Hardware suggestion for Proxmox OPNsense/Home Assistant installation/Debian VM

[tinkerboy]

Hi all,

sorry for my noob question. But I can't seem see the forest for all the trees.

First, I have some 2x 8GB DDR4 SO-DIMMs here and also a Samsung SSD90 NVMe M.2 SSD here, I want to utilise on the build. I wanted to use them in a n5105 4x i226 device, I finally didn't order. I spare you the whole story...

Second, what I want to run on it is following:

• Proxmox as host
• A small Debian VM with Samba 4 AD DC on it.
• OPNsense as firewall with IPS or IDS. Have not used either up to now, hence no idea what's enough for it.
• Home Assistant installation, with nothing crazy on it.

It's all for a home installation, with a home office, a bunch of IoT devices and maybe a bit of server traffic, but mostly for my own use. Nothing crazy.
Currently Home Assistant, the AD DC VM and two other VMs are hosted on a 10 year old Xenon, which is way fine. But I want to have them on a dedicated device.

What I have found out so far, the n5105 for sure is not up to the task.
But how high should I aim for?
What are your recommendations, where I should start to look?
Some energy efficiency won't hurt as well...

Being able to order from AliExpress would be fine as well.

Thanks for your help.

[CJ]

What do you mean when you say you want "them on a dedicated device"?

Running OPNsense in a VM adds complexity to the setup and ties your entire network into the VM host.

What is your overall goal?  To replace your old Xeon?  To introduce OPNsense on your network?  Something else?

[Seimus]

Additionally to what CJ asked and commented.

I will add to > "What I have found out so far, the n5105 for sure is not up to the task. "

Why do you think this?

N5105 is capable to run 2.5G throughput on single core, servethehome tested this in a Proxmox setup and he had absolutely no problem. I have a N5105 but a baremetal, and I have absolutely no whats so ever problem with this, I would even go so far and say its a bit overkill for 500/30 Internet connections and 2G LAN interVLAN communication with a lot of additional features the OPN provides + IPS/IDS on it.

Regards,
S.

[CJ]

N5105 is capable to run 2.5G throughput on single core, servethehome tested this in a Proxmox setup and he had absolutely no problem. I have a N5105 but a baremetal, and I have absolutely no whats so ever problem with this, I would even go so far and say its a bit overkill for 500/30 Internet connections and 2G LAN interVLAN communication with a lot of additional features the OPN provides + IPS/IDS on it.

Interesting.  What kind of cpu usage are you seeing?  What IDS/IPS setup are you using?

[Seimus]

I use ZenArmor, so I am currently Capped at 1G Throughput InterVlan as it does not support multi-core currently (should come soon hopefully, this or next year). When ZenArmor is disabled, OPN on baremetal N5105 doesn't have a problem run at NIC speed.

In regards of CPU usage, when running Iperf on my current setup, config and feature set (includes as well ZenArmor) this is the load, temps, cpu usage seen (picture bellow, 1st spike is start of 60s iperf, 2nd spike is start of 120s, Third spike is just a spike cause I was having multiple tabs opened on OPN and doing stuff but no Iperf RUN).

I would say the CPU usage is average 25-30%?

Regards,
S.

[bimbar]

Some N100 mini pc. So cheap. So fast. Sometimes with multiple NICs.