Migrate from physical to ESXi

wifiuk

I have a box running Purely PfSense. Physical box.
Running smoothly and fine.

i3 processor and 16GB ram.
2 NIC cards.
1TB HDD

I wanted to know whats the best way to copy / clone / migrate the physical PfSense setup and then import it into the ESXi.

I want to backup Pfsense / wipe the box install ESXi and bung PfSense back in there.
I want to run some other OS alongside PfSense as this box is always on obviously.

Any ideas and / or suggestions before i think of embarking on this ?

gerdesj

Note down the interfaces and their purposes exactly
Dump the config
Wipe the box
Install ESXi
Create the networking (vSwitches)
Enable allow Promiscuous mode on the vSwitches that pfSense might need it
Create a new VM (FreeBSD 64 bit) with the correct number of NICs (VMXNET3)
Copy the pfSense ISO to the datastore
Mount the ISO and boot off it
Note the MAC addresses of the vNICs and which vSwitch they are connected to
Install as usual
At the console set at least the LAN address
Connect your browser to it
Restore the config
Re-assign the interfaces
Reboot
Job done

Cheers
Jon