HP Microserver N36L as pfSense server

digis

Hello

I've been offered a HP Microserver N36L for a good price, and I was thinking of using it as a pfSense server.

However, I'm wondering if it's fast enough.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon II Neo N36L / 1.3 GHz
HDD: 200GB WD Black
RAM: 4GB DDR3 ECC
NIC: HP NC107i 1GbE
More info can be found here: http://microserver.wikidot.com/wiki:n36l-specifications

It will be used as router+firewall+VPN server in a home network with a maximum of 8 users simoutanesly on. I want to mount 2 extra GbE NIC's so I can do loadbalancing and failover between my primary 60mbit cable and my backup 10mbit ADSL2+ lines.

Could I be running into performance and/or compatibility troubles with this setup?

stephenw10

70Mbps throughput, no problem. You may struggle to saturate that with vpn traffic though.
Are you planning to run snort or squid?

Steve

sebjavierw

I am also curious about doing a pfSense build with my N40L.
Could you let me know if it is successful or not and what network cards you used?
Thanks

biggsy

N36|40|54L are good machines for pfSense - or even low demand ESXi, given enough memory ;) Low power and practically noiseless.

I would recommend that you try to find a used HP NC360T dual gigabit card. Depending where you are they can be quite inexpensive. Just be sure you get one with a low-profile bracket!

johnpoz

I run my pfsense on N40L, I have added a dual nic and single nic so I have 4. I have 8GB of memory in mine - thinking of moving to 16.

Pfsense runs great on it as a vm under esxi - I would never go back to running my router directly on hardware.. With a vm, I can take as snapshot before I do anything with it and then can always roll back.. This is great when running development code, ie before 2.1 was released, etc..

Here are the cards I used

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106036

dual
http://www.amazon.com/HP-412648-B21-PCI-Express-GigaBit-Adapter/dp/B000J3OPOU

Sold by amtech - I contacted them with my order number and they made sure I got the low profile bracket, etc. Great service from them.

So I run my NAS with 3 disks and my linux play vm and other vm on and off and have no problems with performance.. But there are always at min 3 vms on, etc. Thing rocks!!