Pfsense 2.0 running virtualized now
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I have now coalesced 3 physical boxes into one. My main linux server (email, web, etc…), the pbx system (pbx in a flash) and pfsense gateway, have now been merged into one box. I briefly played with esxi, but disacarded that, since it's hardware support was unacceptably slim (showstopper: it didn't support my 3ware PATA card.) What turned out to be easiest was to install virtualbox 3.2.10 on the linux server with GUI but not to boot to level 5, only level 3. The point being that I can connect to the server with tight vnc and get a graphical window to play with virtual machine configs, but the actual box is running headless. I got the linux server motherboard off ebay for $95 (pulled from a working server.) 2 dual-core AMD opteron 2.2ghz processors. I transplanted my 8GB of ECC ram from my old (now gone) server. The motherboard has two gigabit nics built in. eth0 is the LAN, and the pbx virtual interface is bridged to eth0. eth1 is the WAN and not used by the host server. pfsense has two virtual nics, the WAN being bridged to physical nic eth1 and LAN to physical nic eth0. I gave pfsense 1GB of ram and the pbx 2GB of ram. I also have a windows xp virtual machine with 1GB of ram I use for telecommuting. This leaves the host with 4GB of ram. Seems to all work well. I was interested in the free xenserver stuff, but that would have meant virtualizing the email, web, etc... which seemed too risky for now.
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this really a complex setup but it is nice to have..:_)
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I've had horrible jitter with a VoIP phone over any virtualized firewall. Are you doing any real time audio or video over that?
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I have running pfSense 2.0 box for tests on: Dell PowerEdge R310 with 2GB RAM DDR3, 2 x 250GB SATA RAID1, Intel Xeon Quad 2.4 GHz. It is virtualized in KVM. Works like a harm, with e1000 model virtual NICs. Assigned 1024 MB of RAM and 2 x CPU. This host is under heavy load: 60-70% load average (network monitoring software on host system). No delays.
Now I'm looking for my personal purposes mini-ITX board supporting virtualization to use it for pfSense. I see Atom's everywhere ;/ that has no VT-x support.
Here are Atoms with VT-x support:
http://ark.intel.com/MySearch.aspx?VTX=true
But I cannot find them on the market. -
Now I'm looking for my personal purposes mini-ITX board supporting virtualization to use it for pfSense. I see Atom's everywhere ;/ that has no VT-x support.
Here are Atoms with VT-x support:
http://ark.intel.com/MySearch.aspx?VTX=true
But I cannot find them on the market.Maybe you haven't told us all your constraints. In about 5 minutes and google search for "mini-ITX z530" (z530 is one of the CPUs on your list) I had over 4000 hits and the second one lead me to http://emea.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/embedded+motherboards/miniitx+motherboards/. I suspect a bit of poking around with the links (exchange location or contact us) will get you to details of a sales office prepared to answer questions about a particular product. I have no experience with kontron equipment. I'm just pointing you to a possible source for what you seem to be looking for.
Another option would be to get a mini-ITX motherboard without CPU, then add your own CPU (Intel or AMD) which you have selected to have the virtualization technology you desire.
