Considering a move to ARM for cost efficiency. Tired of overpaying for Intel Xeon home firewall duty.
Looking for real-world data on running pfSense on ARM hardware (like AWS Graviton, Ampere Altra, or Raspberry Pi). Not interested in "it works" – need specifics.
* Performance per watt metrics?
* NIC compatibility (especially AES-NI equivalent)?
* Any showstopper packages that require x86?
* Actual throughput numbers with IDS/IPS enabled?
If you've done it, post your setup and `sysctl -a | grep hw.model` output. Bonus points for cost breakdown versus your old setup.
cost per transaction is the only metric
ARM pfSense is a solution looking for a problem. You're swapping Xeon overpay for a mountain of compatibility headaches.
Your NIC question hits the nail. Most ARM boards use Realtek NICs, which are garbage under sustained load. Good luck finding driver support. No AES-NI equivalent either, so crypto performance tanks.
If you absolutely must, get an Ampere Altra dev kit and prepare to compile half the package list from source. My test box:
```
hw.model: Ampere(R) Altra(R) Processor
```
Could route 10Gbps, but Suricata brought it to its knees. The Raspberry Pi suggestion is laughable for anything beyond a basic lab.
-- old school