Setting up pfSense in Proxmox

I set up pfSense inside Proxmox running on my Dell Inspiron server.
This setup is internal only (no WAN) since I’m using it strictly for labbing, VLAN testing, and internal routing/firewall rules.

Hardware / Host

  • Dell Inspiron (Proxmox VE installed on bare-metal)
  • Proxmox storage configured for VMs (local-lvm ~500GB)

Proxmox Homepage

pfSense VM Setup

  • Created VM in Proxmox
    • Guest OS: Other / FreeBSD
    • Disks: 20GB (VirtIO)
    • CPU: 2 cores
    • RAM: 2GB
  • Network:
    • vmbr0 as LAN (192.168.12.169/24)
  • Installed pfSense ISO in the VM

Proxmox Network Setup

Interface Setup

  • WAN: not configured (internal-only lab)
  • LAN:
    • Static IP: 192.168.12.169/24
    • DHCP Server: enabled (range 192.168.12.100–192.168.12.200)

Network Access

From my laptop, I can access the pfSense WebGUI at:
https://192.168.12.169

pfSense Homepage

All routing/firewall testing is internal only. No Internet passthrough.