RCC-VE 8860 OS options

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moto211

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Aug 20, 2014
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I have a RCC-VE 8860 (SG-8860) with a 250GB msata drive that I'm currently running pfsense 2.3.2 on. I was a sophos utm user on a 1037u mini pc before I switched to this hardware.

I've been really unhappy with my content filtering options on pfsense so I'm looking for other router/firewall os options that work well with this hardware. I've tried getting sophos on it, but the installer doesn't redirect output to the ttyS1 console. I was able to get the boot to redirect but once it hands off to installer, no such luck.

Any other suggestions that I can install without local display?

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Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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I have never been brave enough to install non-pfSense images on these boxes.
 

moto211

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Aug 20, 2014
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The netgate kb has install guides for centos, debian, ubuntu, esxi, and a few others. I've tried adapting the fixes for those os's to other *nix os's with mixed results. I can almost always get the boot to redirect, but once it hands off to the installer, it's hit or miss.

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moto211

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Aug 20, 2014
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Update:

I got a mini pcie to pcie x1 riser that I installed a gt240 that I had laying around. Obviously not a good setup for 3d gaming but more than enough to handle graphical installers. Successfully installed Sophos UTM Home to the bare metal but decided that 8 cores and 8GB of ram was a bit much for that. I decided to install ESXi on the bare metal and virtualize the UTM. Installed a community vib with a modified net-igb driver so the 2 ports from the i211 would function (only the 4 ports on the i354 function out of the box). The goal by the end of the weekend is to also have my PDC and FreePBX running on it.

This will make for an awesome mini ITX, sub 10w, network infrastructure AIO when it's done.

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whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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The netgate kb has install guides for centos, debian, ubuntu, esxi, and a few others. I've tried adapting the fixes for those os's to other *nix os's with mixed results. I can almost always get the boot to redirect, but once it hands off to the installer, it's hit or miss.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
Is this the old 'boots via 115200 8N1 then swaps to 9600 8N1' like the ALIX/APU's do maybe?
 

whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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Update:

I got a mini pcie to pcie x1 riser that I installed a gt240 that I had laying around. Obviously not a good setup for 3d gaming but more than enough to handle graphical installers. Successfully installed Sophos UTM Home to the bare metal but decided that 8 cores and 8GB of ram was a bit much for that. I decided to install ESXi on the bare metal and virtualize the UTM. Installed a community vib with a modified net-igb driver so the 2 ports from the i211 would function (only the 4 ports on the i354 function out of the box). The goal by the end of the weekend is to also have my PDC and FreePBX running on it.

This will make for an awesome mini ITX, sub 10w, network infrastructure AIO when it's done.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
Can't do much w/ ESXi and 8GB of memory but maybe you'll be able to squeeze a UTM/PDC/FreePBX on it if you're lucky! Glad you resolved your installer issue though via workaround.
 

moto211

Member
Aug 20, 2014
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Can't do much w/ ESXi and 8GB of memory but maybe you'll be able to squeeze a UTM/PDC/FreePBX on it if you're lucky! Glad you resolved your installer issue though via workaround.
Thanks.

I should be able to do it. 4GB for the UTM, 1.5GB for PDC, and 2GB for the FreePBX. Leaves 320MB for the host itself since the installed ram is actually 8000MB instead of a full 8GB.

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whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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Math adds up but what you are not accounting for is that ESXi reserves some memory for the hypervisor itself...what used to be called the COS (console OS) but pretty sure it still takes 'some'.

Looking at mine they use 384MB reserved but I swear it reports less mem avail in vCenter. Maybe that is vpxd (vCenter agent) chewing up some more so if you don't use that you may be in better shape.

Could probably save 1gb mem on the FreePBX VM, I use 1vcpu/1gb mem on mine and it runs like a top under vSphere.
 

moto211

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Aug 20, 2014
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Mine shows just over 300 reserved. Good to know that I can rob some from the pbx if needed though. Might push my DC to a full 2GB and leave a little extra for the host.

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whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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Mine shows just over 300 reserved. Good to know that I can rob some from the pbx if needed though. Might push my DC to a full 2GB and leave a little extra for the host.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
I run my 2K8 PDC (needs an update to 2K12 soon) on 1vcpu/1gb memory as well, probably will bump to 2GB mem when i transition to the 2K12 PDC/rebuild/migrate.