Installing pfSense 2.0 on a Dell PowerEdge R210

toomeek

I have running Ubuntu Server on Dell PowerEdge R310 (which is NOT gateway) and pfSense is installed on KVM-Qemu (BACKUP gateway), this is great becouse I can do volume snapshots or just copy VM hdd image without any problem with VM recovery and host-os is isolated from WAN. I did not experienced any network performance issue, yet. Also, no problem with installation.

Most important is to have to use BRIDGE networking in HOST OS:
cat /etc/network/interfaces

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Bridge: network card connected to the core switch
auto br0
iface br0 inet static
	address 192.168.0.1
	netmask 255.255.255.0
	gateway 192.168.0.254
        bridge_ports eth0
        bridge_stp off
        bridge_fd 0
        bridge_maxwait 0
        #metric 1

#bridge: network card connected to switch with 2 DSL modems
auto br1
iface br1 inet manual
	bridge_ports eth1
	pre-up ifconfig eth1 up
        bridge_stp off
        bridge_fd 0
        bridge_maxwait 0
        #metric 1

cat /etc/libvirt/qemu/pfSense.xml

 <domain type="kvm"><name>pfSense</name>
  <uuid>6b279064-5f3e-aa45-1e78-1615e9759419</uuid>
  <memory>1048576</memory>
  <currentmemory>524288</currentmemory>
  <vcpu>2</vcpu>
   <os><type arch="i686" machine="pc-0.12">hvm</type></os>
   <features><acpi><apic><pae></pae></apic></acpi></features>
   <clock offset="utc"><on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
   <devices><emulator>/usr/bin/kvm</emulator>
     <disk type="file" device="cdrom"><driver name="qemu" type="raw"><target dev="hdc" bus="ide"><readonly></readonly></target></driver></disk>
     <disk type="file" device="disk"><driver name="qemu" type="raw"><source file="/var/lib/libvirt/images/pfSense.img">
       <target dev="sda" bus="scsi"></target></driver></disk>
     <interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:1b:2c:4f"><source bridge="br1"></mac></interface>
     <interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:22:1a:c4"><source bridge="br1"></mac></interface>
     <interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:21:2c:4d"><source bridge="br0"></mac></interface>
     <console type="pty"><target port="0"></target></console>
     <console type="pty"><target port="0"></target></console>

     <graphics type="vnc" port="-1" autoport="yes"></graphics></devices></clock></domain>

Guest

On a machine I built from spare parts, I had the same issue. 32bit worked, 64bit did not, but that was almost a month ago now. I plan to try 64bit once 2.0 is stable.

@m4rcu5:

Another R210 user here.

I noticed the hanging at 38% also. Strange thing: this was with the 64bit Beta5, the 32bit worked.

-m4rcu5

scheidell

same here, dell 850 and 860. you might be right about the usb.. I see it waiting to mount usb… with no usb kb.
but my workaround was to wipe out the first 512 bytes of the boot drive and it worked find.

some strange conflict between usb drivers and kb and hd?

ennay

I've only just now completed the installation, so unsure of how stable this will turn out to be, but I'm anxious to share a possible workaround – when stuck at 38%, try disconnecting, then reconnecting your keyboard. I did this on a Dell R210 and installation finished right up after that. This is the 64-bit version. The install was run with virtualization disabled, single-core, c-states off, but I would be it would help in any configuration.

sot010174

I had the same issue on a dell server and if I removed the ethernet cables, pfsense would install no problem.

tacfit

We had no problems installing on our R210, though I don't recall what snapshot we started with.

dmcushing

I installed on two R210s using the following method:

1. Boot, enter BIOS setup, disable NICs
2. Boot, install pfSense
3. When it reboots, enter BIOS setup and re-enable NICs

For whatever reason, something at the 38% mark is getting killed by NIC detection on the R210s. I haven't had a problem with the boxes after installing this way.

p0ddie

I second the keyboard experience here. I tried seeting up pfsense 2.0 a while ago on completely different hardware, but the installation would freeze at some point (could very well be at 38%). I had a Logitech wireless usb keyboard connected. Using a Cherry PS/2 keyboard everything worked flawlessly. Did also work with an OEM HP keyboard from a DC5800 I still had laying around.

So, you might wanna check the keyboard thing first. Make sure it is a PS/2 keyboard and that it is plugged in before POST.

eri--

For Dell R210 i know for sure that it is the shared interrupt of the disk controllers that makes it go crazy during install.
It works fine with the amd64 version of pfSense with others you will have issues.

Gob

There are still further issues with the DELL R210 once you get past the installation problems.
The onboard NICs don't work very well with the bce driver. I had ports detected at 10 baseT HD.
VoIP struggled on that box also with very poor call quality. Don't know if its the combination of the NICs and the i3 CPU that cause the problems. Swapped it out for a DELL PE1850 yesterday and it works perfectly with RC3. All my VoIP problems have gone away.

eri--

Hmm i know of an install on amd64 which does not have any issues for handling traffic!

tacfit

Yeah… and I'm using a regular build, and haven't had a single problem :) I'm using the igb drivers for the Intel NICs.

sgb

I experienced the 38% hang on a Dell Poweredge SC440 with pfsense 2.0 RC3. On the back of findings of previous posters, I tried a dedicated keyboard instead of a KVM - no luck. The Dell SC440 doesn't have a PS/2 port, so I couldn't try that.

Hardware - BIOS v.1.5.0, 1.8GHz Pentium D - 2x 1GB 667MHz DDR2, 2x 160GB WD SATA II drives (GEOM).

