Pfsense Hyper V DHCP
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Hi Guys,
We are a small business with about 15 users.
We currently have a Dell R610 machine with:
2x Intel Quad Core 2.6Ghz Processors
33GB DDR3 RAM
6 x 1TB 15K Drives in RAID 5 config
Quad port NICThis machine currently has Hyper-V 2012 installed as the main OS with 2 virtual machines.
1 has Windows Server 2012R2 installed and is a domain controller/Shared File server and the second machine has a 3CX Pbx on it.
They are currently wired as follows
MODEM/ROUTER (DHCP Server)
Switch
DELL R610 with one port to the 3cx VM and one to the Windows 2012 Server
This will be my first build of a pfSense machine we are primarily interested in setting up pfSense for a couple of the squid packages and to use pfSense as a DHCP server which is currently being handled by the Modem/Router.
My question has a couple of aspects. Because the server never really gets past idle even with heavy usage we have ample RAM, processing power and disk capacity left I was hoping to create another VM and use this for pfSense. Is there any reason why this is a "bad idea"?
Secondly if we want to use pfSense as the DHCP server how would i go about this? Im a little confused because how would the VM(s) power up and get an IP before pfSense loaded up after a power outage etc?
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First I would suggest that you use your Windows Domain Controller for DHCP / DNS - Windows Active Directory performs best when it "owns" everything with regards to names/dns etc. If this is not the case many DNS servers don't post "all" the DNS records that AD likes to see- this ends up with workstations having strange behavior - sometimes working - sometimes not.
That said…
I have several pfsense virtual machines running under hyper-v - the only "problem" that I may have encountered is using an SSTP VPN passing to the pfsense to the server (port forward) may have disconnect issues - I have not completely verified this but it is suspicious since my vpn works fine using the comcast gateway firewall/port forwards. Strange that other https type traffic seems to work ok (remote desktop gateway). Haven't had any other issues with pfsense in a VM.
Install is just create a small VM - attach the pfsense install ISO and load as usual. You will need to make sure of your network adapters (one on the internet and the other on the lan). config and your good to go.
regarding your dhcp question on your VMs: If these are servers I would hope you are using static IPs for all your servers. BUT - you can provide for a startup sequence in hyper-v - look at your VM settings - startup options - there is a delay that you can implement to have your VMs start in order on a timeline.
pgk