> Subject: [pfSense Support] Advice? [...] > and one for my WLAN. I have an HP proliant DL380 (2 dual core XEONS > 2.8 with 2.5 gb RAM) sitting around and I am planning to have 5 > SCSI drives in RAID5, the 2 embedded NICs (LAN and WLAN) plus > another NIC in a PCI slot (WAN). The number of clients on the LAN > is between 150-190 and on the WLAN 600-800. Attached on the WLAN > side I will have about 15 access points. The access points now are > different brands. > Couple of questions: Would this setup be sufficient? > And does anyone know a way to manage the access points, not > necessarily though the pfsense but maybe a software or hardware > solution? Changing the access points is also part of the plan, > Aerohive, Motorolla or Meru Networks...not sure yet.
Whether that platform is sufficient or not depends on the packet rate, packet size, bandwidth used (which is just packet rate * packet size), # of firewall rules, simultaneous NAT sessions, etc., etc., etc. That said, it'll be pretty hard to find a routing platform *better* than what you have without spending $70k+ for a high-end Cisco 7600 series. Some dedicated routers have ASICs that provide hardware acceleration of routing functions; I believe Cisco has this in the 3600 series (or whatever has replaced it by now). I have a Dell PowerEdge 1650, dual PIII (Xeon-class) @ 1.2GHz that can almost do wire-speed gigabit between two subnets; the limiting factor appears to be overhead and latency, not raw cpu cycles. Oh, and it's running a BGP feed at the same time. I don't think I've ever seen the aggregate CPU usage climb above 20%. RAM won't be much of an issue unless you're running every single service available for pfSense. I haven't stress-tested NAT functionality, so I can't offer any concrete data on that. I have some limited experience with the Symbol-cum-Motorola wireless controller architecture in small deployments (~6 APs), and while I won't say the manageability is great, the overall system is quite good: a *reasonable* mix of performance, management capability, support, and price. Some people I know who have used Meru equipment have had co-existence issues - specifically, the Meru equipment tends to obliterate any other WLANs being used in the geographic and/or spectral vicinity. I don't know if this is still a problem for them. OTOH, Meru networks tend to be faster than usual; I remember reading somewhere that these two aspects were directly linked. -Adam Thompson [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] Commercial support available - https://portal.pfsense.org