I then disabled multicore in the BIOS as recommended by bpf and the installation completed without issue. I installed the SMP kernel and re-enabled multicore when the system restarted after installation. I'm running through the config now, but at the very least the network interfaces have been picked up without trouble - the on-board BCM 5754, the PCIe BCM 5721 and the two PCI Intel 82541PI NICs.

I'll report back if there are any difficulties later that are overcome by disabling multicore in the BIOS.

S.

pccl

I had to install pfSense 2.0 RC3 on a Dell PowerEdge R710 (dual Xeon X5650, 32 GB RAM, PERC H700, 6 x Seagate 450 GB 15k SAS in RAID 10) that is intended to be our new virtualisation host and just was availlable when the old firewall died. Although it was a high stress installation (the last day at work before my vacation) I remember having some serious troubles installing pfSense (both pfSense 1.2.3 and 2.0 RC3), too. No chance to get pfSense onto the SD Card (where vmWare vSphere will be installed later), it stopped somewhere at the partitioning. Trying to install to the RAID 10 took me through partitioning, at least. I also experienced the hang during installation but can't remember the percentage. After trying different startup options it suddenly worked but i can't tell anymore what I did exactly. Now it's idling around as the 100 Mbps WAN uplink isn't able to saturate the system.
Well I just ordered a PowerEdge R310 as future main pfSense system and an R210 II for backup, just in case Mr. Murphy's Law strikes again. Let's see how they behave during installation and how the R310 handles the future GBit WAN.

the.it.dude

Anxious to hear how people are getting 2.0 installed on the Rxxx series. (and if it is stable in a production environment). A few months ago I had posted about all my troubles trying to get pfSense installed on a R410 & R510, both with add-in multiple-port nics. Never did get it working in a way I was comfortable with. Ended up putting Untangle on the 410 and Astaro on the 510.

David Handelman

I have arround 20 plus pfsense 2.0 running on Dell R210 and R610.
All of them are running great after the installation.
I have machines with 180 days uptime.

Before the install you should enable vt and disable the nics.
After the install you should raise the nmbcluaters value to 95000

Good luck.

toomeek

Hi,

we have similar setup - double R710s cluster for VMWare.
However, I've installed pfSense as virtual machine on R310 with Ubuntu Server as hypervisor to have all Dell-related stuff enabled (Dell OMSA).
It's saturating 10/10 Mbits link only, but works solid as rock, even it routes traffic between two different subnets as well. Max achieved throughput for e1000 driver is about 250Mbits as iperf says.

Here is my VM XML file (hope this helps somebody):

<domain type="kvm"><name>Router_backup</name>
<uuid>6631e119-3df7-fdcd-2475-42286e49f116</uuid>
<memory>786432</memory>
<currentmemory>786432</currentmemory>
<vcpu>2</vcpu>
<os><type arch="i686" machine="pc-0.12">hvm</type></os>
<features><acpi><apic><pae></pae></apic></acpi></features>
<clock offset="utc"><on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
<on_crash>restart</on_crash>
<devices><emulator>/usr/bin/kvm</emulator>
<disk type="file" device="cdrom"><driver name="qemu" type="raw"><target dev="hdc" bus="ide"><readonly></readonly></target></driver></disk>
<disk type="file" device="disk"><driver name="qemu" type="raw"><source file="/var/lib/libvirt/images/Router_backup.img">
<target dev="sda" bus="scsi"></target></driver></disk>
<interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:04:c0:a2"><source bridge="br1"></mac></interface>
<interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:8b:a7:5a"><source bridge="br0"></mac></interface>
<interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:92:5b:a2"><source bridge="br0"></mac></interface>
<interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:92:5c:a8"><source bridge="br0"></mac></interface>

<interface type="bridge"><mac address="52:54:00:53:0c:83"><source bridge="br1"></mac></interface>
<console type="pty"><target port="0"></target></console>
<console type="pty"><target port="0"></target></console>

<graphics type="vnc" port="-1" autoport="yes"><watchdog model="i6300esb" action="reset"></watchdog></graphics></devices></clock></domain>

and network config on the host:

Bridge to LAN

auto br0
iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.0.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.254
bridge_ports eth0
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0
#metric 1

VLAN network access

auto br0:1
iface br0:1 inet static
address 10.10.10.254
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 10.10.10.0
broadcast 10.10.10.255

#Bridge to modem's switch
auto br1
iface br1 inet manual
bridge_ports eth1
pre-up ifconfig eth1 up
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0
#metric 1

Just use separate e1000 virtual NICs for all IPs needed (gateways, VLANs) and then it works.

neptune

I had the 38% hang on a Dell 1850. It installed when I went into the processor settings of the BIOS and disabled the Sequential Memory Optimization.

SuMeRbOaRd

I'm a little surprised that no one else tried to reboot and start the installation as a recovery install… I've tried this on two different systems that were both hanging at the 38% point and they seem to work flawlessly... ones been in production over 60 days with no restarts. The two that I've tried are R410 and PowerEdge 1950. Both of these have additional network cards installed and I used the same keyboard on them both. Let me know if anyone else finds that a recovery installation works for them.

pccl

I tried different things to get pfSense 2.0 RELEASE onto the Dell R310 but pfSense seems to have a problem with the H200 Raid-Controller. As I had a spare vSphere 5 license I installed that on the R310 and pfSense into a virtual machine. On the PowerEdge R210 II I connected the Disks to the onboard SATA connectors as it's only the CARP failover system and a crash of the main system and the hard disk of the backup system at the same time is sufficiently unlikely. With the disks at the onboard controller installation of pfsense 2.0 was no problem.