Transfer sw configuration to an hw appliance
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Dear all,
I've recently joined in to new IT department:
in this new role I've to manage the local It infrastructure that includes a PFSense Firewall..I've never worked with this type of Firewall, i'm trying to read all the documents, but i've a doubt.
At the moment we have a Pfsense ver. 2.4.5 installed on a Server Tower with 2 physical interfaces, with no redundancy.. in case of HW fault I've not a re-start procedure..
In order to have a backup solution, do you think it's possible to transfer the xml backup file from the Server installation to a dedicated netgate hardware appliance?
I could buy an HW appliance as backup solution keeping the configuration aligned.. Is it could be a solution?
Can I transfer the file configuration from the software appliance to the hardware appliance?
Are they compatible?Thanks for your support!!
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While not quite the same situation, I have transfered the XML file to another computer. I had previously run pfsense on an old HP computer, which died a while ago. I replaced it with the Qotom computer described in my sig. I just had to touch up the interface names, to reflect the new hardware, but that was about it.
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@bygiuse I've also restored to similar hardware. I am 99% sure the answer is that going to a Netgate appliance will be fine. I think the issue is from one appliance with a switch, to another appliance with a switch, and Netgate will help adjust the config for that per other forum posts. See this doc.
Otherwise some other options for you are:
- any old PC with two NICs
- two pfSense computers or appliances in an HA configuration
Using a "server" is probably overkill for what pfSense needs, for hardware.
Note for HA the NICs have to be the same for state syncing to work. But, HA allows for things like updating the pfSense software during business hours (update the backup, put the primary in maintenance mode, update the primary, undo maintenance mode).
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@bygiuse said in Transfer sw configuration to an hw appliance:
do you think it's possible to transfer the xml backup file from the Server installation to a dedicated netgate hardware appliance?
Yes.
Depending on the appliance you may need some modification but we can help with that.
Most config imports only require re-assigning the interfaces though.Steve
