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    Install on Virtual Machine?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    5 Posts 3 Posters 1.8k Views
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    • E
      ericmachine
      last edited by

      Hi everyone,

      2 weeks back I bought a new server which is installed with the open source Xen and have 2 virtual machines in there.

      If possible, I would like to use the same box for pfsense.

      My question, can I reuse this server for pfsense? Will there be any impact if using virtual machine?

      Or do I need to buy another server (1 processor, 4GB ram, 500GB HDD SATA) dedicated for this pfsense installation?

      Do I need a dedicated network card just for pfsense alone?

      Below is the specs for my current server:-

      • NEW Intel "Romley" platform with dual processor capable in 1U 4-bay rackmountable HPC server system
      • 1 x Intel Xeon SIX-Core E5-2620 2.0Ghz processors
      • 7.2GT/s Intel QPI speed, 2 QPI Links, 15Mb Intel Smart Cache,
        Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 & Intel Virtualization (VT-x)
      • Intel C606 chipset
      • Dual QPI Links
      • 32GB ECC DDR3 1333Mhz RDIMM memory
      • 4 memory channels per CPU
      • 1 x 60GB 2.5" SATA3 SSD (for OS/Apps Rapid Startup)
      • 2 x 2TB 3.5", 6Gb/s, 7.2K rpm SAS HDDs(SET AS RAID 1)
      • Support 4 x 3.5" Hot-swappable Drive Bays
      • 2 x 1GbE Intel Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports
      • Intel C606 SAS RAID Controller supporting RAID level 0,1 & 10 - Integrated Onboard Graphic Controller with VGA port
      • 600W 80PLUS Platinium High-Efficiency PSU

      Any help from this community? Thanks in advance.

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      • H
        heper
        last edited by

        pfsense runs fine in VM.

        you do need to realize that the VM will cause a considerable overhead and thus the bandwidth you can push through is reduced.
        On esxi this means its hard to get more then 2Gbit/s, on Xen i hear it's better but have no personal experience with it.

        you only specified 2 lan ports. Depending on your setup this might or might not be enough. Dedicating network card(s) for pfsense is not a requirement if you have vlan-capable switches.

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        • E
          ericmachine
          last edited by

          so it's better to get a dedicated box for this?

          would the dedicated server specs below sufficient for my network (around 30 macs and 10 linux servers)?

          • Intel platform with single-socket quad-core processor in 1U rackmountable server system
          • 1 x Intel Xeon Quad-Core E3-1230 3.20Ghz processor
          • 5.0GTI, 8Mb Intel Smart Cache, DMI, Hyper-Threading, Intel
            Turbo Boost 2.0, Intel Virtualization (VT-x) & (VT-d) Technology - Intel C202 PCH chipset
          • 4Gb ECC DDR3 1333Mhz memory
          • 1 x 500Gb 3.5", 6Gb/s, 7.2K rpm SATA Enterprise HDDs
          • 2 x 1GbE Intel Ethernet LAN ports
          • Integrated Onboard Graphic Controller with VGA port
          • Integrated IPMI 2.0 with Dedicated IPMI LAN port with
            remote iKVM
          • 250W High Efficent PSU

          any help? thanks.

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          • M
            Metu69salemi
            last edited by

            Question is more like what features you're going to run on it and what is desired throughput

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • E
              ericmachine
              last edited by

              firewall, vpn for sure.

              but utm, i can't seem to find from the features page http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=43

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