Proxmox between internet and home network?

[cycling-harpist]

Hi all!

I have a server with two NICs, so I though I would use it to manage my home network. I was thinking placing it between my ISP modem and a switch with a firewall. I was thinking also running some inner services on it, for example nextcloud, pi-hole and some NAS.

I though I could use proxmox since I could easily run different VMs or containers for the different services.

Does it make sense to run pfsense/opnsense for the firewall and pi hole as dns server, all this in their own different VMs under proxmox?

Thanks!

 

[Hannes Laimer]

Hey,

yes, this is actually a pretty common setup. You'd pass through the NIC connected to the modem to the pfsense VM. For pfsense this would then be the WAN side, the VM is also connected to vmbr0 on your second NIC that goes to your switch. You'd set up a DHCP in the pfsense VM on the vmbr0 facing interface, so all VMs on vmbr0 and all devices connected to the switch are covered.
As you said, the pi hole VM(or container) would then be advertised as the main DNS server by your pfsense, or you could probably also configure pfsense to forward DNS queries to the pi hole, both should be fine. Hope this helps

 

[louie1961]

I did that for a while, but every time I broke something, my home network would go down and my wife wouldn't be happy. In my case it was much better to put pfSense on a separate device. If you are anything like me, you will experiment, break things, and end up re-installing Proxmox a few times until you get it the way you like it.

 

[cycling-harpist]

Hey,

yes, this is actually a pretty common setup. You'd pass through the NIC connected to the modem to the pfsense VM. For pfsense this would then be the WAN side, the VM is also connected to vmbr0 on your second NIC that goes to your switch. You'd set up a DHCP in the pfsense VM on the vmbr0 facing interface, so all VMs on vmbr0 and all devices connected to the switch are covered.
As you said, the pi hole VM(or container) would then be advertised as the main DNS server by your pfsense, or you could probably also configure pfsense to forward DNS queries to the pi hole, both should be fine. Hope this helps

This was exactly the information I was looking for. Thanks you!!

I did that for a while, but every time I broke something, my home network would go down and my wife wouldn't be happy. In my case it was much better to put pfSense on a separate device. If you are anything like me, you will experiment, break things, and end up re-installing Proxmox a few times until you get it the way you like it.

Haha true Such a major change in network config will require down time, I'll have to plan properly. I'm trying to reduce the number of physical devices as mush as possible, so I will have to be extra careful as to not break things. Thanks for the experience sharing.