I'm currently running OPNsense virtualised in Proxmox. It's a little confusing if you haven't run a custom firewall before but the setup was relatively simple and works flawlessly now that I understand it a bit better. The only downside being if you want to restart your server your network will go down as well.
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Same here, opnsense on proxmox. I'm very happy with it. Snapshots mean I don't have to worry about a "bad" update and I appreciate the easy console access through prox gui without needing an ipkvm or similar in scenarios where I've screwed something up and can't hit the gui or ssh. Plus, if you backup your *sense config after any changes you make, in the event you need to setup a new physical box it's a quick iso install and restore config. For me the pros outweigh the cons, even if a bit of performance is lost.
I had a bad experience with a pfSense VM once when I was still learning.
TL;DR: I was trying to use 100% SDN in my lab and painted myself into a corner.
I was using that pfSense VM as my core router for my lab and got into a bit of a bootstrap problem after a long power outage because everything in my lab relied on DV switches through vSphere (which I couldn't manage and couldn't 'see' the hosts). After a tedious recovery, I pulled pfSense back to a physical box.
Lessons learned: always keep your core network router separate from anything that depends on it. lol. I do still use virtual pfSense for dev environments, though.
I run opnsense, which has a long a storied history with pfsense and in my opinion is better, on a VM in proxmox.
I have a cluster of three servers and I can live migrate the VMs around to do maintenance. It gets backed up to proxmox backup server so restoring from a bad upgrade, which I’ve never had happen, or severe experimentation, which happens frequently, is simple.
It’s also one less device to power on, and pay for. My cluster is running regardless and every watt less helps keep my wife happy.
I’ve never had any issues that I could attribute to it being run in a VM. It does my 1gbe fiber and a dozen vlans with no issues.
What hardware did you buy? I'm looking at building a new box for proxmox. Currently I'm using an old laptop with an extra ethernet port dongle to run proxmox and virtualize opnsense, unifi controller and a couple other lvms. From others posts i read, i the choice between bare metal or virtualized seems personal. I went with proxmox just to learn a thing or two about vm environments and its applications.
I currently use VyOS with it hosted on proxmox. I pass-through a 4-port network card and I get my full internet speed. It should be similar, but I will say it is nice being able to host other things on the proxmox host such as pihole. I keep only the router functions and core functions there, with another machine for other services
Interesting, I never heard of that name, will look more into it
I bought the Intel Celeron n5105 from some vendor called wooyi store on AliExpress, from what a saw on yt that CPU is a little overkill for a router and it uses too much idle power, but I think it was a good purchase for me bc I don't plan to switch this router soom.
Yeah the n5105 looks like a nice little processor. I also liked that those boards come with the i226-V 2.5GbE controller.
For myself, I really wanted wifi 6e and something able to mesh (for the happy wife factor) so I recently purchased the TP Link Deco. It should arrive in a week or so.
Personally, I would have preferred to setup OpenWRT for a nice mesh but for some reason there are no Wifi 6 ones yet let alone 6e.
Mmm that device is a little too expensive where I live, I think I will buy an older version of that if I decide to go that route, thank you for replying!
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