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    Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB of RAM!

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    • DaddyGoD
      DaddyGo
      last edited by

      not the RAM will be the deciding factor (many colleagues run their own pfSense box with 2 and 4 GB RAM, however the NIC(s) will greatly important (basic conf. WAN /LAN = minimum 2 NIC)

      by default, there is only one controller on the motherboard (suddenly I didn't even find out, that FreeBSD driver exists for this rPI LOM)
      external USB NIC can be completely forgotten

      specifically recommended NGFW NICs: Intel I340, I350, I210, I211

      rPI is suitable for a home Pi - hole and is a good experimental tool but not NGFW with pfSense

      Cats bury it so they can't see it!
      (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

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      • A
        akuma1x
        last edited by akuma1x

        Pfsense isn’t written for that platform. Your choices for hardware are either official Netgate, x86, ARM, Atom, AMD boxes, or virtualized on some other computer stuff.

        The Pi 4 is an ARM, Broadcom BCM 2711 64 bit quad core @ 1.5ghz. This architecture requires BSP support from Broadcom which is a pain in the ass, as I understand. It would be possible to probably get it to run, but I don’t believe there are any off the shelf guides.

        Jeff

        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          SmokinMoJoe @akuma1x
          last edited by

          @akuma1x
          Do you know if I can run VMware 7.0 on the 8gb Pi and then ARM pfSense as a VM?

          DaddyGoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • DaddyGoD
            DaddyGo @SmokinMoJoe
            last edited by

            @SmokinMoJoe
            Excuse me, but these are crazy ideas, you create additional problems with virtualization.
            Please read through the forum, to see what hardware conditions are and what network settings are required.
            rPI is specifically unsuitable for pfSense!

            I think this was also very correctly illustrated by the @akuma1x .
            It is much more expedient if you can afford these: https://www.pfsense.org/products/

            Cats bury it so they can't see it!
            (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

            S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • A
              akuma1x
              last edited by

              @SmokinMoJoe If you ebay, or find locally, either an HP T730 or T620 Plus, those would be MUCH better choices than a Raspberry Pi.

              Here are some, as an example:

              https://ebay.to/3dyfQMX
              https://ebay.to/3cuPPwB
              https://ebay.to/2MvOGKS
              https://ebay.to/2Xwre6d

              If you find one with the added network expansion card, you're that much farther ahead in the game. Good luck!

              Jeff

              S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • S
                SmokinMoJoe @akuma1x
                last edited by

                @akuma1x

                I would like one that does not have the Intel ME. I already have an AMD system that I am going to setup for pfSense that does not have any of the vPro backdoor OS running.

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                • S
                  SmokinMoJoe @akuma1x
                  last edited by

                  @akuma1x

                  I had an older AMD E-350 Processor with 8gb of ram and a pair of 120gb SanDisk SSD drives with an Intel i340 NIC. 26 watts of power, not the fastest at preparing pcBlockerNG-devel rules but it runs fine.

                  Thanks,
                  Joe

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                  • S
                    SmokinMoJoe @DaddyGo
                    last edited by

                    @DaddyGo

                    I have been using VMware ESXi since 3.0 and it is fine. You just need to have good hardware and not do stupid things. I have several vritual FreeNAS filers that use 1/2 the ram of the ESXi host, you just have to not do anything stupid. VMware ESXi reuduces some performance by 5% and others none or it works better than bare metal. I have never had any issues with VMware ESXi, hyper-V and KVM are another story and add too much complexity. VMware is not perfect and I wish they would embrace ceph, md, zfs, gluster and the opensouce switch OpenVSwitch.

                    you should check out how fast the KVM based linux beta works on Google Chromebooks, you don't even know it is runnind and everything is as fast as bare metal.

                    Thanks,
                    Joe

                    DaddyGoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Try it and see. I imagine there would be some hurdles but if nothing else you'll probably learn some stuff.

                      Steve

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                      • DaddyGoD
                        DaddyGo @SmokinMoJoe
                        last edited by

                        @SmokinMoJoe

                        I agree with you, we also use VMware ESXi and Xen hypervisors, but not for pfSense, these are super things, but in my opinion - not at the main front door.
                        (if a hypervisor system dies, a lot of things die with it)

                        Cats bury it so they can't see it!
                        (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

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                        • W
                          willardg16
                          last edited by willardg16

                          This post is deleted!
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