Restore config to new machine with more/different NICs?
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Hello,
We are going to be replacing our current production firewall with a new server. I will be going from 3 NICs to 8 NICs. What is the behavior when restoring the config to a new system that has more NICs and most likely different vendor?
Thanks,
Jeff
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What is the behavior when restoring the config to a new system that has more NICs and most likely different vendor?
Backup your existing configuration file (just in case).
You can probably put the hard drive (or a clone) from your existing system into the new system. On first boot pfSense will (most likely) report an interface mismatch (e.g. on your old system LAN was on fxp0 but there is no fxp0 on the new system) on the console and give you capability of reassigning interfaces. At that point you can use the auto assign mechanism, just plug in the LAN cable at the prompt and pfSense should recognise the interface which is now active. Repeat for WAN. At that point it might be worthwhile to skip the other interfaces and use the web GUI to configure the other interfaces.
Make sure you backup the configuration file (just in case something goes wrong). When I started with pfSense I didn't bother backing up my configuration file because I changed hardly anything. Now that I make a lot more use of a variety of pfSense features its more important to backup my configuration file to avoid the pain of recreating it.
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When you restore a config in that situation it will present a screen which asks you to reassign the network interfaces. Just choose the new NIC settings and save/apply, it should reboot and come up. You can then assign/enable/configure the additional NICs as you see fit.
If you move the hdd, you'll get a reassignment prompt on the console. Same idea there, just type in what you want the new NICs to be, and then continue on.
