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    PfSense and virtualization

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • O
      orrie
      last edited by

      I was thinking of using pfSense as a firewall/router in my home-network.
      At the same time I was wondering to run a virtual machine who contained Ubuntu as a development-server.
      I have now Googled a bit to try to find out how I can do this, and apparently I can't install Xenserver on top of pfSense (FreeBSD).
      I know that I have had some VM Ware server stuff back in the days, but didn't remember which distro I used.
      Can I use VM Ware on pfSense?

      Or, do you guys have other suggestions on what I should do do solve this? Howto?

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      • P
        pirateghost
        last edited by

        No, you cannot run VMware on top of PFSense.

        You should instead, consider running PFSense as a VM inside a hypervisor (i use proxmox; although xenserver and esxi would be fine).  I think you are just looking at it backwards.

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        • N
          Nachtfalke
          last edited by

          I would also suggest to use the way pirateghost said.

          Do not run anything on pfsense - this is not the intention. Do it the other way around.
          Use a computer and install the opensource and free ProxmoxVE 3.1 hypervisor and create a VM for pfsense and other VMs for other servers you need/want.

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            What hardware are you wanting to do this with - something dedicated to just pfsense and your Vms?  Or your workstation you do your normal work on?

            If dedicated - then install a hypervisor your choice - I use esxi, its FREE and rocks.  But you could use prob any of them you want - I would suggest a type 1 over 2 if this is dedicated to pfsense and other vms.

            Then as suggested you run your pfsense just like any other vm in your hypervisor..  You can then have your pfsense be router/firewall for your whole vm and physical network, or just as router between your physical network and your vms, etc.

            Here is doc that should get you going on the right track
            https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_2_on_VMware_ESXi_5

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