Posted September 17, 2018 Hello, I want to run a couple of servers on a spare machine I have. I would like a firewall and a file server, possibly more. Would this be possible using virtual machines such as virtualbox, or would I need a more advanced virtualisation program or would it not be possible using VMs. If it is possible, which packages would be best? Easy of use would be a priority as I am new to this side of things. I have been looking at pfsense, untangled, Sophos UTM, IPfire etc. For the file server, I don't really need anything advanced. Maybe even plain old windows or Linus samba share? As long as it needs an account to access that a backup solution can be programmed to use on clients (to avoid ransomware spreading to it. Many thanks for any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 17, 2018 17 minutes ago, Gdog said: Hello, I want to run a couple of servers on a spare machine I have. I would like a firewall and a file server, possibly more. Would this be using virtual machines such as virtualbox, or would I need a more advanced virtualisation program or would it not be possible using VMs. Do you intend to use the firewall for your network at all, or just for testing purposes? Because making it your primary firewall will mean that PFSense machine will provide routing, firewalling and internet distribution from that point onward. You'll need to physically overhaul your network. Software like VirtualBox and VMware player will use NAT by default, meaning the host machine will route traffic to the VMs, which are not routable themselves. To work around that, the machines need to be bridged to your network instead. Or you could build/use a dedicated machine with a hypervisor like ESXi (free, managed via web) or Hyper-V Server (also free, Windows Core based), you already have one to work with. File server is not an issue. If most of your machines run Windows and you want the best performance, use a Windows VM. It'll always perform better than any Linux Samba implementation. If you want to support more platforms at once, look at FreeNAS. In terms of hardware, you really need to make your mind up about what you're requirements are going to be. 1. Does it need to be cheap or super efficient (pick one)? 2. What's your budget for this project if upgrades will be needed? 3. What specs does your current machine have? PC Specs - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D - MSI B550M Mortar - 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4-3600 @ CL16 - ASRock RX7800XT - 660p 1TBGB & Crucial P5 1TB - Fractal Define Mini C - CM V750v2 - Windows 11 Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 17, 2018 Personally, you need 2 computers. You should have one computer setup as your network firewall(Pfsense) and nothing else and have another computer as your file server/VM (FreeNAS). Personally I never used virtual-box apart from my desktop for some basic testing/sandbox. Freenas now supports VMs and but won't as easy to setup compare to virtual box but is still easy imo. As for hardware, your pfsense this really depends on your internet speed and do you want to VPN/IDS/IPS/Web Proxy(Squid). Pretty much any computer from last 10 years will be faster than consumer off the shelf router and will have more features. As for file server, this is really depends. You can check out plex sub-reddit, the build recommendation is really good for the price but will require you fiddle around with server gear. You need provide some spec of your spare systems and we might able to help which machine is best suited for which or one should be sold to buy more parts/drives. Magical Pineapples
