[SOLVED]Cloning OpnSense to Bare Metal

[<del>]

I'm looking to replace an out-of-date pfsense installation with opnsense. Currently, I have opnsense in a VM (Hyper-V on Windows 10 Pro) and was wondering if my downtime will be limited to how long it takes to dd the virtual drive onto bare metal. I know that I'll probably be better off doing a clean install but I plan to have all the interfaces pre-configured (three on the bare metal), MAC address DHCP reservation configured (for servers I'm putting on opt1, and certain devices on LAN), and DNS settings and firewall rules setup (I am going to be running a web, mail, and plex server when it's all said and done, all on separate machines). Eventually, I also want to put a PXE server up and running in proxmox (once I learn more). I'd share my current network diagram but I don't have a current one. My last one is obsolete as significant network changes have been made since I last was running pfsense. I plan on using the VM to make sure all the changes work (I've got the opnsense VM separated from the rest of the network via vlan tagging in Hyper-V) so once I have it cloned and loaded in the machine.

If anyone has done something similar and run into issues, I'm open to learning what went wrong and how it got fixed, or if you were just able to clone and load and go.

Edit: I did a fresh install via the VGA .img file (the DVD ISO wouldn't boot properly). I had an issue with restoring the config from my VM playground but nothing difficult, just didn't go smooth. Having another issue with which I'll be making a new thread. Thanks!

[Saarbremer]

Why don't you just prepare your OpnSense as needed (e.g. as VM) and then perform a clean install including restoring the config and reassigning interfaces accordingly?

I don't get why you'd copy your hard drive?

[<del>]

Not the entire hard drive, just the VHD. As for why? Because then I wouldn't have to go through the install again and it's already configured. No need to reassign anything.

[yourfriendarmando]

The VHD IS what we would considerthe whole drive, as far as Opnsense on your VM is concerned.

If you migrate the VHD to img, then to a physical disk, you would still need to assign interfaces. The network cards have likely changed to what OPNsense is presented.

Also if your VHD is larger than the target disk, you might not be able to shrink it anyway. If you install a fresh system on the bare metal, the config will set up a fully running system, once you have guided the interface assignments.

Regardless, for each interface, enable the option:
Prevent Removal of this Interface.
Also in the Plug-ins, it'll show which ones need to be reinstalled

[<del>]

Alright, I wasn't sure. Not everyone uses the same terminology and I wasn't sure if you meant the vhd or the physical drive. The VHD is smaller. I'm going to try and expand the vhd and see it takes.

I know in pfsense the interfaces are identified by MAC, so I should be able to set those as I know the MAC of the interfaces.

I've already scoped out what settings I want to carry over so even if it's better to just do the install and move config over, still a lot quicker than working from zero info. Just trying to find ways to utilize what I already have.

[<del>]

Updated, see original post.