pfSense on dual cpu server (Dell Poweredge)

Grimson

@provels said in pfSense on dual cpu server (Dell Poweredge):

I'd advise that I have run the latest 2.3 pSense

You know that 2.3 is EOL for quite some time now and has multiple security issues.

run pfSense in VirtualBox there.

Urgh, don't do that for production. Use Proxmox or ESXi, VirtualBox is only useful for testing.

stephenw10

@az said in pfSense on dual cpu server (Dell Poweredge):

Getting my own fiber splices and everything (not to rub it in or anything)

Arggh it stings!

Unless you're running your own VPN concentrator or something that box will be 95% idle almost all the time. If you run virtualised you can use that processing power for something else with other VMs running along side pfSense.

If you are really looking for maximum OpenVPN throughput you are better off with a CPU that offers the best single thread performance you can get. As you said OpenVPN is single threaded. One way of increasing it is to run multiple OpenVPN connections and load balance them.

Steve

provels

@Grimson Yes, I run 2.4.4_2 in VM. The 2.3.5_2 is just there for backup (also an 800 MHz Via backing that up...)
What's "Production" for a hobby user? :)

Grimson

@provels said in pfSense on dual cpu server (Dell Poweredge):

What's "Production" for a hobby user? :)

Your main gateway to the Internet.

az

Here's a question then: I know this strays a little bit away from pfSense but I'm also looking at some supermicro servers to run FreeNAS on. Would it maybe be a decent idea to run both on the same machine as VMs considering I'm running in a very small home environment?

Grimson

@az said in pfSense on dual cpu server (Dell Poweredge):

Here's a question then: I know this strays a little bit away from pfSense but I'm also looking at some supermicro servers to run FreeNAS on. Would it maybe be a decent idea to run both on the same machine as VMs considering I'm running in a very small home environment?

Yes, that is a pretty common use case.

provels

@Grimson Good enough to learn concepts on, though, I think. But, yes, ESXi would be better and also free (and likely better hardware support). At any rate, OP is still total overkill.

az

I've just discovered an 8700k I have sitting around as well so I may use that and build a cheap machine out of spare parts and used stuff from Ebay for my router but I'm still really interested in this conversation.

Grimson

@provels said in pfSense on dual cpu server (Dell Poweredge):

@Grimson Good enough to learn concepts on, though, I think.

For that you setup a virtual LAB environment, even in VirtualBox if you insist on it. For security reasons you don't use your main firewall/gateway for experimenting, or you will be demoted from hobby user to home user.

az

This has been an awesome first experience with forums. Just wanted to thank all of you for an awesome introduction into the community.