We download the latest release of pfSense as a gzipped ISO, then extract it and pass it to virt-install
to get the VM up and running. Interactive portions of setup are handled with a VNC viewer because the pfSense installer doesn't seem to be able to work with virt-install
's native console redirection, at least not out of the box. I'd love a tip from anyone if it's possible to fix that somehow.
Instructions
Find the latest release here.
Download the gzipped ISO from a mirror into a directory that KVM can access, then unzip it:
Now call virt-install
to begin your installation.
- The
--network
lines will show up in this order as your virtual nics.
virt-install \
--name pfSense \
--memory 1024 \
--noautoconsole \
--graphics vnc,listen=0.0.0.0 \
--disk /opt/vm/pfSense/disk0.qcow2,size=10,format=qcow2 \
--autostart \
--os-type unix \
--cdrom /opt/vm/pfSense-CE-2.4.2-RELEASE-amd64.iso \
--network bridge=brteam0.4094,model=virtio \
--network bridge=brteam0.10,model=virtio \
--debug
Allow the VNC server through the firewall:
firewall-cmd --add-service vnc-server --zone internal --permanent
Connect to your private IP on port 5900 with a vnc viewer app. Finish the installation.
Restart pfSense when it shuts down after installation
Re-connect to it with VNC to finish interface assignment.
Cleanup
Add the EPEL repo if you don't have it already:
Install xmlstarlet
:
sudo yum install -y xmlstarlet
Unbind the VNC server from the running VM:
virsh qemu-monitor-command pfSense --hmp change vnc none
And finally, remove the VNC Server from the VM config:
virsh dumpxml pfSense | xmlstarlet ed -d "domain/devices/graphics" > /tmp/pfSense.xml
virsh define /tmp/pfSense.xml
rm -f /tmp/pfSense.xml