ESXi and multi WAN
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Hey all, wanting to make sure that what i am needing to setup is even possible. My ESXi is running on a Dell Poweredge 2950, and my pfSense and all other servers are running virtually on it.
I have only 2 physical NICs, so currently i have 1 connected to my Fiber connection (WAN) and the other connected to my LAN.
I am getting a second link put in from another provider, so that i have redundancy.. I understand that it is possible to have multi wan setups so that if 1 goes down the other kicks in and works. What i am not sure of how i can do is the following:
1. how can i have 2 physical links into 1 physical NIC on pfsense? Can i have the 2 links plugged into a managed switch, and then have that somehow pass traffic to 2 Virtual NIC's on pfSense?
2. Is it possible to be using both links at the same time to get more available bandwidth?
Thanks in advance
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I can certainly answer the VMWare portion of the program.
If you have a switch capable of VLAN tagging, you'll set up a port with multiple VLAN tags, say port #1. Use 2 VLANs on this port, say, 10 and 20. Set up another port, say, port #2 with VLAN 10, untagged (different maufacturers may call it different things, like port based VLAN; you just want this to "act" like a normal port, but map to VLAN 10.) Set up another port with VLAN 20, probably port #3.
If you need more ports like this, continue on, keep in mind that some switches will only support up to a certain amount of VLANs and some will only support up to a certain VLAN number (as in the label might need to be under a certain number, like 128, depends on the switch.)
Plug your Existing WAN in to Port #2. Plug the new WAN in to Port #3.
Port #1 of your switch goes to a port on your ESXi box. That port will be mapped to a virtual switch. In the properties of that virtual switch set up port groups with VLAN 10 and 20, label the networks as you wish (I'm going to call them 10 and 20, here.)
On your PFSense VM take WAN #1 and connect it to Network 10. Add a new adapter to your PFSense VM, connect it to Network 20.
Welcome to the wonderful world of VLANs in VMWare.
You -could- use the VLAN tagging in PFSense to do similar, but I know VMWare better ;)
Or, you could pick up a PCI-Express NIC for your 2950, single, dual, or quad port, I suggest Intel. You can get 'em pretty cheap.
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yeah you can do vlan's for your wan's either on esxi or pfsense. I've done both.