Multiport network card
Multiport network card
Hi, I'm new to this topic and I'm planning on building my own home lab. I want to build one server with proxmox and pfsense in a VM. Do I need a multiport network card or is the single port on the motherboard sufficient for creating VLANs?
You can do this with a single interface but it requires special drivers which are usually only available with enterprise nics. Some exotic high end gaming motherboards have this feature, but it's rare.
You can probably pick a compatible card up pretty inexpensively on eBay, just make sure there are compatible drivers for your non-server os.
1It also depends on how much traffic/performance you expect out of the network.
Running on a single gigabit port will limit to a max performance of 1gbps.
Unless you have gigabit internet, it shouldn't be that big of a bottleneck, but it all depends on the use case...
1Just one thing to note since you said your new. I know a lot of folks like to run pfsense in a seperate device than their main server as, everytime you need to reboot you lose the whole network. Those little mini pc's are recommened as a low cost option.
1Good point, thank you! The device is intended to be a Nas and then I want to try additional things. I also have some smarthome devices which I wanted to put in a separate vlan. Putting pfsense also on that device actually doesn't seem to be the best idea.
1No problem those little pc's cant remember the term, you can get an additional nic in them and make them dual nic devices.
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Not all NICs are VLAN capable AFAIK.
But as another Redditor mentioned, being new to this and virtualising your only/main router sounds like a headache waiting to happen.
1I don't think I've come across a NIC in the last 15 years that hasn't been VLAN capable.
1It’s probably not a thing anymore.
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