as we scale up.

For Example:
PFSense will have IP Address 205.234.x.1
Server 1 will have IP Address 205.234.x.2
Server 2 will have IP Address 205.234.x.3
So on and so forth.

I'll use PFsense as the gateway for our IP's.

My question is, what is the best way to setup PFSense if I want to use External IP's on the physical servers while utilizing a 'WAN/LAN' setup on the box?

Thanks for any help!

mhab12 · Mar 7, 2009, 1:39 AM

http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/transparent_firewall.pdf
taken from
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tutorials

I'm fairly sure this is a piece of what you're looking for. Basically you want multiple WAN IPs for all pieces in the setup - i.e. everything will have a 'real' IP? You can read up on VIPs for multiple WAN IPs if need be, probably a few static routes, maybe some DMZ. Search for those terms and browse the forums and you should find everything you need for a successful setup.

chpalmer · Mar 7, 2009, 1:58 AM

501+ Mbps - server class hardware with PCI-X or PCI-e network adapters. No less than 3.0 GHz CPU.

Taken from…

http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=49

;)

EvoIX_MR2006 · Mar 7, 2009, 2:03 AM

Great, that's almost exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!

I'll keep this thread updated with my progress.