Vivek Khera wrote:
On Jan 24, 2007, at 12:48 AM, Mark Wass wrote:
Hi All
I want to put PFSense on a DELL PE 860 and just want to make sure it's
going to run. I know this is an overkill for performance.
when that's basically the *minumum* 1U server you can get from dell,
what choice do you have :-)
supermicro makes a very nice 1u server that's not very deep, has a PIV-2.8GHz,
dual Gb NICs, etc. extra PCI slot, etc.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5014/SYS-5014C-MR.cfm
You can get them anywhere. PC Mall has them barebones (no cpu,ram or hardrive,
but with slim CD) for 517.00 on my corporate access page. Nice little machine.
I've actually got one setup as a mail server.
HTH
curtis
I just ordered up a pair of these boxes to use as mail sending servers
running FreeBSD 6.1. They arrive friday, so I'll find out how they work
then. :-)
My biggest concerns are the following
1. PE 860 has 250GB SATA II Disk, will PFSense load on to this ok?
Dell tends to use intel based controllers, and those are well supported
in FreeBSD, so I expect it to work out just fine. I have had success
with the PE1450 which also has SATA drives.
2. On board NIC's are Broadcom 5721J's will they work?
I scanned the source code for the bge driver and the 5721 has a device
code in the probe sequence. How that might differ from an 5721J I don't
know.... i'm crossing my fingers it will work. If not, then I just
disable that and get a dual port intel server NIC for $150 and call it
a day.
3. I want to put an extra Intel Pro/1000 PCIe Dual NIC in the server,
will this NIC work with PFSense.
I'll bet yes, since intel NICs are probably some of the best supported
in FreeBSD.
Is anybody else using a PE8860 with PFSense?
No, but our office one runs on a PE SC400 which is about 3 years old,
and works great. I have about 20 different dell server boxes and they
all run FreeBSD with exactly one issue: the bge controller and disk
controller on the PE800 (SATA RAID card) disagree violently with each
other, resulting in extreme slow network and disk performance.
Disabling the bge NIC and replacing with an Intel server NIC PCI card
solved that nicely.
If you wait until monday I can let you know if the PE860 boots freebsd. :-)
--
Curtis Maurand
Senior Network & Systems Engineer
BlueTarp Financial, Inc.
443 Congress St.
6th Floor
Portland, ME 04101
207.797.5900 x233 (office)
207.797.3833 (fax)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.bluetarp.com
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