How to Configure pfSense on Proxmox Dedicated Server
Bare-metal firewalls are the traditional approach, but virtualizing pfSense on top of Proxmox VE has become the standard way to secure a dedicated server — routing all inbound traffic through a dedicated firewall VM before it reaches any of your other workloads.
What the guide covers
-
Network architecture — separating WAN (
vmbr0, tied to the physical NIC) from an internal-only LAN bridge (vmbr1) -
VM provisioning — correct CPU type (
Host, for AES-NI passthrough), VirtIO NICs, memory, and disk settings for a firewall workload -
Interface assignment — mapping
vtnet0/vtnet1correctly on first boot so you don't lock yourself out - The throughput fix most guides skip — disabling hardware checksum offload, which otherwise causes major packet loss under VirtIO
- Hardening the hypervisor — removing the Proxmox host's public IP from the WAN bridge and putting management access entirely behind pfSense, reachable only over VPN
By the end, you'll have a segmented, hardened network running on a single dedicated server — no extra hardware required.
👉 Read the full tutorial: https://www.fitservers.com/tutorials/configure-pfsense-virtual-firewall-proxmox-dedicated-server/
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