Hey everyone, I've been lurking for a bit and finally have something to share (and a few questions!). I'm pretty new to running network gear beyond basic consumer routers, so please bear with me.
My main goal was to keep my homelab completely separate from my home office network for security testing. I landed on a setup where I have an OPNsense box as my main router/firewall at the network edge. Then, behind it on a separate VLAN and physical port, I have a separate pfSense instance running in a VM just for my lab environment. The lab pfSense handles all the inter-VLAN routing and firewall rules for my test servers.
I chose OPNsense for the front-end because I found the web interface a bit more intuitive as a beginner, and I really like the built-in reporting. I went with pfSense for the lab because a lot of the tutorials I follow for advanced setups seem to use it, so I wanted to learn it hands-on.
My main question is about this kind of "dual firewall" approach. Is it overkill? It feels a bit complex to manage two different systems, but the isolation gives me peace of mind. Has anyone else run a similar split setup? I'm also curious if there are any specific pitfalls I should watch for, like making sure the two systems don't have IP conflicts or routing loops. I'm still figuring out the best way to handle DNS between them.
Any guidance from those with more experience would be hugely appreciated! This community has already been a great resource.