Proxmox Dependent on VM it Hosts

[Olias]

My fist post and looked for an answer to this problem but was not able to understand what l found.

I have a dedicated 4 port NIC for pfSense and my Proxmox is using the onboard NIC through vmbr0. The concern I have is a network dependancy issue because pfSense is dependant on Proxmox but Proxmox is dependant on pfSense for its IP address to gain accessibility on my LAN. It's the "Proverbial Snake Eating its Tail" image that comes to mind.

Is there a better way to connect Proxmox for maintenance accessibility if my pfSense is down? Maybe a picture would help. Some topology diagrams showed a managed switch between the Proxmox and bridged modem with VLANs. Hoping there's an easier way.

Thanks for any additional help.

 

[vesalius]

It is a bit of chicken and egg thinking at first that can be hard to think your way through. A lot of us are doing this, although I use an OPNsense VM instead a pfSense vm. Certainly doable and yes Proxmox can both host pfSense and connect through it virtually over a linux bridge or physically if pfSense and Proxmox connect to the same switch via separate ports on the Proxmox host.

As long as Proxmox has a static address it will respond to that IP via the connected switch to any other statically addressed computer connected to the same switch (as long as both are in the same subnet) even if pfSense is shutdown or does not start.

Thinking of each linux bridge as a virtual switch with basically infinite ports made things easier for me to conceptualize.

 

[Dunuin]

Its also possible to run two OPNsenses/pfsenses in HA using pfsync. Of cause only useful if you got two servers that could run VMs. In such a case your network would still work, as long as not both PVE servers or both pfsense VMs will fail at the same time.

 

[Olias]

It is a bit of chicken and egg thinking at first that can be hard to think your way through. A lot of us are doing this, although I use an OPNsense VM instead a pfSense vm. Certainly doable and yes Proxmox can both host pfSense and connect through it virtually over a linux bridge or physically if pfSense and Proxmox connect to the same switch via separate ports on the Proxmox host.

As long as Proxmox has a static address it will respond to that IP via the connected switch to any other statically addressed computer connected to the same switch (as long as both are in the same subnet) even if pfSense is shutdown or does not start.

Thinking of each linux bridge as a virtual switch with basically infinite ports made things easier for me to conceptualize.

Ahh, yes... thanks. This makes perfect sense. I never thought of them having static IP addresses. I’ll test it out but I’m sure it will work. Thanks again!