OPNsense on ESXi

Started by b.d.m, August 13, 2023, 09:34:43 PM

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I'm running a ESXi server hosted in a data center thats hosting several virtual servers for me. (Remote backup, Password manager, cloud services ect)

I'm paying an additional $50 a month for my 2nd rack space holding a 1U server that is running my OPNsense firewall.  I'm trying to find the best way to run OPNsense as a VM on esxi.

My plan is to have my single network connection enter through a physical nic, That nic will be assigned was the WAN on my OPNsense vm, Then create networks within esxi to all my different vms.

The question is has anyone deployed something like this? 
Is it even possible or reasonable to setup and maintain?

Currently I have the management network for esxi not on an external link and just accessible to a windows vm for management.

If anyone has any howto documents or guides for creating the network that would be a huge help.  I'm very comfortable managing esxi and even creating vms but when it comes to "complex" networking I'm not as confident. 

Thanks

On this ESXi host do you have a dedicated port on a NIC that is the "wan" connection, or is this managed by the hosting provider?

If it's managed by the hosting provider your best bet would be to have separate WAN and LAN vswitches, and then place the OPNsense VM NICs on each of those so that it can route the traffic for you.

If you have NIC ports available and one of them is the actual "wan" port, you can pass through those NICs directly to OPNsense. This will usually result in a bit better performance but less flexibility (no vMotion capability with pass through hardware tied to the VM).