Total noob here, just starting my own homelab. First, let me say that I’ve found Tom’s videos terrific, particularly a 2-year-old video on building a rack. Tom has convinced me not to go out and buy a UDM immediately and use pfsense instead. I was looking at several things to replace my router, especially a Protecli FW4C, and then I saw a video about running pfsense as a virtual machine in Proxmox. My aim is to build a network, a Proxmox server and a NAS, probably in that order. I am very security conscious, despite being very ignorant. Would it be safer to have a dedicated pfsense device or would virtualizing it in Proxmox be as good a solution? It would definitely save a lot of money. Apologies if this is a stupid question. Thanks.
Tom’s answer would be, install it on a physical device.
Yes, you can install it within Proxmox if you follow the correct instructions. Things to think about a virtual pfsense - reboot of proxmox, lost of the promox server , issue with the virtual machine - no internet. This will be the time you need the internet
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If you are not familiar with pfSense I would buy a dedicated device for it, whilst you are getting familiar with it it will take some trial and error.
If you want to save money buy your Proxmox box and load pfSense on it, don’t use it as your main router, then decide whether you want it on it’s own box.
If you don’t already know pfsense trying to troubleshoot when it has been virtualised will be a challenge.
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PFSense can be installed on a PC, with the required network cards just to get familiar with it.
Just make sure the network cards are Intel and not realtek (if will have issues with realtek)
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