Compatibility Dell Poweredge R430

danielmendes

Hello guys,

I need an advice.

I wonder if the hardware configuration below will work well and will be 100% compatible with pfSense 2.2 without virtualization? if not what I should change?

Thanks!

Daniel

Dell | PowerEdge R430

• PowerEdge R430, up to 4 discs 3.5" Hot Plug
• Processor Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 de 8 Cores, 2.4GHz (3.2GHz Max), 20MB Cache, QPI Link 8.0 GT/s - FIRST PROCESSOR
• Processor Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 de 8 Cores, 2.4GHz (3.2GHz Max), 20MB Cache, QPI Link 8.0 GT/s - SECOND PROCESSOR
• PowerEdge Server FIPS TPM
• 2 x 16GB of Memory RDIMM, 2133MT/s, Dual Rank, x4
• 120GB Solid State Drive SATA Boot MLC 6Gbps 2.5in Hot-plug Drive,3.5in HYB CARR,13G
• DVD ROM SATA
• On-board Network Card 1GbE Quad-Port(Broadcom or Intel)
• No RAID
• Controller PERC H730P 2GB Cache
• Power (1+1) de 550W, Dual, Hot-plug
• Additional Network Card Intel Ethernet I350 QP 1Gb Server Adapter

heper

if you want 100% you are better of with one of the device on store.pfsense.org

otherwise you'll have to wait till someone with an identical R430 to show up and reply to this post.

chikitto

I have an R430 with the same processor, 8GB RAM and 3 SAS Hard drives with raid mode 5 on H330 raid card.

Impossible to install succesfully PFsense 2.2.4.
When i choose the kernel (standard Kernel), The installer becomes crazy and crash…

I'll try to install it without the raid.

I keep you in touch

sideout

I have a Dell PowerEdge R610 that has PFSense installed on it in a RAID using SAS drives. However I would just install ESXi on the server , add some disks and you can run PFSense and anything else you want on there.

I have another Dell PowerEdge R610 that has 64GB RAM , 6 - 146GB SAS 10K drives in a RAID 5 on a PERC 6i controller , 12 NIC's and two 6 core Xeon 3.33Ghz CPU's with 2 power supplies that I have PFSense on along with 4 game servers and 1 PRTG server that I use at LAN parties. Runs like a champ. I have ESXi loaded on an SD drive.

The only thing is if you go virtual , use the Dell ESXi image as it has all the drivers and optimizations you need. Makes a difference versus the generic ESXi iso download.

Guest

On-board Network Card 1GbE Quad-Port(Broadcom or Intel)

Intel I would prefer over the Broadcom. If you want to try out this Dell | PowerEdge R430 server
I would also turn off all not needed things in the BIOS and then try it out with the following;

all off what you not really need
don´t use the PERC RAID Controller, try outa SATA port if there is one
perhaps you should also, if all is not running proper, turn off the Intel HT
I would try it out first with a full install on the SSD, but also a USB Memstick variant could bring the wished effect.

If all is not running proper and this was a pre-buy question and you don´t own this hardware at this time
you could search for mainboards from supermicro that are running with two Xeon E5 bombs and at least
you could ask Lanner inc. for their FW-889x Series if they get the BIOS right now, there are also two Intel
Xeon E5 CPUs inside.

chikitto

Well…

I tried with PERC H770 in raid 5 with 3 SAS drives 10K 250GB.
Doesn't work.

I have many errors but they don't always appears...

Sometimes :

When booting before lauching "installer mode" --> ahcich9 : SCSI : MEDIUM ERROR (code5)
When installing /usr or after when installing kernel --> mfi0 COMMAND failed

I tried to update BIOS but nothing change.

That really sucks...

I'll try to bypass the raid card and using direct sata drive.

Guest

I'll try to bypass the raid card and using direct sata drive.

Perhaps it may help you to disable all things in the BIOS you will not need to use with pfSense.
Also a full install from CD would be perhaps better then using the MEMStick NanoBSD Image, or?

chikitto

OK, I have some good news.

It works but its so bad to have to disable raid, it's a good security point…

I had to remove the raid drive and switch the raid card in "HBA" mode.

Then i've re-created partitions on drives and it worked !!!!

Be carefull, remove your usb stick when installing, hoerever PFsense will try to install himself on it...

Thanks for help guys.

So, Daniel, don't use this server in attempt to install Pfsense with hard drives in raid. There is cimpatibility issues...

aolivier

Hello, Guys!

I wonder how it is being experience with the Dell PowerEdge R430 + PFSense 2.2.

We are planning to put it into production as quickly as possible but we are afraid of compatibility issues.

Does anyone had any problems in using the PFSense 2.2 on a Dell R430?

Problems related to CARP, IPSec, Load Balancer, or else ….

The criticality of this environment is very large. So we can not have failures.

Thanks for the feedback.

att,
Alberto N. Olivier.
Solutiontech.

Guest

I wonder how it is being experience with the Dell PowerEdge R430 + PFSense 2.2.

There are some nice and also strong appliances in the pfSense store that can be taken better for a
native installation, but if this server must be taken I would hardly recommend to install ESXi at first
and then pfSense in a VM instead of play try and error at the work inside of productive networks.

Does anyone had any problems in using the PFSense 2.2 on a Dell R430?

Either what all peoples are answering now, you must guaranty that the network is running well
and is on top secured. What does it make that someone answers here is all very well running and
then you might be getting even new trouble with this hardware. For sure in a lab network besides
for testing it out, it will no problem then.

Problems related to CARP, IPSec, Load Balancer, or else ….

So you will have to own two of this Dell R430 servers, as I understand it right?
Then better go with the ESXi and set up on each side a pfSense firewall in a VM.

The criticality of this environment is very large. So we can not have failures.

In the pfSense shop are many appliances are able to get.

C2758 1U (Intel Atom C2758 SoC)
XG-2758 (Intel Atom C2758 SoC)
XG-1540 (Intel Xeon D-1500 SoC)