UPDATE 2: Looks like the lod on the hardware was corrupt somehow. A clean install and rebuild from scratch on the ocnfig and the machine has been stable for a full week. A diff on the working to non-working config files yielded nothing.
UPDATE: Seems the device is not quite as happy as I had though. The interfaces randomly drop. This includes the internet link. I tried every setting available in vyos in terms of interface config with no luck. Power management and EEE is already disabled by default. The search begins for the cause.
In the quest for a new platform to run my home firewall/router on I came across the DEC hardware offered by the OPNSENSE team. The hardware platform is purpose built and decently priced for the specs you get. It is not as flexible as what I have focused on in the past (Supermicro servers), however the specs and port config is fairly nice considering the cost.
The specific model I settled on is the DEC3852. This unit has:
- 4 x 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports
- 2 x SFP+ (up to 10gig) ports
- 1 x USB mini-B console port
- 1 x USB port
It is nice the device comes with a licensed copy of OPNSENSE, however that is not my router/firewall platform of choice. The steps to load vyos onto the machine are fairly straight forward. The unit supports full serial console to include accessing the BIOS. Changing the boot order to boot from a USB with the vyos image on it was easy enough.
The result is fairly pleasing and so far running well. All of the hardware shows up fine. The interfaces came up without issue. The fan is fairly quiet and makes the /dev/wife happy.
If the hardware pans out long term an additional device may be added to focus on IDS/IPS allowing offload from the main router in the network.
james@swl-fw-01# run show version
Version: VyOS 1.5-rolling-202407100021
Release train: current
Release flavor: generic
Built by: autobuild@vyos.net
Built on: Wed 10 Jul 2024 02:43 UTC
Build UUID: 931ee68f-2f60-439e-97ab-ae9d2e91b433
Build commit ID: 16753c9d3a6138
Architecture: x86_64
Boot via: installed image
System type: bare metal
Hardware vendor: Deciso B.V.
Hardware model: NetBoard-A20
Hardware S/N:
Hardware UUID:
Copyright: VyOS maintainers and contributors**james@swl-fw-01:~$ show system cpu
CPU socket: 0
CPU Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Model: AMD EPYC 3201 8-Core Processor
Cores: 8
Current MHz: 2586.239james@swl-fw-01:~$ show system memory
Total: 15.48 GB
Free: 14.68 GB
Used: 816.09 MBjames@swl-fw-01:~$ show system storage
Filesystem: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Size: 234G
Used: 573M (1%)
Available: 221G (99%)