Help with pfsense vm setup (Dual NIC host)

[akay0402]

Hi All,

I'm fairly new to proxmox and pfsense, but wanted to know if I could use the proxmox management and either pfsense LAN/WAN in a single NIC

I have a dell wyse 5070 and have two NICs (built in 1G nic and a 2.5G nic). The 2.5 G nic is connected to the M2 port

Would this option be viable. Or what is the best setup for proxmox and pfsense

I'm planning to add other VMs like pihole and homeassistant

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks,
Ace.

 

[louie1961]

Yeah, you can do it but it becomes more complex. You have to create virtual interfaces and VLANs. Pass through 1 NIC to the pfSense VM and you could follow these instructions: https://www.joe0.com/2019/11/16/con...irtual-lan-configuration-on-a-managed-switch/

You will need a managed switch for that tutorial to work. There's probably ways to do it in Proxmox with a single NIC and a number of virtual bridges and virtual ethernet ports, but honestly that is beyond my experience.

 

[sw-omit]

Just to confirm, you would want something like this?
Port 1 (1GB): PFsense WAN
Port 2 (2.5GB): PFSense LAN, Proxmox Management, Other Devices (pihole/HA) LAN

If so, yeah that's possible and shouldn't be too hard either.
Probably easiest method would be to;

• During the setup, select the 2,5 GB port as your setup-port and give it a static IP (possibly only have that one connected either so you can easily see the difference).
• Then, once you're inside proxmox itself, create a second bridge for the 1GB port but do NOT set an IP on it.
• Finally, for all your devices using the vmbr0, and just for pfsense (although I would personally recommend opnsense instead) give it a second port on vmbr1.
• Make sure to note the mac-addresses it gives to the two devices so you know which one is which during setup.
• Then just connect a cable from the 1GB port to your modem / internet-access, and the 2,5GB port to some kind of switch or your PC directly. Do note, if your switch doesn't support 1GB+, there won't be any real benefit to the 2.5GB port, but it will work.