Pfsense hardware to support 50 users?
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The hardware you linked is a www.PCengines.ch APU2 board (& case).
APUs can run pfSense just fine.If that's sufficient depends on your link speeds and if those 50-60 remote users will use a VPN into your domain or not.
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Hi, thanks for the reply.
The internet speed is 300mbps download and 300mbps.
VPN less then 10 clientsYou think I'm good to go ?
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I'm not sure if this is sufficient for your VPN users
https://store.pfsense.org/SG-2440/
otherwise
https://store.pfsense.org/SG-4860/ -
I think you'd be fine with symmetric 300mbit and >10 VPN users on an APU2.
That price might now be the best though. I have the same system with a 60gb SSD. I paid $167 shipped from PCEngines for the board, case, and power supply; and $34 shipped for the SSD from Amazon.
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Excellent! :)
I will do the same, what SSD did you buy do you remember ?
I found this one: https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Notebooks-Ultrabooks-SMS200S3-30G/dp/B00COFMPAM?th=1
but is it over-kill ?also, how do you install pfsense onto it ?
Do you download it to a usb stick and then SSH into the system and then do the install like that ?
Do I need to have a usb to serial ? or anything else I should know what I should buy ?Thank for all the help.
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Hope you don't mind me asking..
How does the APU2C4 compare to the Qotom J1900 ?
Thanks
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Ohh wow I want to know too, that looks good too and its not much more $$
Thanks for the question TonT -
Excellent! :)
I will do the same, what SSD did you buy do you remember ?
I found this one: https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Notebooks-Ultrabooks-SMS200S3-30G/dp/B00COFMPAM?th=1
but is it over-kill ?That kingston part should be fine. I am partial to the intel 525 but they are considerably more expensive.
also, how do you install pfsense onto it ?
Do you download it to a usb stick and then SSH into the system and then do the install like that ?
Do I need to have a usb to serial ? or anything else I should know what I should buy ?You write the memstick-serial image to a USB thumb drive and boot from that.
The console is serial. You need a serial port, a null modem cable, and serial console software. Putty on the PC and screen on the Mac will suffice to get installed. After installation you can enable and use ssh to get at the console and use the web gui.
For 9-pin like on the ALIX/APU/APU2 I like getting one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4B02574500&cm_re=null_modem_adapter--0SV-0004-000V2--Product
Unscrew/discard those lock nuts and use it between your USB serial adapter dongle port and the APU. Depending on the situation I would just leave it in the unit.
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Excellent! :)
I will do the same, what SSD did you buy do you remember ?
I found this one: https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Notebooks-Ultrabooks-SMS200S3-30G/dp/B00COFMPAM?th=1
but is it over-kill ?also, how do you install pfsense onto it ?
Do you download it to a usb stick and then SSH into the system and then do the install like that ?
Do I need to have a usb to serial ? or anything else I should know what I should buy ?Thank for all the help.
I have the same one, just in 60gb. 60gb is overkill, but the difference in price at the time between the 30gb and 60gb was so small that I figured I'd go with the larger one.
One thing that I should mention is that TRIM support is not enabled by default, and I haven't gotten around to booting mine off a USB drive and enabling TRIM support.
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The price is not that much diff.
What should I get, the APU2C4 or the Qotom J1900 ?
Thanks again for all the help.
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Saving $70 and getting almost 4x more storage buying it directly through PCEngines and not that eBay auction.
I don't know too much about Qotom J1900. The CPU looks to be about 20% faster, and has a higher frequency; but consumes more power, and has less cores. Having more NIC ports would be nice, but the Qotom only has i211 vs the APU2's i210. Overall it looks like the Qotom is a more complete 'PC' whereas the APU2 is more a purpose built appliance.
I'd prefer the APU2 simply for the additional support by pfSense. I'm sure pfSense would run fine on the Qotom, but there is a big following of APU2 users that run pfSense already.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=2723&cmp%5B%5D=2473
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I think that comparison is wrong.
This is the j1900http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=2473&cmp%5B%5D=2131
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That seems like a killer setup - only I need 4 ports… Otherwise that looks perfect.
Are you using IPSEC or OpenVPN. AFAIK open vpn has yet to use AES-NI.
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I run ipsec on mine.
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That seems like a killer setup - only I need 4 ports… Otherwise that looks perfect.
Are you using IPSEC or OpenVPN. AFAIK open vpn has yet to use AES-NI.
openvpn uses aes-ni
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It might be sounding something strange or rude, but it is also even a think what this
amount of users are doing! We use a APU2C4 for 70 users mailing and surfing together
with Squid & SquidGuard, Snort, pfBlockerNG and tinyDNS. This device is able to handle
~500 MBit/s at the WAN port.If there will be ~60 VPN users I would more council to set up a VPN server in the DMZ
that would be better to handle that amount of users, suing services and throughput we don´t know.How does the APU2C4 compare to the Qotom J1900 ?
The Qotom J1900 is a little bit stronger in some disciplines, but worth spending money for, only in
my eyes and based on my mind. Better to go with a Jetway NF9HG-2930 and 8 GB of RAM and a small
mSATA. It is something around ~350 € but really capable to deliver 1 GBit/s at the WAN interface and
it comes with better routing power for VLANs too.
