PFsense Box With repurposed Hardware

Hello L1Techs,

I have a question, im planning in to using an Old Optiplex 780 as a HyperVisor box, and im planing to use Pfsense in a VM, is this recommended?, do i will find issues trying to Virtualize Pfsense?

The Old optiplex has a C2D E8400, and as network interfaces i will be using an Intel PRO/1000 Dual NIC, im planning on using Windows Server since i have access to a Licence, it will be used as a Basic Firewall and QoS for my Home Network nothing fancy, no enterprise grade level uptime or something like that.

Any Advice?

-Fallen

It’s not recommended but you’ll be fine, assuming you don’t have too much trouble getting it working. Generally it’s easier and more secure not to mention more reliable and easier to deal with when things go wrong when you run pfsense on its own hardware.

why do you want to virtualize it? why windows server?

The E8400 supports virtualization, but not the new AES instructions. other than that, hardware would be okay. not the most power-efficient choice.

edit

now that i say that, not sure how many resources you’ll have left for pfsense once windows server is running.

edit #2

or how easy it would be to pass the nic through

Well, last time i tried i had issues with PfSense trying to set up the WLAN/Lan ports using the Intel NIC(Unable to assign it to each port), but i just gave up like 2mins in, it was just a test, but now im trying it for real.

-Fallen

Well, i want to use the Machine with a few VMs like one for having a Fresh no Drivers up to date Windows 10 Image, and other stuff like Fileserver, PiHole on Linux, on the power consumption, last time i checked using a killwatt, the PC was using 85~90W when full load, this will mostly be idling, and yeah the issue with AES i think that it will be required on the new builds of PfSense, well if this works i could just build another Rig with the new Ryzen 3 CPUs.

-Fallen

i was running an e8400 up until ~5-6 years ago. it’s an awesome chip, but i don’t think it will handle what you’re talking about. Installing pfsense on the bare hardware would probably be workable, but even windows server + 1 vm i doubt would work all that well. give it a try, i guess.

if it’s just an issue of budget/what you have on hand, i’ve got one laying around somewhere with board and ram :slight_smile:

well i will try, i have nothing to lose, if i get issues with the performance i can just build a new dedicated box with recent hardware, i also have a 4670t but i think thats too much overkill.

-Fallen

Hello fellow poster I hope you don’t mind me hi jacking this post for a few questions about Pfsence. I am to thinking of visualizing Pfsence at first, than when I finish my budget for a Ryzen 1700 workstation Workstation will be used to run three to four different virtual machines tow of which will run constantly).

First question does anyone know if the Ryzen 3 supports new  AES instructions sets that Pfsense  2.5 will require.

How hard is it really to virtulize Pfsence. I know I would get better performance if I ran it on bare metal, but I want to run it virtualized first to see if it will run on a Ryzen chip and to find out what problems there would be on it on a Ryzen chip?

AFAIK and according to this Source, they have native support for AES:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen%203%20PRO%201300.html

1 Like

Thanks @Fallenzoul for answering my questions. If you wouldn’t mind I would really like to know your results visualizing Pfsence when you are done. I don’t have it in my budget to build two desktop at the same time, but would like to mess around with Pfsence as soon as possible.

I will most likely mess arround with the 780 later today, so i will update at midnight or tomorrow

-Fallen

I’m still running a E8400 today as my main gaming PC.

Its only a dual core, virtualization will be slow, and the amount of vm’s would be limited to how much ram you have, passthrough is not happening at all.

Really? I mean, I’ll take your word for it. I never tried, but it’s supposed to support VT-d. Maybe boards don’t support it? Not that virtualization on 32-bit systems is all that enjoyable anyway.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Zen/AMD-Ryzen%203%201200.html