VLAN Cable Setup for pfsense and Unifi

Networking & Firewalls
1

Going to be setting up a unifi and pfsense integrated network.

My HW gear is:

  • pfsense 7100 router
  • cloudkey gen2
  • 24 port POE switch
  • 4 APs

I am going to have the pfsense router’s downstream ports connect to the switch.

As part of the project I need to set up two VLAN networks (one for IOT and one for guest) in addition to the LAN. Looks like there are good instructions to be found at the videos:

My last question before I give this a whirl is when I am setting up the VLANs do I make the parent interface all the same one and then cable one ethernet from LAN of the pfsense to the unifi switch? Or should I give a different parent interface for each VLAN and have the pfsense router port corresponding to each interface connect to the switch separately?

Michael

2

I can share how I have my setup, I have 4 ports on my pfsense box which I have setup in a LAGG that connects to my switch, passing several vlans. The reason I did it that way was because I have the ports on the router and wanted to use them, if a cable fails or gets saturated by traffic there is another connection available. Additionally if I need to later add more vlans it’s pretty easy.

If you keep the vlans segregated between the router and switch perhaps it’s simpler or you have a need to monitor that traffic.

My hunch is that you have “spare” ports on your router and you want to use them, I don’t think it makes much of a difference on a home network, except you will now know how to setup a LAGG connection, which is handy.

3

Thanks for everything!

I got the system up and integrated and it works great.

Michael