VM for pfsense 2.2 and own cloud on one machine - help?

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messerchmidt

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a friend asked me to setup a pfsense box for them, but they also need a owncloud setup on the same machine.

basically this machine will be their router and run their vpns, etc, but also allow clients to login and upload files,etc

was going to use esxi as the hypervisor.

going to build them a low power quad core based system with 16gb of ram. give 3 cores and 12gb to pfsense and 1 core and 4gb to the cloud.

I am going to use pfsense 2.2, but I am not sure about what to use for the owncloud vm? nas4free? ubuntu?, ideas?


also, how would i ensure that both systems speak to each other? is there a guide?
 
From OwnCloud:

ownCloud provides ready-to-deploy packages for popular Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RedHat Enterprise Linux, CentOS and openSUSE.

So with regard to that, I would say whichever distro you or your friend have any experience at all with. If that's "none of the above", then I suppose it doesn't matter which so long as your willing to learn.

You could get away with one NIC, but you'll probably want 2. Make it clear which you intend to be "WAN" and which "LAN" - similar to a router.

Set up your pfSense VM with 2 virtual NICs (one for each physical NIC), and set up your ownCloud VM with one virtual NIC on the LAN NIC.Set all the NICs as Bridged (to the correct NICs), and then assign then their own IP addresses just like you would if they were distinct physical devices.

So long as you have the networking connected up, they will be able to talk to each other via TCP/IP, just like if they were separate devices.
 
I think this is a mistake to put all on one computer, but it can be done. I believe you are using way more memory and processor than required for pfsense. You need one nic for the management of ESX, one for ownCloud, and two for pfsense (one for lan, one for wan). This is assuming you want to provide network access for other system and use pfsense as the gateway. You'll also need a physical switch of course.

I suggest thinking about how it would be setup including the network topology if it wasn't virtual, then think about how to virtualize it.
 
Not sure how owncloud works, but I have a Broadcom 5709 Dual Gigabit NIC with one port as my WAN and one as my LAN/Management on an ESXI 5.5 box. I gave it a static IP since I am running pfsense as my router. I am also running Server 2008 R2 as my storage/play box. You need either 2 NIC cards or a NIC with multiple ports. That is the easiest way. Basically make sure you assign the NICs the same in vSphere as you do in the pfsense box. If you don't have a router hooked up already, assign your PC a static IP so you can access your ESXI box. Once you assign the NIC cards correctly, do not change anything else from the console, but instead go to the pfsense webpage and change the needed settings there. If for some reason you cannot connect to the internet, you may need to get the MAC from the old router/modem and spoof it inside pfsense, that is what I had to do with my internet at home. As for owncloud, I do not know lol. Also I am only using one of my Q9300 cores for pfsense and 1GB of RAM. It doesn't take much at all, I could probably drop that to 512MB no problem. Finally, so long as you have the NIC's assigned correctly, (LAN for my 2008 R2 box and any other VM besides pfsense), they will be able to talk to each other.
 
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thanks all

was going to do an Athlon 5350 system with 8-16gb and some intel lan cards for this

found some premade vm images for opencloud
 
I'm currently running ESXi 5.5 with a pfSense vm as my home's firewall/router. Works perfectly and has been for the last year or so.
 
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