Greetings,
I have a Dell PowerEdge R730xd that came with a 2x1G + 2xSFP+ Broadcom 57800 NIC. The host OS is presently PVE 7.1-10. The original purpose of this system was to operate as a large Plex server using TrueNAS Core (with SAS PCIe passthrough) for storage, Ubuntu (with GPU passthrough) for Plex itself and the transcoding, as well as run a small pfSense VM to handle ancillary traffic unrelated to the Plex server itself (because my colo coop only gives me 2U). Hence this somewhat convoluted architecture with Proxmox as the hypervisor. Mostly, the server has been gathering dust.
I suddenly ran into an emergency: my primary pfSense-based router, which involves a large number of VLANs, IPSec tunnels, and the like, suffered a catastrophic hardware failure, requiring immediate replacement. Which I do not have on hand, having planned on upgrading anyway.
I have exactly one system with the required number of physical NICs on hand to tie me over: that R730xd. Temporarily recreating my failed prSense router in virtualization seemed like the cheapest and fastest short-term path forward.
It is then that I discovered for the first time that my 2xSFP+ NICs can be onfigured to support SR-IOV, NPar, or both. The 2x1Gbps copper NICs lack those features. I have plenty of transceivers, fiber, and switch ports.
See SFP+ and 1Gbps screenshots below:
SFP+
1Gbps Copper
The big question in my mind is if I should go down this rabbit hole. I since read quite a few docs and at least according to one tutorial, pfSense Routing with SR-IOV and Proxmox do not really go together all that well. This would be all new territory for me, sound potentially complicated, and I and I am in a bit of a hurry to get my router back. That said, now that I am working on the R730xd, I should enable SR-IOV, now would be the time to do so. What should I do?
My current Proxmox network configuration is pretty basic. The legend is as follows:
Current Proxmox Networking Configuration
What do you experts here in this forum recommend that I do at this point? Do I go down the SR-IOV rabbit hole? The issues with this approach in the related article are concerning to me.
Or do I forget that I just noticed that my NICs can do SR-IOV and leave everything as-is?
I can't afford to spend days on getting a functioning router back, but I also would prefer to not pass up an opportunity if it is the right thing to do.
Thank you very much for your advice!
-- Lucky
I have a Dell PowerEdge R730xd that came with a 2x1G + 2xSFP+ Broadcom 57800 NIC. The host OS is presently PVE 7.1-10. The original purpose of this system was to operate as a large Plex server using TrueNAS Core (with SAS PCIe passthrough) for storage, Ubuntu (with GPU passthrough) for Plex itself and the transcoding, as well as run a small pfSense VM to handle ancillary traffic unrelated to the Plex server itself (because my colo coop only gives me 2U). Hence this somewhat convoluted architecture with Proxmox as the hypervisor. Mostly, the server has been gathering dust.
I suddenly ran into an emergency: my primary pfSense-based router, which involves a large number of VLANs, IPSec tunnels, and the like, suffered a catastrophic hardware failure, requiring immediate replacement. Which I do not have on hand, having planned on upgrading anyway.
I have exactly one system with the required number of physical NICs on hand to tie me over: that R730xd. Temporarily recreating my failed prSense router in virtualization seemed like the cheapest and fastest short-term path forward.
It is then that I discovered for the first time that my 2xSFP+ NICs can be onfigured to support SR-IOV, NPar, or both. The 2x1Gbps copper NICs lack those features. I have plenty of transceivers, fiber, and switch ports.
See SFP+ and 1Gbps screenshots below:
SFP+
1Gbps Copper
The big question in my mind is if I should go down this rabbit hole. I since read quite a few docs and at least according to one tutorial, pfSense Routing with SR-IOV and Proxmox do not really go together all that well. This would be all new territory for me, sound potentially complicated, and I and I am in a bit of a hurry to get my router back. That said, now that I am working on the R730xd, I should enable SR-IOV, now would be the time to do so. What should I do?
My current Proxmox network configuration is pretty basic. The legend is as follows:
- vmbr0: dedicated management network NIC
- vmbr1: where the VMs lived while the Ubiquiti Aggregation Pro switch was in the shop. I plan on repurposing this NIC for the VDSL PPPoE WAN uplink that will feed into my temporary pfSense VM.
- vmbr2: where the VMs usually live.
Current Proxmox Networking Configuration
What do you experts here in this forum recommend that I do at this point? Do I go down the SR-IOV rabbit hole? The issues with this approach in the related article are concerning to me.
Or do I forget that I just noticed that my NICs can do SR-IOV and leave everything as-is?
I can't afford to spend days on getting a functioning router back, but I also would prefer to not pass up an opportunity if it is the right thing to do.
Thank you very much for your advice!
-- Lucky
